The new spell components are interesting. As they are more internal, I just know my players are going to ask how this will affect the ability to cast a spell without anyone noticing.
I appreciate that it's not a new question as to how to cast charm person or sow thought without being noticed. But I haven't previously spotted any official advice. With a complete absense of the caster gesturing and muttering, I think it would be useful to have some official ruling.
Why do you need an official ruling? The only way people can tell a spell is being cast is by seeing the somatic or hearing the verbal components. Unless they have some sort of magic detection up, which might change things.
The only thing anybody can notice about a psychic mage casting a spell is the actual spell effects (for example, it's pretty obvious to tell who cast a ray spell, since you can just trace the ray back to its origin), or the fact that that guy over there seemed to be deep in concentration for a few seconds.
Because there are some who do argue, for instance, that if spell casting always provokes an attack of opportunity then the person reacting is clearly able to determine that a spell is being cast.
So it's not really an open and shut case, sadly. One can make a half-decent case either way, but it would be nice to know what the designer's would like to see happen.
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I think it's obvious that the caster is doing SOMETHING. It may not be clear that they're actually casting a spell, since it has none of the rigamarole of a typical spell-lobbing, but it's clear they're focusing their minds on some effect; a paranoid foe can easily assume it's magic or something just as dire and react accordingly.
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Jason answered this question for SLAs early in Pathfinder's life cycle. As per Spellcraft, the skill lets you ID the spell being cast if you can see the caster, and there's nothing there about somatic components being required. Basically, Jason said that there are some visual manifestations of the magic. It's up to you to decide what cool manifestations you want to have! :)
It would be really nice if that was made explicit for spells (psychic or otherwise).
I can see some people building Mesmerists, particularly, and then being surprised and dismayed that the subtle manipulation of, for instance, sow thoughts, comes with an attending light show.
I'm not saying that's not how it should be - I'm just saying that clearing it up within the rules is desirable.
Doesn't need to be a "light show" per-se - could be just that the Mesmerist's eyes go white and his or her hair stands on end, or any other campy, low-budget movie effects you could imagine. :)
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CEBrown wrote: Doesn't need to be a "light show" per-se - could be just that the Mesmerist's eyes go white and his or her hair stands on end, or any other campy, low-budget movie effects you could imagine. :) Yup. Maybe their body's motions seem hypnotic and their voice has an odd quality of power to it. Someone with Spellcraft knows what's going on, and someone threatening in combat sees they dropped their guard to do something funky.
That being said, I really hope that there will be an option that allows psychic magic users to conceal their spellcasting. Maybe even a (costly) metamagic feat?
Well, there's always Stealth.
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