Spell-like abilities, detect magic, etc.

[brehobit]

OK,
The party annoyed the locals and the captain of the guard (who doubles as the town's priest) walks out and confronts the party. Things are going poorly, but manageability, until the warlock uses his detect magic on the party. The cleric had cast detect magic _before_ coming out to confront the party. So some issues arise:

Does the cleric, concentrating on detect magic, notice the detect magic get "cast"?

Is a spell-like ability just as easy to detect being cast as a spell (we've been playing no, at least on the detect magic).

Mark

 

[DreadArchon]

Edit: Idiocy removed.

Yes, (Sp) should generate an aura. Because, y'know, it's like the spell. But I don't know of any hard RAW specification on this, so, meh.

In the example given, I'd have the captain see Faint Divination appear on the Warlock's eyes.

 

[Quidam]

Is a spell-like ability just as easy to detect being cast as a spell (we've been playing no, at least on the detect magic).

SLAs have somatic components which means they're visually noticeable when they're cast but not aurally.

 

[Hypersmurf]

In the example given, I'd have the captain see Faint Divination appear on the Warlock's eyes.

I'm away from my Complete Arcane, but is the invocation essentially Detect Magic as the spell?

If so, I'd have the captain see Faint Divination appear in a 60 foot cone in front of the Warlock...

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

SLAs have somatic components which means they're visually noticeable when they're cast but not aurally.

As a general rule, SLAs don't have somatic components; invocations are a special exception.

-Hyp.

 

[DreadArchon]

I'm away from my Complete Arcane, but is the invocation essentially Detect Magic as the spell?

Invocations are essentially spells, but Detect Magic is not an invocation for Warlocks. It's a class ability, tagged as "(Sp)," so it follows the same basic rules (whatever those are) as all other spell-like abilities do.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Invocations are essentially spells, but Detect Magic is not an invocation for Warlocks. It's a class ability, tagged as "(Sp)," so it follows the same basic rules (whatever those are) as all other spell-like abilities do.

Right - so it's effectively 'as the spell'. Which means that the Area is a 60 foot cone, and that's where the Divination aura should appear.

-Hyp.

 

[brehobit]

Thanks all,
So is the spell-like "detect magic" as obvious when it is "cast" as the spell detect magic?

Is the DC to figure out what it is as it's still the same as the spell?

Mark

 

[James McMurray]

Thanks all,
So is the spell-like "detect magic" as obvious when it is "cast" as the spell detect magic?

Mostly, but only because the warlock invocation has a somatic component. Most spell-like abilities have no components, and so aren't noticable at all unless they have an effect that would be noticed.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Mostly, but only because the warlock invocation has a somatic component. Most spell-like abilities have no components, and so aren't noticable at all unless they have an effect that would be noticed.

Except that as DreadArchon noted above, a Warlock's Detect Magic at will isn't an invocation; it's just a (Sp) class ability. So it doesn't have a somatic component at all... it's essentially identical to a Paladin's (Sp) Detect Evil at will, in that respect.

So we can fall back on the answers to the "Can you tell when a Paladin's detecting evil?" debate. It's often suggested that since Detect Evil requires concentration and provokes an AoO, you can spot a Detecting Paladin by the constipated look he acquires... (see Lyta Alexander attempting to scan someone, for a visual aid...)

-Hyp.