spells and awareness

[Whisker89]

Hi everybody!

This could be a question just for Newt, but 1) I would like to hear everyone's thought about it 2) I may have missed the proper point in the book where the thing's explained... So here's my question:

do I notice if I'm being affected by a "non visible" spell / someone tried to use a spell on me? with "non visible" I'm referring to something less obvious than a fireball or something like it.

I'll make an example: if my rogue-style character hidden in the darkness casts a Hinder (perception) spell on a city guard and the guard resists, does she notice that a spell has been cast on her? would the guard be alarmed? or just shrug off?

Best regards and good games to everyone

[Jakob]

I'd consider it a question of whether the guard has reason to suspect anything going in; usually, I'd say that the guard probably feels some queasiness or a short clouding of her vision, shakes it off (if she resists) and doesn't give it a second thought ("maybe I shouldn't have eaten that cold chicken from the day before ...").

[Newt]

Its an area I left deliberately vague and up to the GM and their players. Its a matter of what fits your group's play style and the setting you are playing in.

If you are playing magic subtle the guard may never notice, even on a fumble. Conversely if you are playing it so that each time a spell is cast it gives off obvious whizz bangs of magic, which only overlooked (in the case of deceptive magic) if the target is successfully effected, the guard will notice if the spell fails to effect them. That's the two extremes and most groups will fall in between, which is why I didn't strictly define this in OpenQuest.