I've been looking at old threads concerning the DC to hear someone casting a spell. For many uses of it would be quite detrimental if they are standard speaking voices, or even louder. I've seen arguments considering that a strong voice is not necessarily a loud one too...and more often than not that for every 10 feet the DC would increase by 1 and the base would be 0 (regular conversation).
Which brings us to ghost sound. Say you want to distract a patrol or whatever, but the vocal component of the spell is loud enough that they'll hear that too. I suppose that the sort of speech used in magic is somewhat...arcane, while you wouldn't easily recognize what it is being said, it should be easy enough to recognize it as being magic. Maybe a DC 5 knowledge arcane check...or even just an intelligence check. The assumption being that most people have seen wizards casting spells before.
So imagine this guard hearing some incantation and suddenly some loud sounds coming from a different direction...wouldn't they become rather suspicious?
Those nearby can hear these messages with a DC 25 Perception check.
Given that this spell has a vocal spell component and gives a DC 25 perception check for nearby creatures to hear the words you speak into the spell, so my question is if those whispered words are the vocal spell component.
I sort of assume that this spell is used to communicate in private when you don't want people to overhear what you're saying, but casting with a strong voice (vocal component) would immediately alert everyone around that something fishy is going on.
The description of Perception skill says it's DC 15 to hear the details of whispered conversation, so it would make no sense if the DC to hear a vocal component of any spell were even higher.
Yeah, but you only need to make out the content for the purpose of identifying the spell. To hear that a spell is being cast would probably be a perception check of 0 +1/10 feet...which would be rather useless for this kind of spell.
The vocal component supposedly must be uttered in a strong voice, whatever that exactly means. Could it be a whisper? Maybe.
So your interpretation would be that for someone to notice message being cast, they would need to succeed a DC 15 perception check, but to make out the words being passed about they would need to check a DC 25 check?
Technically, whispering is a significantly different mode of speech than normal speech in that it is unvoiced. Myself, by 'a strong voice' I understand normal mode of speech. It can be quiet or loud, but it's not whisper. Even quiet voiced speech is easier to understand thant whispering, so I'd set the DC to understand quiet voiced speech to 10. And the DC to hear it (without recognizing that it is an incantation) would be even lower, possibly 5. Note that the base DC to notice an invisible creature speaking is 0 (+20 for being invisble, -20 for speaking; it's detailed in the rules for Invisibility special ability).
DC 5/10 is low, but it can be enhanced by distance modifiers, and obstruction modifiers (for example, the caster can cover his mouth with hand, making it harder to hear him without changing the way he speaks), by using it when the target to fool is distarcted (for example talking with the second guard) etc. I think that if you try, you can increase it to DC 20/25 without much problem.
But if you really want to be sure, you need to use Silent Spell.
The DC 25 is not active until the spell is cast.
Normal spellcasting would fall under DC 0 Hear the details of a conversation.
Knowing a spell was cast is not the same as knowing who cast it, what was cast, or where it was cast from.
Message in particular has a 10 minute per level duration, so it is easily cast away from those you don't want to hear.
/cevah
True enough. So you scout ahead see a party of evildoers, walk back 350 feet, cast the spell, go back with your party...mhmm, there are definitly better uses for a lvl 1 slot. Or scroll. Actually, the players in my game all picked up a rank in linguistic so they can have a common sign language.
Ghost sound;
Hearing would give a general direction and any guardsman should be on high alert when they hear a spell being cast in the vicinity of whatever it is they are guarding even if they may then immediately be distracted by whatever cacophony the caster set up.
I guess ghost sound is still pretty good for a cantrip, but so far we used it mostly for minor distractions, to make guards look the other way for a couple of seconds while sneaking by. I guess that's out.
You can also use a wand or a silent metmagic rod. A wand of ghost sound looks like an item every thief with a rank in UMD would like to have.
EDIT: Nvm, to activate a spell trigger item like a wand a single word needs to be spoken. So it dosn't work as I thought. But a custom, use-activeted item would do the trick, although it would be more expensive.
Yeah, kinda pricey, but might be well worth the investment. Though at three uses a day they're gonna need more than one.
Kinda weird using it on a cantrip though.
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True enough. So you scout ahead see a party of evildoers, walk back 350 feet, cast the spell, go back with your party...mhmm, there are definitly better uses for a lvl 1 slot. Or scroll. Actually, the players in my game all picked up a rank in linguistic so they can have a common sign language.
Message is a cantrip, so can be used as often as you want. As such, the standard operating procedure is to cast when you start the day, and repeat cast when the last one runs out or when you anticipate a need for extended quiet.
As to ranks, I picked up Lip Reading to allow me to read what anyone says if I know the language. Combined with Irrisen Mirror Sight, it makes for a great two way long distance communication. Very useful for my spy information network. [I would write out what I wanted my spy to know, and they would speak back. I would not hear them, but would read what they said instead.]
/cevah
Good idea. How does the person know that the spell is active though. It's not like it beeps and most of the time they probably wouldn't have it on hand. Do you have some fixed dates and times set when you'll establish communication?
You know it is active by using it. :-)
For refreshing, just recast anytime before the expected end of the effect. You don't need to be precise. You can also cast it every time you start dungeon crawling (or setting out in the city or whatever).
Given the existence of the 15 minute adventuring day, 10 minutes per level covers that day quite well. :-)
/cevah