The Gaming Den

originally posted to GitP's Boards, and posted here by way of Nifty

SRD Section on Assassin PrC wrote:
An assassin casts spells just as a bard does.

SRD Section on Bards wrote:
Every bard spell has a verbal component (singing, reciting, or music)

SRD Section on Feats, specifically Silent Spell wrote:
Special: Bard spells cannot be enhanced by this metamagic feat.

So, given the above:

1. Can Assassins make use of the Silent Spell Feat?

2. Do assassins have to sing a little song with every spell they cast? This would seem to interfere with their tough guy image.

Yeah, yeah. I know. Bards and Assassins suck, so this shouldn't ever come up, but work with me here.

Game On,
fbmf

1. No. Bard spells can not be silenced. Assassins cast their spells as if they were bards (read: as if they could not be silenced).

2. Yes. Bards have to sing to cast. Assassins cast their spells as if they were bards (read: as if they had to sing to cast).

3. Looks like someone thought he was doing the assassina favor by letting him cast spells spontaneously. Why not "as a sorcerer though"?

Casting as a Bard in 3.5 is supposed to allow them to cast spells in light armor without penalty. But... yeah, it really makes them suck. Hard.

-Username17

1. Not technically, no. Though in Lute & Loot I think there was a feat called "Disguise Spell" that at least kept people from knowing you were casting a spell while "performing."

2. No. The quoted SRD text includes a parenthetical note of examples. On of those is "reciting," which, in theory, means that an Assassin's favorite tag line could be something akin to: Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio... right before stabbing the proverbial Yorick's eyes out.

3. I'm betting that it was what Frank said - to keep the arcane spell failure away. Unfortunately, that ability isn't listed under the description of Bardic casting; it's listed under the description of Weapon and Armor Proficiencies.