Spellcasting Roleplay Thread

What are your thoughts on roleplaying spellcasting with the new rule?

Previously, with the ten-second concentration for healers (my only caster list), I'd been roleplaying it by dropping my accent and, in a low voice, describing the effect of the healing spell. Players could roleplay their reactions as they wished. With the five-second window, I've been looking at playing around with actual verbals mixed with that same kind of roleplay, as it fits the situation. (In the middle of a battle, I won't dwaddle, but back at the Inn I'll probably put a few extra seconds of roleplay into it.)

With the full update, I'm looking at taking shaman. Since my character has been living with barbarians since the founding of Travance, and we're using Old English a lot for linguistic inspiration, I translated the phrase "I summon the power of [element]" into Old English as Ic gebann se rice mid . . ., and then I'll add another word for the appropriate domain. Frithgeard (planar), aethm (air), erda (earth), aeled (fire), and aeweilm (water). I've been practicing it (I actually made it a daily on my Habitica app), and by the time we get to the update I should have both the words and the five-second timing down.

Now, for any Old English scholars, I know that sentence isn't 100% correct. But I picked alternate words that would sound right while also not sounding too much like modern English, and adjusted the rhythm of the sentence to come out as extra arcane.

What are your plans for verbals? What about gestures? Will you adjust based on different lists, or by domain, or by situation?

Very interesting using Old English. You do Tolkien proud.
I'm not sure about other priests, but as a Valosian with my hierarchical Church linked to the historical Empire of Kormyre and its subsequent kingdom, Latin would seem to do well with verbals. There would be a few key verbs used in a good number of priest prayers (protect, guard, resist, strike, enhance, heal, banish) and some common direct objects (shield, weapon, armament, soul, battle, divine, damage). My Latin is not good enough to wing it, but putting an ending of -us, -um, -am, or -oribus on words that are "close enough" would suffice IG. It is a game after all. Maybe even chanting the verbals using a simple Gregorian Chant tone might be good role playing. As far as gestures, the well known of image of a medieval priest making the sign of the cross would probably not go well. I wouldn't feel right doing it because it is - after all - a game. Perhaps simply holding ones hand over the recipient might work.
These were my thoughts on the new rules. Any other ideas for priest prayers?
My fallback will always be the previous verbals , especially in the heat of a battle when one reacts more than thinks.

Well, if you're already considering putting any chant in there, and you're doing something damaging, what about the "Dies Irae"? (Mind you, that's Cat's suggestion, I'm just stealing it.)

For other Latin with a bit of chanting, Easter hymns tend to have some good-sounding parts that may work for priestly spells that won't be too common, but you may still be familiar with yourself; and, somewhat importantly, aren't completely inappropriate to bring in to a game like this.

From my perspective, though, it would be a fun challenge to find and memorize Latin references. If you want some help with that, I'm sure both I and Cat would be willing to pitch in, both with finding words and also figuring out what sounds good.

And thanks for the Tolkien compliment.

You can always look at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases for inspiration, of course.

For my part, I've been invoking Brazen's Name as part of the casting of the prayer, crafting (see what I did there?) the wording to fit the prayer...

blessed armor: "May Brazen grant you the Armor to resist your foes.... Blessed Armor"
Mend: "Brazen requires that The Broken should be Fixed... Mend

Then something semi-freeform for non-creation prayers

Aid/Prowess/Warblade: "Brazen says sometimes one needs an edge to Get It Done... (insert prayer here)"
Banishment: "Brazen says things like you should not be- BANISHMENT" or something appropriate.

When I cannot come up with something appropriate to say/use, I go with the previous casting methods except with any prayer that is Rank 4... I stick with the traditional words for all six of htose I have; For all the free thinking Brazen encourages, Tradition is a Thing. After all, if you forget what came before, how can you improve upon it?

A thought that I had for casting was to take inspiration from Avatar the Last Airbender. The caster could use exaggerated movements.

I have a set of universal verbals for Edwin's mage list, but I am also employing some which are specific to the spell, i.e., "Let thine be mine. Drain Life 25." For Rank I spells, "I bring forth SPELL NAME." For evocations, I perform some hand motions.

It is still evolving.