Eschew Materials+Silent spell+Illusion of calm spell....does it prevent Identifying a spell being cast with Spellcraft?

[ElyasRavenwood]

If a sorcerer with the Eschew Materials feat, and the Silent Spell feat, begins casting a spell using the silent spell feat, while under the effects of an Illusion of Calm spell, will a casual observer have any cues that the sorcerer is casting a spell?

If someone wanted to spell craft the spell being cast could they?

thanks!

[James Risner]

Eschew Materials just makes it so you don't need a Spell Component Pouch.

Silent eliminates the sound which isn't anything other that a noise source.

Illusion of Calm makes you look like you are doing nothing.

You may (or may not as a result of Illusion of Calm) still emanate magical auras when casting. So Ask your GM. If so, your casting is still detectable.

[wraithstrike]

The spell is still subject to spellcraft.

[Claxon]

Per the FAQ, which hopefully someone can dig up quickly (I can never remember exactly where it's at), your spell can still be identified with spell craft and without even a penalty (though the devs did say a penalty would be reasonable house rule). Basically no matter what you do, people know you cast a spell, even if it has 0 components you must supply because spells have their own visual/auditory/magical manifestations that are separate from what as a caster do. These things can still be used to identify a spell.

If you want your spells to not be identified there are some feats that were added in Ultimate Intrigue that enable you to do so (though they are opposed checks so they aren't a guaranteed thing).

[Darksol the Painbringer]

The spell will still have its more-than-obvious effects. For example, Invisibility or Fireball will certainly still register as you casting magic, because you will either completely vanish from sight, or they will see a tiny red bead come from your square, travel into the respective intersection, and blow up. There's also the matter of GMs ruling that there will still be runic emanations from your body as a result of the spell being cast, which can certainly still apply to you casting the spell in some sort of manner.

Really, what needs to happen is an item or a metamagic feat or something that lets you hide the magical emanations from casting a spell, treating it as if you never cast the spell in the first place. To be honest, the whole concept of "Hiding the spell" seems pretty stupid in my opinion, especially when spells are so powerful to end encounters, that even if your position is revealed while you are invisible, that it won't matter because the entire encounter will be over.

[wraithstrike]

Which reminds me that if you can see the effect of a spell in place, or if you were targeted by a spell you also get a knowledge arcana check to identify it.

[GM Rednal]

The FAQ in question is this one:

Quote:

What exactly do I identify when I’m using Spellcraft to identify a spell? Is it the components, since spell-like abilities, for instance, don’t have any? If I can only identify components, would that mean that I can’t take an attack of opportunity against someone using a spell-like ability (or spell with no verbal, somatic, or material components) or ready an action to shoot an arrow to disrupt a spell-like ability? If there’s something else, how do I know what it is?

Although this isn’t directly stated in the Core Rulebook, many elements of the game system work assuming that all spells have their own manifestations, regardless of whether or not they also produce an obvious visual effect, like fireball. You can see some examples to give you ideas of how to describe a spell’s manifestation in various pieces of art from Pathfinder products, but ultimately, the choice is up to your group, or perhaps even to the aesthetics of an individual spellcaster, to decide the exact details. Whatever the case, these manifestations are obviously magic of some kind, even to the uninitiated; this prevents spellcasters that use spell-like abilities, psychic magic, and the like from running completely amok against non-spellcasters in a non-combat situation. Special abilities exist (and more are likely to appear in Ultimate Intrigue) that specifically facilitate a spellcaster using chicanery to misdirect people from those manifestations and allow them to go unnoticed, but they will always provide an onlooker some sort of chance to detect the ruse.

[Azothath]

this is a variation on a theme of the unending thread about detecting invisible casters...
it's really up to your GM and group.

Illusion of Calm has some interesting text but it doesn't specifically prevent detection of spellcasting in general(though it does prevent the AoO). This is why I mentioned it in the unending thread above.

IMO Illusion of Calm provides perception modifiers IF the caster has also prevented verbal and material components from being detected (see next paragraph) and (clearly) the detector has not hit him.

IMO the easiest thing to do (as a GM) is just inform the players that spellcasting is occurring. It's a GM call to identify the square but I think that's fair unless the caster has taken steps to cover all 3 component areas (verbal, somatic, and material){again, that's just my opinion} and then it's a perception modifier.

While most spells have visible effects a few don't seem to but usually require a save on the part of the target. If a target has to make a save he knows he's been targeted by magic (unless spell description says otherwise). Some spells won't work if there's not a visible/detectable caster (Hypnotism).

Spellcraft is a specific skill that relies on Perception(all senses). The announcement that spellcasting is occurring is just a prompt to do a spellcraft check to see if the user can identify the spell while it is being cast or post casting. Perception penalties apply as normal. Invisible gets a DC modifier vs perception. Concealment refers to Invisibility modifiers.

Ultimate Intrigue provided rules to hide detection of spellcasting. Those are general and don't require special circumstances. They aren't easy or guaranteed.

[thejeff]

Unless I'm missing something, strictly speaking Illusion of Calm just prevents attacks of opportunity.

It wouldn't hide spellcasting, just keep people from reacting to the moment of vulnerability by attacking.

[ElyasRavenwood]

Thank you all for your replies.