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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lewpuls" data-source="post: 9536388" data-attributes="member: 30518">Game designers of tabletop fantasy role-playing games know that spellcasting is a key part of both the game’s mechanics and the world setting. Which is why it’s important to understand a simple but critical concept in a fantasy world: the noticeability of spellcasting. Not many RPG rulesets explicitly state all the conditions for casting a spell. In particular, how much sound volume and movement does spellcasting involve?[ATTACH=full]389526[/ATTACH] <a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/fantasy-wizard-spell-making-spells-7625891/" target="_blank">Picture courtesy of Pixabay.</a><h3>How Much Blast to Your Cast?</h3>In my days as a Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master, I’ve always ruled that spellcasting requires a noticeable, obvious, effort. If there’s an oral component, it must be spoken loudly; the spell must be more or less proclaimed in a grandiose manner. It would rarely be mistaken for anything other than spellcasting.Why rule this way? Because I don’t want spellcaster specialists to dominate play. It’s enough that they can blast the enemy into smithereens, let alone be sneaky in their actions! In a different set of rules that don’t enable spellcasters to dominate, there may be reasons to rule differently.Contrast my ruling with a situation (game or fiction) where a spellcaster can twitch a finger or mutter something to cast a spell. The requirements of casting become very important in stealth. Can a spell be muttered or whispered so that stealth isn’t lost, how much chance is there for someone to notice the spellcasting? Think how much “stealth casting” increases “the power of magic.”More importantly, a spell that can be cast without anyone noticing is a spell that can’t be easily detected. This makes the spell harder to disrupt as well as trace to who cast it.<h3>Cloaked Conjurations</h3>Spells that can be concealed bring up important questions. Can the enemy who becomes aware of the casting react soon enough to stop it? D&D specifies casting time, but many games do not. Some games have implemented stopping opposing casting before it’s finished. The ways of counterspelling in older editions of D&D were a bit murky (<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/when-did-counterspell-first-appear.686074/" target="_blank">chiefly revolving around dispel magic</a>). Even in games with established rulesets like Fifth Edition D&D, noticing and disrupting spells can be a little vague. For example, in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, page 85 “Perceiving a Caster at Work,” there's <a href="http://enworld.org/threads/xanathars-guide-how-does-identifying-a-spell-counterspell-work.602800/" target="_blank">recommended rules about perceiving a spell being cast</a> and what’s required for it to be perceptible, but the difficulty for the Perception check largely up to the DM. Which is why it's important for both game masters and players to be clear ahead of time of just what's involved in casting spells. <h3>Who Cast That?</h3>A spell’s “noticeability” has two major parts, sound and vision, though I suppose in special cases there could be a smell associated with casting, or even a “feeling in the air." That is, you can hear a spell being cast, or you can see it being cast, or you can smell or feel it being cast. And you must then recognize that it’s a spell. In other words, how well can casters disguise what they’re doing, so that it doesn’t appear to be casting? Do opponents/targets need to hear a spell in order to be affected? Spells that affect the opponent’s hearing or affect them through sound probably need to be heard by the target(s).As we discussed in “<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/worlds-of-design-how-lethal-is-your-magic.706696/" target="_blank">How Lethal is Your Magic?</a>” there are serious implications for characters who can be easily identified as spellcasters; spellcasters who can cast spells undetected are an even bigger concern for civilized societies. You could imagine a setting where spellcasters are required to wear certain clothing (think the magician’s pointy hat). This could be by law or by the “rules of magic,” or even hubris as caster's who wants other to know their power hold the item like a badge of honor. The caster might need an arcane focus like a staff; alternately it could be some piece of clothing that every caster is expected to have on their person.And if an item is involved in casting, that surely extends to magic items that create spell effects. They may well need to be tagged or registered. Given the variability of magic items, some magical detection might be required upon entering certain areas—it’s one thing to peace knot your magic sword, it’s another when a handkerchief or a brooch can cast fireballs.This has combat implications as well. In a battle, would opponents even recognize that someone was using a magic item? You might think that a wand of fireballs or lightning bolts would be easy to spot in use, but what about more subtle effects, especially ones where you don’t have to point at a target?<h3>Implications of Incantations</h3>How spells are expressed—be it through sight, sound, or even smell—has wide-ranging implications for fantasy cultures and on the battlefield. Thinking about how your casters cast can change everything, from the complexity of your spell system to how polite society deals with pranksters and assassins. It’s important, but could amount to a lot of rules unless you make it quite simple, as I do.Special thanks to my wife Sue always for asking the tough questions as I drafted this article.Your Turn: How sneaky can spellcasters be in your games?</blockquote>

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