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The deafened condition requires a DC5 flat check to perform an action with the auditory trait.
At first this sounds similar to the 20% spell failure chance from PF1e, but casting spells even with Verbal components doesn't seem to be auditory - Verbal components have just the Concentrate trait. The sidebar says specifically that Cast a Spell becomes auditory if a bard uses a musical instrument (but they could just cast it normally instead).
This seems to make applying deafened pretty useless in combat (so thunderstones, sound burst pretty weak). Am I missing something?
It would affect a few barbarian yelling feats, Bard compositions with verbal components (which add an auditory performance requirement), any character issuing commands to a minion, a monk using Dragon Roar, a demoralize action, a Quivering Palm activation, command activations of a magic item, and probably, others, but I'll stop because I finally found this:
As long as you can act, you can also speak. You don’t need to spend any type of action to speak, but because a round represents 6 seconds of time, you can usually speak at most a single sentence or so per round. Special uses of speech, such as attempting a Deception skill check to Lie, require spending actions and follow their own rules.
All speech has the auditory trait. If you communicate in some way other than speech, other rules might apply. For instance, using sign language is visual instead of auditory.
That might be good enough for your GM to apply the auditory trait to verbal components. It's pretty weird to say you might fail to successfully shout a one word warning to an ally, but can't fail to say a word of power.
But wait!
deaf character can’t detect anything using hearing, critically fails Perception checks that require hearing, and is immune to auditory effects. They have enough practice to supply verbal components for casting spells and command components for activating magic items, but if they perform an action they’re not accustomed to that involves auditory elements, they must succeed at a DC 5 flat check or the action is lost. It’s best to give them the Sign Language feat for free, and you might give them Read Lips as well (page 266 and 265). You might give one or more other characters in the group Sign Language for free as well.
On the one hand, speaking verbal components is an action a spellcaster is accustomed to. On the other, being deaf generally isn't something they're accustomed to. So I dunno. RAW you can cast spells freely while deaf (both permanently and temporarily), but it does hinder a few other things, and I think that's probably the RAI for temporary deafness but I'm not super confident about it.
The "all speech is auditory" thing seems completely reasonable to me, but RAW seems pretty clear about which traits get added to the Cast a Spell activity:
The spell components, described in detail below, add traits and requirements to the Cast a Spell activity. If you can’t provide the components, you fail to Cast the Spell.
• Material (manipulate)
• Somatic (manipulate)
• Verbal (concentrate)
• Focus (manipulate)
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Ah, actually the bit from CRB 487 makes me think RAI was for verbal casting to be affected by deafness. Because that section is about characters who have disabilities (e.g. were *born* deaf), and have adapted to it better than someone who just gets deafened in combat. It specifically says "Conditions such as blinded and deafened aren’t a good fit" for such characters.
Why would they need to mention that permanently deaf characters would have "enough practice to supply verbal components for casting spells", if everyone can do that while deaf anyway?
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The reason verbal spells don't have the auditory trait can be found in that text above. It mentions deaf characters being immune to auditory effects.
"He's casting Fireball!"
"I plug my ears so I'm immune."
"Wait, what?"
"It's auditory. It has a verbal component."
Also, the Deafened Condition should've been more thorough, it being the go-to place for such things. Maybe editing didn't realize the difference when they saw the DC 5 portion.
The reason verbal spells don't have the auditory trait can be found in that text above. It mentions deaf characters being immune to auditory effects.
"He's casting Fireball!"
"I plug my ears so I'm immune."
"Wait, what?"
"It's auditory. It has a verbal component."Also, the Deafened Condition should've been more thorough, it being the go-to place for such things. Maybe editing didn't realize the difference when they saw the DC 5 portion.
There’s a difference between the Cast a Spell component action having the auditory trait and the resulting spell having the trait, so your fireball example isn’t relevant.
There’s a difference between the Cast a Spell component action having the auditory trait and the resulting spell having the trait, so your fireball example isn’t relevant.The reason verbal spells don't have the auditory trait can be found in that text above. It mentions deaf characters being immune to auditory effects.
"He's casting Fireball!"
"I plug my ears so I'm immune."
"Wait, what?"
"It's auditory. It has a verbal component."Also, the Deafened Condition should've been more thorough, it being the go-to place for such things. Maybe editing didn't realize the difference when they saw the DC 5 portion.
It's a joke. Apparently a poor one with too many steps.
So Paizo didn't use the auditory tag on verbal components. Yay. No confusion (nor context for the joke).
Except now we know verbal IS affected by deafened, even though deafened doesn't mention how speech actions are susceptible. That's buried elsewhere in the rules. Boo.
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Or we could just wait another three weeks and see what the Remaster actually says before ranting about what it might or might not have in it.