3.5e Variant sorcerer/wizard help requested

[Chiron]

So, I'm currently working on a campaign in a world where arcane magic is illegal (no, not dark sun), but the arcanists of the world (wizards, sorcerers and bards) still manage to survive by hiding in plain sight, masquerading as something other than what they are. This is to be accomplished by a selection of bonus feats that serve a largely cosmetic purpose, obfuscating or outright masking the spell's appearance in some way.

I think game-wise this may require adding in proficiency with a single martial weapon and light armour for some variants (evokers especially), and making bluff and disguise essential class skills But at the same time I'm unsure what to take away to maintain balance. Although on the subject of proficiencies weapons need not be necessary at all and armour... maybe, maybe not.

Additionally, not really being prone to playing magic-weilders myself I've only got a half complete list of ideas on how to mask the spells so any extra suggestions, especially for school specific feats would be appreciated. The goal is not to conceal ALL magic more the commonly used lower-level spells, some spells are impossible to conceal by their very nature (e.g. enlarge person) and others require little more than cunning on the part of the player to conceal (e.g. spider climb).

A few examples:
{table]School | Feat Name | Description
Illusion | Projection | Any visual illusion you create is projected into the mind of any target of its effect and appears to those affected as a persistent and pervasive thought.
Evocation | Infuse | You may use a weapon as a vector for dealing magical damage (mele or ranged depending on the type of spell) The weapon itself deals no additional damage when used in such a way. you do not need to be proficient with a weapon to use it as a vector any attack roles using a vector are made as normal, ignoring weapon bonuses or penalties for non-proficiency. Weapons with reach may not be used as vectors |
Evocation / Necromancy | Internal Injuries | All damage effects leave no visible markings on the skin of a target
All | Emphasis | You are adept at slipping words of power into normal speech by twisting certain words and juxtaposing the end of one word with the start of another. Persons within hearing radius must succeed on a knowledge arcana chack (DC20) to discern the word |
All | Gait | You are able to disguise somatic components of a spell as seemingly normal (if odd) body movements. Persons within line of sight must succeed on a knowledge arcana chack (DC20) to discern the gesture|
All | Mask Elements | You are able to mask the appearance of one element in a spell to appear as something less-obvious (e.g. the fire of a fireball appears as a sphere of hot air)
? | Serendipity | You are adept at using the local environment to mask the appearance of your spells. Spells which summon area effects into being (i.e. stinking cloud, web) appear to spring from the local environment (a barrel of stagnant water overturns in an alley, a volcanic fissure appears to open in a cave spewing sulphur dioxide etc.)
[/table]

The plan is to give the players the option of choosing a profession to mask their true nature depending on their chosen schools of expertise Evokers can masquerade as town guardsmen or rangers, necromancers hide among clerics, enchanters and illusionists as performers (the bards have been surviving this way for centuries) Transmuters as rogues etc.

What I'm after is suggestions on player (or NPC at a stretch) classes in which each school can hide and ideas for feats which can hide or mask the appearance of certain kinds of spells. These feats should have no effect on anything other than the appearance of a spell and should not duplicate/combine spells or spell like effects themselves (i.e. invisibility with a fly spell is right out)

Any comments, critiques, and suggestions welcome.

[Golden-Esque]

So, I'm currently working on a campaign in a world where arcane magic is illegal (no, not dark sun), but the arcanists of the world (wizards, sorcerers and bards) still manage to survive by hiding in plain sight, masquerading as something other than what they are. This is to be accomplished by a selection of bonus feats that serve a largely cosmetic purpose, obfuscating or outright masking the spell's appearance in some way.

I think game-wise this may require adding in proficiency with a single martial weapon and light armour for some variants (evokers especially), and making bluff and disguise essential class skills But at the same time I'm unsure what to take away to maintain balance. Although on the subject of proficiencies weapons need not be necessary at all and armour... maybe, maybe not.

Additionally, not really being prone to playing magic-weilders myself I've only got a half complete list of ideas on how to mask the spells so any extra suggestions, especially for school specific feats would be appreciated. The goal is not to conceal ALL magic more the commonly used lower-level spells, some spells are impossible to conceal by their very nature (e.g. enlarge person) and others require little more than cunning on the part of the player to conceal (e.g. spider climb).

