The base ability for the Artifice Domain is:
"Artificer's Touch (Sp): You can cast mending at will, using your cleric level as the caster level to repair damaged objects. In addition, you can cause damage to objects and construct creatures by striking them with a melee touch attack. Objects and constructs take 1d6 points of damage +1 for every two cleric levels you possess. This attack bypasses an amount of damage reduction and hardness equal to your cleric level. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier."
In a game recently, I used the power to destroy a lock on a door and gain entry into a secure room. That part worked fine, however, there was some disagreement over whether this could be done quietly or not. I as the player wanted to be as sneaky as I could given the circumstances. However, the GM ruled that the power would naturally make quite a bit of noise as the metal ripped and shredded apart.
I argued against this ruling briefly, but I do (and did) see where the GM was coming from. So I'm curious: Are there specific rules for a spell/ability like Artificers Touch and the collateral noise it makes? Obviously the spell implies verbal and somatic components as the Mending spell, but does the nature of the action go beyond those noises? (ie- destroying a construct, in this case metal)... Or is the effect magically silent?
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Other things being equal, it should make the same amount of noise as doing d6+modifier damage in one round to the object by some other means, such as with a light mace (noise of battle, Perception DC -10). There's no particular reason a deity of Artifice would make his divine powers stealthy.
However, as a spell-like ability, the casting itself has no verbal or somatic component.