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I want to put together a caster character that ideally isn't noticeable/detectable to be so.
Silent/still metamagic should keep non casters from noticing I'm anything, but distracted.
Quicken metamagic should erase the distracted aspect.
Secret magic only seems to work out combat.
Sorcerer for eschew materials?
Any good tips or ideas? I know the character is not going to be *strong* in the least, but I'm trying to make it work as well as possible. Class is optional so long as it works.
The more spell like abilities you can get the better. At later levels of course there's other options that make this easy. What level are you looking at?
I think the challenge is going to be doing this at level 1. If you just take silent spell, you could put cantrips in your first level slots and maybe your GM would let you do a slight of hand to make the spell gesture unnoticed. No matter how high you pump it though, that check would fail a good part of the time.
You can't use Sleight of Hand for that purpose.
This is for the Beginner's Box? That's a product name, and it doesn't have sorcerer.
Seems perfect, after all, you're acting.
My mistake, this should've been in advice, not beginner box. Put it here because I'm fairly new. I looked at bard, but silent spell specifically doesnt work with bard magic. Bard Magic is listed as the exception.
I just started trying to go through the list of cantrips that only have verbal or somatic components
Flare and light use verbal
Spark is either or
Haunted Fey Aspect is Somatic
Flare and Spark are the only ones that seem to be of any use in combat, and that I could potentially continue to conceal myself as being a caster.
I fully expect to be nearly useless early on.
What other options are available higher up. Do any of those conceal my casting from other casters, while in combat?
Do you still think sorcerer is best, or maybe druid? Haven't looked at druid seriously yet. Wizards and clerics are out of the question with their clearly obvious tomes and holy symbols.
Well, if you beat their perception or sense motive check, they can hear / see you... But they don't realize that you are casting a spell. So it doesn't matter. You could be doing Perform (mime), or just talking. Or whatever you have ranks in perform.
Rite Publishing's Luckbringer might be up your alley. They get a ton of spell-like abilities. You would have to ask your GM of course, since it's third party. Then you would have to buy it. But they can stand perfectly still and cause stuff to happen around them.
Going druid without animal companion would let you use the spell like abilities from the domain from level one. The weather one might be good.
The arcane talent feat would give you an arcane spell like ability cantrip if you choose a certain race.
When you get 4th level spells, minor spell expertise would give you a 1st level.
I'm not really sure how the witch hexes work, that might be another option.
For a druid to cast spells, without "giving himself away," you'd need to use wild shape, taking an animal form, and have the natural spell feat.
Ironically, you can't speak (unless you also take the wild speech feat), but you can cast spells with V,S, and M components while in wild shape.
This would get away from the "bumbling idiot" look, though. If you want to look humanoid, then my suggestion would be to max out your ranks in bluff, and consider traits and feats that boost your bluff ability. Then take some of the other metamagic feats already listed here.
What's the goal you're really trying to accomplish? An NPC for your players to face, or a character you're trying to play, that won't be ganged up upon, due to "HEY GUYZ LOOK - A CASTER - GET 'IM!!"
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I want to put together a caster character that ideally isn't noticeable/detectable to be so.
Silent/still metamagic should keep non casters from noticing I'm anything, but distracted.
Quicken metamagic should erase the distracted aspect.
Secret magic only seems to work out combat.Sorcerer for eschew materials?
Any good tips or ideas? I know the character is not going to be *strong* in the least, but I'm trying to make it work as well as possible. Class is optional so long as it works.
Might I propose the In Plain Sight alternative. You have him state out loud that he is going to cast a particular spell. Then he does not cast that spell but actually casts a useless one. If you specialize as a wizard you can have an extra spell per level and sorta have one to waste. Or you could just cast cantrips.
Caster: Oh dear me, this looks like a job for um um spider climb. Yes, yes that will be perfect.
He then casts Floating Disk (or light)
Caster: Oh, I um. I was sure I had prepared spider climb. *thinks for a moment* No, I suppose I did not. Terribly sorry.
All the observers: hahahaha.
In public he plays the fool. Take disguise as a skill and your disguise is the bumbling fool. Heck you don't even need to put anything on.
In private or when it counts he is deadly effective.
Thanks guys. I think I seem to have gotten a response for a few different variations of this character. Some really great ideas for playing the fool, and for keeping casting a secret. Let me put a few together and get back to you
You can cast touch-range spells out of view, and "hold the charge". Or have a familiar deliver them.
If you have access to the Imbue with Spell Ability-spell, you can have others act as a foil.
You could flip this on its head, and be a bumbling idiot who thinks they can cast spells, but actually can't.
Are you allowed 3.5 material? In the 3.5 book Complete Scoundrel there were things called skill tricks (mini feats you could spent skill points to get). One of them was called concealed spellcasting or something of the sort, which allowed you to use sleight of hand to conceal the fact that you were casting a spell (even if it had verbal components).
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Get the Eschew Materials feat.
Get a Lesser Metamagic rod of silent spell ASAP and disguise it as a walking stick/staff.
Get the still spell feat a bit later.
Wave your hands around distractedly all the time, not just in combat.
Concentrate on Verbal/material spells. Wave your hands around mimicking other spells while casting V,M spells.
Get long duration spells that you can cast beforehand while unseen.
Use concentration effect spells that you can continue to use while appearing to do something else.
Get disguise self, obscuring mist, vanish and invisibility and concentrate on non-direct damage spells.
Get creative with spells such as disguise self, unseen servant.
Select illusion and enchantment spells so it doesn't appear to be you doing the thing.
EDIT: and of course hide all your magic items with Magic Aura, etc
