Illusions Immunity

Illusions Immunity (sometimes called "Illusion Immunity") is one of the many Unit Abilities available in Master of Magic.

Units possessing this ability have several benefits. Primarily, they may not be targeted by the vast majority of Sorcery combat spells. Furthermore, units with Illusions Immunity can see Invisible creatures during combat, and are not thwarted by other protective Sorcery spells. Finally, when Illusion Damage is inflicted on a unit with Illusions Immunity, it does not bypass armor as it would against any other unit.

Illusions Immunity is one of the more common immunities in the game. It is possessed primarily by Fantastic Units, particularly those from the Life and Death realms. Furthermore, any Undead unit has Illusions Immunity as well.

It is possible to add Illusions Immunity to any unit by casting the True Sight Unit Enchantment on it. Heroes can also acquire this ability through certain Magical Items.

Description

The Sorcery Realm and several of its Fantastic Creatures rely on toying with the enemy's mind – using illusions and other psychological attacks to undermine or even physically hurt the enemy. There are many ways in which this is done, and many possible adverse effects for the target of such an attack.

Fortunately, it is possible to protect a mind from such attacks. Training or even magical barriers can prevent illusions from adversely affecting a unit. Furthermore, some units in the game have no minds to attack, and thus are immune to illusions by that virtue.

Effect

Illusions Immunity is a passive ability that protects a unit from a myriad of various effects related primarily to the Sorcery Realm. Illusions Immunity ensures that the unit will not be harmed or adversely affected by them.

Immunity to Sorcery Combat Spells

During combat, a unit with Illusions Immunity cannot be targeted by the following spells from the Sorcery realm:

• Creature Binding
• Confusion
• Vertigo
• Mind Storm

Any attempt to target these spells at a unit with Illusions Immunity will result in an error message stating that the target is invalid. You must select a different target or cancel the spell.

Note that some offensive Sorcery spells can target a unit with Illusions Immunity:

• Psionic Blast
• Banish

Note: The Strategy Guide states that Psionic Blast cannot target such units, but in this case the guide is in error (as of patch 1.31). Though, units with Illusions Immunity will use their  Defense to negate the first points of damage.

Furthermore, units with Illusions Immunity will not feel any adverse effects from the Combat Enchantment Mass Invisibility.

Note that overland spells (such as Stasis or Great Unsummoning) can affect units with Illusions Immunity without a problem. The immunity applies only during combat.

Seeing Invisible Units

Normally during combat, it is impossible to see any enemy units on the battlefield that possess Invisibility, unless they are immediately adjacent to one of your units. It is also impossible to use any Ranged Attacks against Invisible targets.

However, if your army contains at least one living unit with Illusions Immunity, all enemy Invisible units appear on the battlefield map, partly translucent. You can thus track such units' movements, and are therefore less open to sudden flanking attacks by them.

Furthermore, a unit with both Illusions Immunity and a Ranged Attack can use this ranged attack to fire at Invisible units anywhere on the battlefield. Note that other friendly Ranged Attack units still may not target Invisible enemies – attempting this will result in an error message.

Finally, when a unit with Illusions Immunity makes any attack against an Invisible target, it does not suffer the mandatory  -10% To Hit penalty. This makes Illusions-Immune units great for taking out Invisible creatures.

Note: Illusions Immunity only helps spot Invisible enemy creatures during combat. Such creatures are never spotted on the overland map, even if a unit with Illusions Immunity is standing in the adjacent tile.

Immunity to Illusion Damage

Several units in the game have Illusion Damage as part of their attack. When such a unit makes an attack against an enemy unit, the enemy does not get to make any  Defense rolls to try and block damage. It is as though the enemy's Defense score was suddenly reduced to  0!

However, when Illusion Damage is inflicted on an Illusions-Immune unit, the unit gets to make  Defense rolls as normal. Its armor is not ignored.

Units with Default Illusions Immunity

Illusions Immunity is a very common type of immunity, possessed by no less than 13 different kinds of units by default. All of these are Fantastic Creatures, most from the Death realm:

Angel
Arch Angel
Death Knights
Demon
Demon Lord
Ghouls
Night Stalker
Shadow Demons
Skeletons
Sky Drake
Werewolves
Wraiths
Zombies

Acquiring Illusions Immunity

There are several ways to add Illusions Immunity to a unit that does not possess it by default:

• Turning the unit into an Undead unit (there are several ways),
• Casting True Sight on the unit,
• Equipping a Hero unit with an item imbued with the True Sight Item Power.

Each of these methods adds the same kind of Illusions Immunity described above in this article.

Undead Illusions Immunity

It is not a coincidence that most of the units with default Illusions Immunity area Death creatures: these creatures are not alive, and have no mind to attack with illusions. Similarly, units that die and are brought back as Undead units are also Immune to Illusions.

Units can be turned into Undead in several different ways:

• The Black Channels spell will turn a Normal Unit into an Undead unit.
• A unit killed in battle mostly by Life Drain damage is brought back as Undead, serving the enemy.
• A unit killed in battle mostly by an enemy unit with Create Undead is brought back as Undead, serving the enemy.
• A unit killed in battle and then targeted by Animate Dead is brought back as Undead, serving the caster of this spell.

Regardless of which method is used, the unit comes back with most of its original abilities intact – but now possesses the Undead property which, among other effects, also gives the unit Illusions Immunity.

Note that the icon for Illusions Immunity is not added to the unit's details panel. However, the presence of the Undead property icon is always sufficient to indicate that Illusions Immunity is indeed in effect.

True Sight Unit Enchantment

True Sight is an Uncommon Unit Enchantment belonging to the Life realm. When cast on a unit, it will add the Illusions Immunity ability to that unit.

When cast on the overland map, True Sight has a basic Casting Cost of  100. It has a lingering effect, so that the targeted unit will keep its True Sight ability so long as the spell continues to exist. While it exists, the spell requires an Upkeep Cost of  2 to be paid at the start of each turn.

Alternatively, it is possible to cast True Sight during combat as an impromptu Unit Enchantment. In this case the spell's basic Casting Cost is only  20, but its effects will only last until the end of the battle (or until dispelled by the enemy). Since neither the spell nor the effect will carry over to the overland map, there is no associated Upkeep Cost with this version of the spell.

Note that True Sight also enables a unit to make Ranged Attacks (if it has them at all) through a Wall of Darkness. This property is not available to units possessing Illusions Immunity by default. This can present somewhat of a problem, since True Sight cannot be cast on units already possessing Illusions Immunity.

True Sight Item Power

A permanent version of the True Sight spell can be imbued into a Jewelry piece. When a Hero wears this item, he/she receives the Illusions Immunity ability (as well as the ability to make Ranged Attacks through Wall of Darkness).

During Item Crafting, it is only possible to select the "True Sight" bonus if you possess at least 6 Life Spellbooks. Otherwise, "True Sight" is not available. Of course, it is always possible to find an item already enchanted with "True Sight" as reward for defeating an Encounter.

The Illusions Immunity ability bestowed by an item is transient: it will disappear if the Hero ever removes or loses the enchanted item.

Note that the Hero's details panel will list this as "True Sight" (along with the icon associated with the True Sight spell). As mentioned previously, this is simply Illusions Immunity coupled with the ability to make Ranged Attacks through a Wall of Darkness. It is otherwise identical to Illusions Immunity in its basic form.