Ventriloquism

[Grand Poobah]

From the SRD:



Ventriloquism
Illusion (Figment)
Level: Brd 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, F
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: Intelligible sound, usually speech
Duration: 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: Will disbelief (if interacted with)
Spell Resistance: No
You can make your voice (or any sound that you can normally make vocally) seem to issue from someplace else. You can speak in any language you know. With respect to such voices and sounds, anyone who hears the sound and rolls a successful save recognizes it as illusory (but still hears it).

Focus
A parchment rolled up into a small cone.

Context - If my NPC bard already has invisibility, greater cast on them but will be using perform (sing) to inspire courage during the fight. To pinpoint an invisible person's location using listen is a DC 20 (some adjustments likely for distance, distraction etc) but some of the party have high spot/listen. Plus it's a free action to use listen for this purpose so someone will roll 20+ at some point.

I'm inclined to say the real bard's location is still obfuscated even if someone knows the sound is illusory. However, is there any clarification anywhere on whether people who successfully save know where the real sound is coming from?

Thanks

[Fizban]

It's not in the FAQ at any rate. It takes more than passive sensory information to count as interaction though, so there's no save unless they're faced with proof or you decree they've carefully studied it (a nice rule for this is making an active spot or listen check, which is a move action). The existence of magic makes it hard to tell what sort of sensory inputs should be "proof" of anything, but there are plenty of non-magical ways sound can be weird (I could swear there used to be a skill check to throw your voice) and its quite believable that the sound could simply be coming from an invisible person at the location you're having Ventriloquism come from. So they probably need more proof than just "there's no-one there."

At that point, after taking an action and making the save, I'd say they should be able to hear the source as well as recognizing the fake.