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.
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!