Sorry if this has been asked before.

But is there any way of hiding your magic using a skill of some kind? A Slight-of-handy, stealthy kind of skill??? You ought to be able to cast spells while using stealth, right? But what if the target can see the spell caster?

Hope you can help. Thanks

Jack

Characters with astral perception can always see the spell for what it is on the Astral plane. Mundanes typically need to pass a perception test to notice spellcasting. However, depending on the spell, the resulting effects may or may not make it obvious that magic is being used. For example, it's usually pretty easy to tell when someone's been Fireballed. Conversely, it's can be fairly difficult for a mundane to detect when a Mob Mind spell is in effect.

I recall that the TN to notice spellcasting is 10-Force, but I may be extremely wrong. No books. Any book ninjas out there care to pipe in?

You can clean up an astral signature after the fact....

A lot of TNs for magic tests are 10-essence, 10-force, 10-whatever. It isn't a stretch to apply it to this, but I may be wrong.

And of course that would be the base TN.

Yes. Of course, an initiate that casts force 8 to 10 spells has SOME way of hiding this, so the TN would certainly be higher than a 2 with them. A non initiate who pops off a force 8 spell will be pretty blatant.

I recall: 4 + Magic - Force

..and I would allow stealth being used to cast spells in a stealthy way. Even specialized Steatlh (spellcasting)

As for TN for that... hmm.... maybe I would add (Stealth:open test - 4) to the target number.

4 + Magic Attribute - Force is the base TN.

Noticing spellcasting is on SR3.162.

Thanks book ninja!

Thanks for the replies.

So no rules in any of the books besides what's on SR3 pg. 162.

I'll try talking to my GM about some kind of specialized Steatlh (spellcasting) skill.

Thanks again

If they don't notice you in the first place, they probably won't notice your spellcasting (unless it involves singing). Stay out of sight (normal stealth test) and manabolt them from the privacy of a nice oak tree shadow behind them.

Hermetics are always going to have the edge over shamanics in covert spellcasting, if only because of the shamanic mask. It's no biggie at force 1 or 2, but by the time you reach force 5 to 6 your entire face gets covered with an image of your totem. Kind of noticeable