Feign Magic (Proficiency)

Some characters find it useful to appear to cast magical spells. Perhaps they wish to draw attention to themselves and give a real spellcaster time to cast a spell. They might wish to conceal the identity of a powerful magical item. They might also wish to conceal the presence of a priestly granted power, psionics, or other magic of an unusual nature. Feign Magic relies on a few handy magic-sounding phrases and movements that the caster learns well enough to utilize skillfully and confidently, as if casting a spell that requires somatic and verbal components. The caster mixes these gestures and words and pretends to cast a spell simultaneously while invoking another effect. Normally, no proficiency check is required, since watching a person wave his hands and seeing a magic effect appear afterward is not extraordinary in a fantasy world. Suspicious characters, however, have a chance to discover the chicanery, forcing the character to make a proficiency check. If the check fails, the fraud is revealed and the viewer realizes that no magic spell was cast. He must still use intuition, deductive reasoning, or other means to determine the actual source of the unnatural effects (if any were created by another means).
The die roll is modified by -1 if the watcher is not a spellcaster, +2 if the watcher has the Spellcraft proficiency, +1 if the subject speaks four or more languages (he might recognize some of the words the pretender uses), and -2 if the character using Feign Magic has the Spellcraft proficiency. Other modifiers that are left up to the DM to decide might be invoked if the character uses the proficiency frequently (that is, a Fighter character tries to use Feign Magic every round to divert missiles from the party clerics), the NPCs are alerted to the presence of a fake in the area, or the locals are completely unaware of psionics or variant magic systems and are easily convinced of magic use.
Category:Dragon Magazine Proficiencies