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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 8393180" data-attributes="member: 6988941">I think the fair way to do Nystul's Magic Aura is simply to make sure that, if the right clues are picked up on, the PCs will discover the person using it is capable of using it. Make sure it is telegraphed that this specifically is a spell sometimes used in your world though, because many players don't seem to be aware of it existing, despite being available to any 3rd level Wizard and in the SRD (albeit under a generic name). It's a spell just not relevant to most characters because usually when players come up with a creative magical deception the DM doesn't want to spoil all their fun with someone casting detect magic. You probably don't want it to be a game about how encyclopedic a knowledge of the spell system players have, so you've got to educate them, or at least give them a reasonable shot at being educated in game about what you're doing.Just the other night I called for an Arcana check when my players got nothing from detect magic on a clearly magical phenomenon, a statue talking from a magic mouth spell, and when they got a reasonably high score I told them it was very clearly behaving exactly like the magic mouth spell so the lack of a ping from detect magic probably meant Nystul's Magic Aura or the like. This element was included partly to explain why a city with a fair smattering of magically adept people were fooled by talking statues in their public square, but also to give sufficiently curious players (with a decent roll) a reminder of an obscure spell I intended the Wizard villain to keep using. I think the same basic principle applies whatever spell, item, or plot magic you decide to hide this succubus with: just make sure they have a reasonable opportunity to be aware that whatever you are using exists in your world and sometimes has this effect. It doesn't have to be a guarantee. If they ignore obvious opportunities to investigate something or just get really bad rolls on whatever ability checks they need to make to gather the information, then tough luck, that's D&D. But their should be the reasonable opportunity to get the clues they need in game to not be fooled by your magical subterfuge.Alternatively, just blindside them with it being a succubus with magical fiendish nature hiding powers, but do it at a level where a succubus getting the drop on them is not likely to end their adventures and have this be the way they learn about this phenomenon before a much scarier fiend pulls it on them later. All sorts of things become fair if you make them into actual useful learning experiences.</blockquote>

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