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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Riley37" data-source="post: 6571652" data-attributes="member: 6786839">I've seen several players, in noncombat interactions, declare the PC's casting of a spell, as if that were not an obvious action to immediately-nearby observers. One of them, in a tense bar scene, said "I tell him he's probably safe, unless he feels a drumming on his head; and I use Mage Hand to drum on his head". Player was assuming that one can use Mage Hand as invisible telekinesis, and that no one (in a crowded bar, in a tense situation) notices the casting of a spell.Another player had his tiefling warlock PC go Invisible and sneak up on a heavily-guarded wagon in a caravan. (Needlessly; just because the wagon was heavily guarded.) A guard's PER roll exceeded the warlock's Stealth roll; the guard, hearing footsteps and/or seeing footprints,  shouted "Lemme see hands in the air!" and blew an alarm horn. The PC, over the next few rounds, sprinted around the wagon, dropped Invisibility while behind the guard, then approached the guard. By this time, the guard had readied a bow, then noticed a tiefling approaching from around the wagon and readied a Prepared Action. Warlock then tries to create a distraction/misdirection/explanation by casting Thaumaturgy to create an ominous rustling noise from some nearby bushes. Warlock was within 10' of the guard, and said that the guard should see him just pointing his staff at the bushes. Thaumaturgy cantrip has a Verbal component. I allowed a Deception-versus-Perception contest; the guard won, and the guard immediately shot at the warlock. But I probably should not even have allowed the test, and said that in the moment that the PC even started the "Cast a Spell" action, the guard immediately used Reaction (prepared action, shoot the tiefling warlock).I started a new group at another table (Adventurer's League at Friendly Local Gaming Store), and asked each player to describe their PC's entrance through the gates of the city of Phlan, including their interaction with guards (Black Fist) who ask their business and demand a toll. One player declared that he cast Charm Person at the toll-taking guard. As if he just needs to charm that one guard, and there aren't any other guards at the gates of a major city, who might notice and object. I'm kinda thinking, if I were guarding Phlan's main gate, and some traveller starts casting a spell at any of my fellow guards, then it would be time to for all of us guards to open fire.Where do players get the idea that the Cast a Spell action is like Obi-Wan Kenobi using Force Manipulation, except without the gesture? Where do they get the idea that city guards don't mind you casting a spell on their buddy, or that they react more peacefully to Charm Person than to Hold Person or Dissonant Whispers? Where do they get the idea that they can cast as if using Subtle Spell, except without actually being a sorceror? And how can I inform them otherwise?Consider what urban life would be like if *ANY* person you talked with might be casting Charm Person or Suggestion on you, while they were speaking with you, and *nobody within sight or earshot, had any way of noticing*. Spellcasters flat-out rule the rest of the population, or paranoia casts a shadow over every social interaction in public spaces such as the market square, or both.Well, that's still true insofar as a Level 3 Sorceror can cast Charm or Suggestion, while applying the Subtle metamagic. That metamagic allows casters to omit the V & S components of a spell. But is the "Cast a Spell" action recognizable as such even if the spell has no V or S components?I think I might have some generic NPCs approach PCs, and describe the following: "The half-elf in the blue cloak walks up to you, greets you, and starts casting a spell..." and see how PCs react. Does the PC let the NPC complete the casting of the spell, or does the PC treat the spellcasting as a potentially hazardous or hostile action? If several PCs are together, and PC Alpha notices an NPC casting a spell on PC Beta, how does PC Alpha respond?And then: goose, meet gander. NPC guards aren't all helpless idiots which you can bully and fool as if they were pre-schoolers (and as if you had no inhibitions about running roughshod over pre-schoolers.) In a city or a village, some NPCs *are* actual preschoolers. Do PCs push around NPC preschoolers, just because you can? No? Then why do PCs treat NPC city guards with less respect than they give to NPC preschoolers?Is it because you can get away with that kind of behavior in Skyrim?</blockquote>

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