Deaf Oracle and Spell Trigger / Completion / Command Word items


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So one day I was idly making an oracle... anyway, I was looking at the deaf curse as some fun flavor - even if it would make communication hard - but then I got to really thinking about what difficulty in communication would really mean. The silent spell "benefit" of the deaf oracle only applies to spells you cast, not to magic items you use.

PRD wrote:
Command Word: If no activation method is suggested either in the magic item description or by the nature of the item, assume that a command word is needed to activate it. Command word activation means that a character speaks the word and the item activates. No other special knowledge is needed.
Quote:
Deafened: A deafened character cannot hear. He takes a –4 penalty on initiative checks, automatically fails Perception checks based on sound, takes a –4 penalty on opposed Perception checks, and has a 20% chance of spell failure when casting spells with verbal components. Characters who remain deafened for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them.

Wow. Any time I try to use a command word item, I would have a 20% chance of failure. That's pretty harsh. (I know that my GM could rule that as I use it more often and get used to it the penalty could drop, eventually to zero.) And this would apply to spell trigger and spell completion items as well. Anything I missed that indicates I'm reading this wrong?


Yes. RAW, your oracle's drawback says absolutely nothing about magic items. At all. Using a command word activated item is not the same as using the verbal component of a spell. The command word for a wand of lightning bolt might be "flash and dazzle"; a verbal component might be nigh-unpronounceable. So using a wand, or scroll, or whatnot shouldn't be affected. Now, to be fair, I could see someone ruling otherwise. But having a 20% of losing a magic item every time you try to use a scroll could get frustrating, real fast. On average, that's 10 charges from a wand, and 2 from a staff. Also, those magic items give a deaf oracle to pull a spell off with certainty in a pinch; why muck things up further?


Seems to me the design philosophy of the Oracle dictates that any drawbacks associated with a curse should stand, as these inconvienances serve as balancing aspects of the class that without them may be overpowered.


At worst, I can only see this applying to reading scrolls (or any other spell completion item).

Looking at d20pfsrd, we see

Spell Completion wrote:
This is the activation method for scrolls. A scroll is a spell that is mostly finished. The preparation is done for the caster, so no preparation time is needed beforehand as with normal spellcasting. All that's left to do is perform the finishing parts of the spellcasting (the final gestures, words, and so on).
Spell Trigger wrote:
Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it's even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken.
Command Word wrote:
Command word activation means that a character speaks the word and the item activates. No other special knowledge is needed.

Spell completion is a lot like casting, and you could even argue that since you are finishing casting, you curse benefit applies.

For a spell trigger device (e.g., a wand), you are not finishing the spell, so the spell failure should not apply. For a command word item, you are so far from spell casting that you do not even need any spell casting ability.


udalrich wrote:

Spell completion is a lot like casting, and you could even argue that since you are finishing casting, you curse benefit applies.

For a spell trigger device (e.g., a wand), you are not finishing the spell, so the spell failure should not apply. For a command word item, you are so far from spell casting that you do not even need any spell casting ability.

+1

Spell Trigger should be unaffected, but Spell Completion (ie Scrolls) will be subject to that 20% chance of failure.

Here's an interesting thought though. If you were to take the Scribe Scroll feat, would you be able to create scrolls that have the Silent Spell metamagic feat already included? Would this raise the cost of the scroll? Would other characters be able to use those scrolls Silently?


ZappoHisbane wrote:
Here's an interesting thought though. If you were to take the Scribe Scroll feat, would you be able to create scrolls that have the Silent Spell metamagic feat already included? Would this raise the cost of the scroll? Would other characters be able to use those scrolls Silently?

By RAW, I'd say: yes, no, yes.

You can add metamagic feats to scrolls, the price is 25 * (spell level + 0) * caster level, and anyone can use the scroll with the appropriate skill/UMD.

You can get a similar effect with one spell via the Magical Lineage trait and a metamagic feat that increases the level by +1.

Edit: However, I think it would be reasonable have the cost reflect the "normal" metamagic version. There should be no price difference between buying a scroll made by a Deaf Oracle and a scroll made by a Cleric using the Silent Spell metamagic feat. They both do the same thing. To keep the economics right, the cost to produce the scroll should be the same for the Oracle and the Cleric.

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