Questions about Sow Thought

This spell has visual and somatic components, but it's a non-combat spell that you don't want the victim to know your casting on them.

What is the best use for this then? Can you use this on merchants or guards during roleplay encounters, or will the S/V components screw that up? Not really useful in combat. Is it only useful to cast on sleeping victims?

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/sow-thought

Silent rod and still MM feat. You can cast it on anyone and any time, it just basically makes people inclined to do something they might do. The visual and verbals of it are only going to help someone with spellcraft. For example if a homeless walks up to you spouting gibberish and waving his hands then says "Bub can you spare some money. More than you might otherwise, I really need a meal, some clothes, and a stay at a hotel else I'm gonna freeze out here" that is very reasonable and likely to pull you to do something you might do and not seem supernatural. If he did the same and said "You will add me as co-owner to your house, car, bank accounts.." then we might have an issue.

You should be careful with that spell, as in try not overrate it. It seems like a minor form of Suggestion.

On the topic of your question, if cast in crowded or noisy area, it might not be noticed, or while the target is asleep. Even if target notices it, he might not even know what it does or is, so you could Bluff him that you are doing something else.

Silent and Still MM are better but more expensive solutions.

What I don't understand about this spell is why would you take it when you can just take charm person?

Maybe because if you pull this off right the target will never know you've cast it?

Well the spell description doesn't say that you have to hide casting the spell for the target to not realize that the idea wasn't theirs so I wouldn't worry about hiding it unless your using it on someone in a place where others may be paying attention.

To me this spell is like the jedi mind trick

Rob a wizard of his golems on the way out guard stops you, wave your hand(cast sow thought) and say "These aren't the golems your looking for. We can go about our business, move along."

Casting raise dead on this thread so I can add my two cents...

I'm thinking the best way to use Sow thoughts is incrementally. Start with basic things like, "It sure is nice of X to give me this job." "I wouldn't mind working for X more if they'll keep paying this well." Small, positive thoughts, maybe even a bit redundant, don't directly force them into service to you but just give them a job and pay them well for it.

Then, work your way up to more influential thoughts like. "It would be best for me to keep working here." "I can trust X to keep me safe from Y" Again, it's probably thoughts they'd already had themselves, they probably won't even notice the deception and that's the ideal. It's not a suggestion spell, it's better, you just need to work for it and bide your time. Don't try to cast Sow thoughts like 4 times over the course of a single day and expect them not to notice something is up if these thoughts keep telling them things they'd never consider.

The above would probably be implemented over the course of months in game time. Really, you could just make a few choice diplomacy checks and raise their opinion of you to max, but this is much more fun to me.

ultimate intrigue "clarified" that even when a spell lacks verbal and somatic components that you can still tell that someone is casting a spell.

There are some feats however that allow you to conceal the fact that you're casting a spell so those would still work. I think this spell is probably most effective in order to use "reverse psychology" for example with the merchant.

sow thoughts: you want to sell it to me for 200 gold
Caster (outloud): ok, you win I guess I'll see if I have 500 gold on me for it.
Merchant: eh, you know what, I'll give it to you for 200 since I like you.