You’re a shopkeep and someone comes in. They want a discount on something. They grab their pendant, a staff, or some shit from their bag, then do a short chant and hand movements.
Even if you don’t know specifically the magic they’re doing, you know something fishy is up. In my opinion, that’s gonna limit the effectiveness by tanking the shopkeep’s opinion of you as you cast. Maybe have a friend distract them while you cast so they don’t notice, or do some prestidigitation tricks first to get them comfy with you magic-ing in their shop.
Too many people treat charm and similar spells like videogames. Pause time, chug 5 potions and eat 12 cheese wheels. Magic casting gets no response unless the end result does damage. If your DM allows that, fine. But IMO the whole “hold up I need to try and manipulate this guy’s mind out in public, or in front of their guards, they won’t mind if I try that” tends to take me right out of it.
And that’s without thinking about stuff like wealthy shop owners selling mundane items being able to get an anti magic field, bodyguards, or other options against this sort of thing.
I fully agree. If you want to be able to cast subtle spells, invest in the abilities required to do so. Otherwise I say someone starting to cast a spell without warning will be treated the same as someone pulling out a knife without warning: sure they might be planning something on doing something harmless like peel an apple, but without context, you’re going to assume the worst and react accordingly.
You’re a shopkeep and someone comes in. They want a discount on something. They grab their pendant, a staff, or some shit from their bag, then do a short chant and hand movements.
Even if you don’t know specifically the magic they’re doing, you know something fishy is up. In my opinion, that’s gonna limit the effectiveness by tanking the shopkeep’s opinion of you as you cast. Maybe have a friend distract them while you cast so they don’t notice, or do some prestidigitation tricks first to get them comfy with you magic-ing in their shop.
Too many people treat charm and similar spells like videogames. Pause time, chug 5 potions and eat 12 cheese wheels. Magic casting gets no response unless the end result does damage. If your DM allows that, fine. But IMO the whole “hold up I need to try and manipulate this guy’s mind out in public, or in front of their guards, they won’t mind if I try that” tends to take me right out of it.
And that’s without thinking about stuff like wealthy shop owners selling mundane items being able to get an anti magic field, bodyguards, or other options against this sort of thing.
I fully agree. If you want to be able to cast subtle spells, invest in the abilities required to do so. Otherwise I say someone starting to cast a spell without warning will be treated the same as someone pulling out a knife without warning: sure they might be planning something on doing something harmless like peel an apple, but without context, you’re going to assume the worst and react accordingly.