Hiding Magic

[Kalaxx]

Not sure if the site is dead... but I'll give it a shot. 

Running a midnight campaign in 5e.  Using some of the excellent conversion work here, but have a quick question. 

I remember back when I played the setting in 3.5, there was a feat that could be used to lower the casting level to help hide spells from Astiraxes.  Or at least... I think there was.  My DM might have made it up.  Can someone clarify the mean of hiding actual spellcasting from Izrador? 

[Luiniel Blades]

What your DM was most likely referring to was the Ritual Caster Feat.

It requires the Channeler to not only have the prerequisite spell-casting feat and know the spell, but they must also learn a ritual version of the spell which takes up one of their available slots for learning spells. That said, it's well worth it, in my opinion.  Among the abilities that the casters can accomplish are utilizing various metamagic abilities, such as extend spell, Widen spell, enlarge spell, Heighten spell, ect. Even if the Channeler's involved don't have those feats.

For every point of Spell energy cost in the spell, base cost plus any modifications to the spell, it takes 10 minutes to cast and upon completion it doesn't drain spell energy like a normal spell, it instead takes the life force of all casters involved. It deals an equal amount of constitution damage to them. The dangerous part of this is that if anyone involved with the spell-casting process messes up the spell while it's being cast, whether it's from damage, becoming distracted, becoming scared and running away or anything else that requires a concentration check and they miss it, the spell fails and the constitution damage is dealt immediately to all involved.

For each point of Spellcasting ability modifier they have, the caster may have a ritual assistant. This allows them to add additional effects, even stacking the same affect multiple times, and allows for a 'no effect' option, which ultimately reduces the amount of spell energy/ and therefore time and constitution damage all Channelers involved take. To a minimum of 0, but the spell still takes a minimum of 10 minutes to cast.

For each assistant to participate, they must each have the spell known and be at least the minimum caster level required to cast the spell. They do not need to have the ritual caster feat or the ritual version of the spell.

I think there is at least one more thing you can do with it but I'm blanking on it right now. I'll check when I get home but someone else could check me on that.

It's actually a wonderful feat to have, especially if you're running low on spell energy and need to cast some low level spell and all you have is time. Normally the spell energy cost cannot be reduced any way outside of having additional assistants, such as through Spell talismans or the Wizard or Druid Prestige classes abilities, but I'd play it a bit more flexible.

[Luiniel Blades]

 And then there's the Scentless Spell meta-magic feat. It adds 3 to the cost of the spell Energy for the spell and makes it unable to be detected by Astiraxes and such. Can't believe I forgot about that one.