Once upon a time I was running a relatively frail character amid a group of players who liked to run power hungry PCs that would happily kill each other for neat items.
So I didn't tell them what I was, class wise. They knew I was some sort of spell caster, but that was about it. I started as a 3rd level Wiz.
When I met them, they were on the run, supplies were low, and they were being tracked.
The PC introduced himself, noted their generally beat condition, and offered to prepare lunch. He leavened their thin supplies with his own rations, left the camp "to look for herbs", then cast
Prestidigitation while he was out of sight.
When he returned, he offered to "freshen" their drink. He blew onto each glass, using the cantrip to alter the color and flavor of the very poor wine they had. It appeared that he had just transformed their wine into very smooth sipping whiskey. As long as you do one pint at a time, you can do as many as you like within the duration.
Though the DM knew what was going on, the other players hadn't a clue, and were trying to figure out what obscure power I had that let me do this. Spellcraft checks suffer a 5 point penalty for each component of the spell you are unable to observe. Since they had seen nothing, I happily informed them that their target DC was 20. (10 base +0 for spell level, +10 for failing to see the somatic or hear the verbal parts of the spell.)
The food came out better than expected as well, very well seasoned.
Later, we came to a mud flat that would slow us down and leave obvious tracks.
So my character again went into the brush "to look for herbs". There he cast
Floating Disk, but left it there, out of sight, when he came out. These guys played that you could see the disk, like a glass platter, so I left it behind some brush. The character then took out the blanket from his bedroll and shook it out. Laying it on the ground, he folded it into a pentagonal shape, then traced some lines on it with the "herbs" he'd gathered.
Of course the
Disk was called out while blanket was being shaken, and was there under it as it was folded. So, when the character sat down on the folded and "anointed" blanket, it floated up and carried him across the mud flats, at least to the first hard point.
"What, you don't know the
Floating Blanket spell?", he asked innocently, as he sent it back to ferry the others across, one at a time.
And this time I informed them that the Spellcraft check was DC 26. (
Floating Disk has three components, so the penalty was 15 points, and they couldn't see the spell effect directly in any case.)
Keeping them guessing kept my character alive. It also kept the DM amused, which is often invaluable. Besides, under the circumstances, it was a lot of fun.
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