@libri-liberorum said in RPG anecdotes inspired by Minmaxing TRPG:
I've never actually tried this one, but D&D had/has (it is a long time since I've played D&D) a "phantasmal force" spell, which would create illusiary objects/forces which could affect people as if they were real, so long as the person being affected didn't realise it was an illusion. Imagine a party on a path along a steep and winding gorge, trying to find a way to the other side. The mage convinces people to let her scout around the next corner. Behold! She finds a bridge! Everyone else crosses safely. Then the mage demands they throw her a rope: she can't cross the bridge because she knows it is an illusion.
Similar to this - For one of the megadungeon biomes my sister came up with, she had a concept called a "Daylight Fungus." It's an underground fungus that can decompose dead plants, with the ability to cast a Shadow Evocation of the Daylight spell. Shadow Evocation, like Phantasmal Force, is mostly illusion but only slightly real - creatures who don't believe the illusion take only a small portion of the effect.
Most plants are mindless, and so are immune to the illusion (and unable to gain any sustenance from it), but the Daylight Fungus cohabitate with all sorts of intelligent plant monsters, who know better than to look this particular gift horse in the mouth.
