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<blockquote data-quote="Baalzebul" data-source="post: 229780" data-attributes="member: 3650">I'm not sure what you mean by 'the difference' in that question, but I'll answer it generally. Any functioning spells in range of Detect Magic can be detected. The Detect Magic spell description outlines the process for this. Spells like Charm Person, Protection from Normal Missiles and Mage Armor would all be functioning spells while their duration lasts. When their duration finishes they leave a lingering aura which shows up as Dim when scanning with Detect Magic. While spells with instantaneous durations happen too quickly to be caught with Detect Magic they also leave lingering auras.The answer is yes, but there is another reason the Charm Person could be masked from detection. The Detect Magic spell description mentions that magical areas, multiple types of magic, or strong local magical emanations may confuse or conceal weaker auras. As a first level spell Charm Person has a pretty weak aura, so it's quite possible that if a Charmed person is carrying other magical items or spell effects that are pretty powerful the aura of Charm Person would be drowned in the noise of the other auras.It is borderline metagaming I suppose, unless the character is generally paranoid. One of my players used to play like this. He would run a variety of detection spells upon the return of other PCs if they left the campfire to relieve themselves. I treated this as being a character flaw of his actual character (even though he was metagaming) and had a few of their enemies figure this out over the course of a campaign. When those enemies started using the predictability of his paranoia against the group he began to ease up on this behaviour. He's still a very cautious player, but it's nowhere near as bad as before.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Baalzebul, post: 229780, member: 3650"] I'm not sure what you mean by 'the difference' in that question, but I'll answer it generally. Any functioning spells in range of Detect Magic can be detected. The Detect Magic spell description outlines the process for this. Spells like Charm Person, Protection from Normal Missiles and Mage Armor would all be functioning spells while their duration lasts. When their duration finishes they leave a lingering aura which shows up as Dim when scanning with Detect Magic. While spells with instantaneous durations happen too quickly to be caught with Detect Magic they also leave lingering auras. The answer is yes, but there is another reason the Charm Person could be masked from detection. The Detect Magic spell description mentions that magical areas, multiple types of magic, or strong local magical emanations may confuse or conceal weaker auras. As a first level spell Charm Person has a pretty weak aura, so it's quite possible that if a Charmed person is carrying other magical items or spell effects that are pretty powerful the aura of Charm Person would be drowned in the noise of the other auras. It is borderline metagaming I suppose, unless the character is generally paranoid. One of my players used to play like this. He would run a variety of detection spells upon the return of other PCs if they left the campfire to relieve themselves. I treated this as being a character flaw of his actual character (even though he was metagaming) and had a few of their enemies figure this out over the course of a campaign. When those enemies started using the predictability of his paranoia against the group he began to ease up on this behaviour. He's still a very cautious player, but it's nowhere near as bad as before. [/QUOTE]

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