Is it socially acceptable for a cleric to take <6 seconds to cast/pray for Guidance right in front of someone before...

Is it socially acceptable for a cleric to take

Yes.

My GM would probably say no.

I'd say it would depend on whether or not the relevant parties know that he is not just praying to his God as clerics will do, but specifically calling for power.

I imagine that the Divine magic of clerics often gets a pass. Like, casting guidance might literally be the cleric pausing and saying "Pelor grant me wisdom" under his breath. Casting Divine Flame may be a shouted denunciation of evil "Let the sun burn away your evil, beast of darkness!"

Either way, I think in most cases observers will understand that while a cleric has some form of divine power, that power is an investiture from a god. I think the big difference between a cleric and the average petitioner of a god is that the cleric is given the ability to bend a god's ear to have an immediate answer to their faith. Most people would not view this in the same way as, say the Spell Charm Person because Charm Person is magically compelling a mindset and is the direct and possibly malign influence of a caster. Guidance by comparison will look like a dude praying and then saying exactly what you needed to hear to convince you.

my general opinion on it is to use it whenever the you could reasonably get away with a 3-4 second pause in a conversation.

I'm not aware of any priests who'll pray for five seconds right after you ask him for advice or his opinion on the topic.

I'd say it's cancelled out by the person you're trying to persuade being distracted or annoyed by how overzealous you're being unless it's someone who shares the same faith as you, in which case I'd say you're already getting a charisma bonus depending on what you're talking about.

A silent prayer is indistinguishable from a thoughtful pause.
You might want to tell your GM.

Guidance has verbal and somatic components though.

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Probably not.

Taking a few moments to pray (not! for casting) at semi-random times or breaks in conversation would probably make it a but less conspicuous though.
And what you say in the prayers probably matters a lot to.

I always imagined cleric spells as something to the general effect of directly asking your god to resolve your problem.
Maybe with a little more pomf then that, but not any more complicate dthan quoting a relevant and blatant parable.

At any rate, asking god to help you with a conversation in front of the person you're conversing with would probably leave a bad impression.
Unless that was the cultural norm, I guess.

Absolutely not. Most people can't identify spells as they are being cast, and if someone suddenly casts a spell without warning they'll assume it's a hostile act.

>the casting of every spell looks like someone drawing a glowing pentagram in the air with their fingers and chanting "ala abzul shyub niggurath"
Guidance probably just looks like someone clasping their hands together and saying "God help me please."

The assumption that all spells look like some weird shit spoken in satanic tongues is why I assume that my GM wouldn't allow it and I don't attempt it.

Imagine you live in a setting where God and Jeebus and Friends are real. Before you stands a man chosen by Jeebus and granted superpowers by him. Would you be offended if they prayed to Jeebus before talking to you?

Not really. It would seem natural.

It might not TECHNICALLY be a faux pas, but I'm pretty sure it'd make whoever you're talking to more suspicious unless they already trust you.

DM: describe what you are doing

>then determine if it is socially acceptable

"I cast X" is not roleplaying

>"God, don't let me make a bad first impression."
Too late.

Your a cleric people should expect you to stop and pray every now and again.

Now if you were a knight rampant or something it may be weird.

First day on the Internet?

>I'm not aware of any priests who'll pray for five seconds right after you ask him for advice or his opinion on the topic.
I mean, if your specifically asking the cleric for advice, would you even object to the cleric casting Guidance before answering?

If anything, I think you'd be grateful that they'd use their divine investiture on your behalf.
In fact, their ability to cast Guidance would probably be the reason you'd ask them for advice in the first place.

>At any rate, asking god to help you with a conversation in front of the person you're conversing with would probably leave a bad impression.
>Unless that was the cultural norm, I guess.
The second point is the more salient one, I think.

Given a society in which clerics have direct and observable interaction with their god, I imagine people would just take it for granted that of course the cleric would pray before doing damn near anything, and wouldn't be offended by it.

Also, imagine that in addition to clerics and other divine spellcasters that the world also contains wizards and sorcerers--magic users who'd gladly combine spiders and dragons to create eight-legged dragons or enchant their broom-closets to attack intruders or turn their waiter into a mouse because they got their order wrong.

I'd imagine most people would be damned appreciative that clerics frequently cast guidance and similar spells.

You know, I hear a lot about crazy wizards doing unethical magic and creating horrifying bullshit hybrid species, but has anyone ever played with a system that let you do that?

I've played an exalted game with a Solar who loved herself Science of Mutation, Craft(Genesis) and the various Social charms.

She was a terrible, terrible person with zero respect for people as they were. Somehow the group didn't realize that despite my best efforts because they bought into her in-character justifications (When her actual moral compass more just pointed at whatever she thought was interesting)

5e's True Polymorph can still be permanent and probably breeds some twisted shit.