Question About Spellcasting

[jorden_kemper]

I was wondering, if a mage attacks someone in disguise, can they roleplay casting their spells in a slightly altered voice, as to not be recognized? IF not... that means theres no way to attack someone with magic without getting caught... would be kinda lame.. . anyways tried to find a past thread on this if anyone could direct me to it, or re-iterate the team ruling i'd appreciate it. Thanks!

[Arkon]

Yes, you can cast using a disguised voice, but i would like to see a chance of failure RP'd into that as well.

The reason being, you are not used to using the disguise voice and thus you may accidently pronounce a word incorrectly or use the wrong inflection.

[whirlin_merlin]

Use Silent Spell, noob. Or at least a metamagic rod. Blake doesn't need to cast that many spells to do his thing anyway, right?

[silverdragonams]

The Avlis ruling on casting whie disguised is here:
http://www.avlis.org/viewtopic.php?f=147&t=49402

ADDITIONAL NOTE REGARDING VOICE IDing AND SILENT SPELLS

Official Ruling:

1) If somebody is casting silently, they can not be ID'd by voice, nor can they be ID'd by their ability to cast silently.

2) If somebody is casting non-silently, their voice is fair game. Use rule 0 to gauge whether or not your PC knows another well enough to voice-ID them, and consult your DM sponsor or the staff before taking this information IC (this consultation is NOT optional).

:anmachen:

If I remember the discussion on this correctly, the reason behind this ruling is that spellcasting is more than just throwing out a few words. You don't speak a spell, you chant it. That implies tone and inflection are just as important as the words themselves. As Arkon said, there should be a very high failure for trying to cast with a disguised voice. The problem is, failure for this isn't built into NWN, and who wants to fail a spell during CvC? So, to avoid arguments *disguised voice* casting is considered cheesing, and silent spell is the way to go.

Of course, here, Arkon has the final say.

[Rudiki]

I don't have any agenda or opinion on this one way or another, and am perfectly happy with whatever the ruling is, but I had a couple thoughts (no congratulations, please!) so here they are:

More often than not, the very noticeable accents of singers are not apparent when they sing. I suspect this would be the same with casters, making it harder to recognize the voice of someone who is spellcasting versus just talking normally.

I'd also think a person who had heard the caster in question actually cast spells before as himself would have a much better chance of recognizing his spellcasting voice, which may be quite different from his normal speaking voice.

I also think players should be able to take into account their characters known strengths and weaknesses in this regard. For instance, someone very adept at casting the same spells might be able to recognize that the disguised person is, for whatever reason, voicing the spell in an odd, careful way, and be suspicious. Or I know that Soleis was blind for some time and learned IC to use his ears to recognize voices very well, and that has become something Akai now RPs as a talent for that character.

[blue wolfy]

i think characters with very high 'listen' skill should be able to tell disquised voices easier as they would be more atentive to tone and valume as well as voice.

[Arkon]

I'm going to go with Silver and the Avlis policy on this one.

*gives Silver his Arkon Stamp of Approval*