A few examples:
{table]School | Feat Name | Description
Illusion | Projection | Any visual illusion you create is projected into the mind of any target of its effect and appears to those affected as a persistent and pervasive thought.
Evocation | Infuse | You may use a weapon as a vector for dealing magical damage (mele or ranged depending on the type of spell) The weapon itself deals no additional damage when used in such a way. you do not need to be proficient with a weapon to use it as a vector any attack roles using a vector are made as normal, ignoring weapon bonuses or penalties for non-proficiency. Weapons with reach may not be used as vectors |
Evocation / Necromancy | Internal Injuries | All damage effects leave no visible markings on the skin of a target
All | Emphasis | You are adept at slipping words of power into normal speech by twisting certain words and juxtaposing the end of one word with the start of another. Persons within hearing radius must succeed on a knowledge arcana chack (DC20) to discern the word |
All | Gait | You are able to disguise somatic components of a spell as seemingly normal (if odd) body movements. Persons within line of sight must succeed on a knowledge arcana chack (DC20) to discern the gesture|
All | Mask Elements | You are able to mask the appearance of one element in a spell to appear as something less-obvious (e.g. the fire of a fireball appears as a sphere of hot air)
? | Serendipity | You are adept at using the local environment to mask the appearance of your spells. Spells which summon area effects into being (i.e. stinking cloud, web) appear to spring from the local environment (a barrel of stagnant water overturns in an alley, a volcanic fissure appears to open in a cave spewing sulphur dioxide etc.)
[/table]

The plan is to give the players the option of choosing a profession to mask their true nature depending on their chosen schools of expertise Evokers can masquerade as town guardsmen or rangers, necromancers hide among clerics, enchanters and illusionists as performers (the bards have been surviving this way for centuries) Transmuters as rogues etc.

What I'm after is suggestions on player (or NPC at a stretch) classes in which each school can hide and ideas for feats which can hide or mask the appearance of certain kinds of spells. These feats should have no effect on anything other than the appearance of a spell and should not duplicate/combine spells or spell like effects themselves (i.e. invisibility with a fly spell is right out)

Any comments, critiques, and suggestions welcome.

To be honest, I'm not too sure how fun something like this would be to play. I mean, taking Feats to mask your magic? That seems a little overcomplicated.

If you want a Feat to alter the appearance of your magic, I recommend "Spell Thematics" from the Player's Handbook to Faerun. All it requires is that you know any one Illusion spell, which is pretty easy to manage. It lets you alter the apperance of all your magic spells without changing what they do fundementally. For example, I have a Sorcerer who who knows Force Wave. Since it's a Sea Campaign, the spell Thematics Feat makes his Force Wave look like a crashing wave of water. It was pretty amusing using it before people realized I was a Sorcerer "Wow, lucky wave there, right?"

Actually, we had this big reveal night where our Aquatic Elf Ranger and our Fighter / Rogue were getting into a huge fighter. When they were about to kill each other, our Psychic Warrior Manifested for the first time in the campaign on the boat, and when that didn't stop the psychotic ranger the Sorcerer goes and Tidal Waves him off the boat. :smallcool:. Needless to say, our captain's jaw was on the floor.

Now, if the above story is what you're going for, with people hiding their powers, I'd say instead of going for feats, give your players a good reason to avoid using magic or disguise it. What happens when you break the anti-arcane law? Is it severe enough to warrant hiding? Why aren't high level Wizards marching through the streets, demanding equality and baleful Polymorphing those who think otherwise? In Dark Sun, Arcane Spellcasters (Wizards mostly) were blamed for killing off the planet, which is sort of true. Why do people hate Arcane users in your campaign?

You need to ask yourself stuff like this :P. I know you don't want it to be Dark Sun, but you have to remember that Dark Sun did set a pretty good precedent. There really was nothing like your "hiding magic" feats. If you wanted something, I was suggest something like this:

Exotic Somatic Gestures
In order to hide your Arcane casting, you have trained yourself in how to access your magic without looking obvious. While preparing your spells, you can spend 1 additional hour reading your spell book or meditating in order to substitute the normal hand gestures and movements needed to access your powers with common, generic hand gestures, such as coughing into your fist or giving a thumbs up.

It really shouldn't be complicated or hard to understand, and lets be honest. If you're Evil aligned, you might not even want to mask your powers. You're up for the challenge and enjoy the terror your magic inspires in others >:).