Mirror Image/Cleave

I’m curious to hear how other Judges handle the interaction between the arcane spell Mirror Image and Cleaving…

i think the intent is 1d4 opponents have their turn completely wasted. i don't think it's worth a 2nd level spell if a mid level fighter can essentially ignore it. if cleaves worked i would expect the spell to scale with level, maybe an extra 1d4 every 3 levels.

I allow a cleave if the attacker's damage would have been enough to cleave had he hit the real target. 

For instance, if a 9th level Fighter dealing 1d6+6 damage hits a 3rd level mage with 10hp, and his damage roll is 10+, he can cleave. If the mage is protected by 3 mirror images, he'd be able to cleave off a mirror image if his damage roll is 10+.

On the other hand, a 3rd level Fighter dealing 1d6+3 damage hitting a 9th level mage with 27hp cannot possibly cleave, and so he could not cleave off the mage's mirror images either.

 

 

1 Like

Wow! That is NOT an interpretation I’d thought of…

Likewise. It makes Mirror Image scale much better with levels than I’d have ruled.

Oh. It seemed a natural progression for how mirror image works. After all, area-effect spells appear to affect all figments exactly as they affect the caster.  

In any case, every campaign is a law unto itself, and this isn't even a rule as written, so do as you will!

Oh, no! Don’t misunderstand me: I’m with Hardrada, here…that’s an elegant interpretation that scales nicely. I’ll have to give it a little more thought for verisimilitude with my own hp interpretation, but still… thanks!