D&D 5E Bats and Silence

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Bit of an odd one...

Faced with an angry colony of bats, one of my players cast Silence on the basis that their echolocation wouldn't work, and so they'd get confused and fly into one another, the walls, and then the floor.

Not being an expert, this seemed reasonable and 'out of the box', so I went with it*.

Any other interpretations? Does this sound fair to you?

Also, any other similar lateral thinking you guys have come across? Might be fun to share.

*of course, the hunt for non-V spells memorised by the other players was quite fun to watch, and ultimately pretty painful. The bats were helping a vampire, you see.

 

[iserith]

Does this sound fair to you?

Yep.

 

[mellored]

Seems good to me.

Though bats still have eyes. But i like to give benefit for clever ideas.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yes, good ruling. Bats may have Eyes, but if you are suddenly losing half of your senses you rely on while navigating... could bring a swarm to collapse...

 

[Tectuktitlay]

Yes, good ruling. Bats may have Eyes, but if you are suddenly losing half of your senses you rely on while navigating... could bring a swarm to collapse...

Bats actually have decent eyesight, and can fly just fine without sound provided there is enough light to see (and the dimmer the light, the better their vision). That being said, studies actually do show that they crash more often when relying strictly on eyesight. This doesn't mean they perpetually crash or anything without their echolocation, just that they do so a bit higher than normal. They also crash a bit more than normal in bright light, even while using their echolocation. A blind bat echolocating still crashed a little less often than a regular bat in bright light did, and the research seems to point to some sort of hormonal cause; some hormone production switches on in bright light that interferes with their interpreting the incoming sonar pings. In all likelihood, I'd say they'd switch to sight, and get the hell away from the area in the fastest, safest route possible, and not come back. It would likely freak them out quite a bit, and that colony, at least, would avoid your group's party for the rest of that particular excursion. I don't think they'd crash all over the place, though. Just try to leave asap.

 

[Shaghayegh]

They see better in dim lightb than we do, they see badly in daylight because it is too bright for them...

 

[Tony Vargas]

Bit of an odd one...

Faced with an angry colony of bats, one of my players cast Silence on the basis that their echolocation wouldn't work, and so they'd get confused and fly into one another, the walls, and then the floor.

Ah, yes. Magic + Science = Win.

It really depends on your style. If you want to create the feel of a magical world, bats probably don't use sonar, maybe they have blindsight or can see only in the dark, because they were created by some tenebrous bat-god, or because their eyes emit rays that pierce darkness but are blocked by light. If you want a 'realistic' world with magic layered over it, and wish to explore the implications thereof, by all means, deafen bats to blind them.

Does this sound fair to you?

Maybe not exactly 'fair,' depending on how you think of it. Magic already does a lot, mixing magic and science like that lets it do even more. One of the defenses of the classic D&D design of casters having many options and non-casters few is that the latter can 'improvise.' Keeping magic magical (even if that makes it occasionally nonsensical) rather than having it interact beneficially with conveniently-applied scientific realism can make that rationale less invalid.

Also, any other similar lateral thinking you guys have come across? Might be fun to share.

Way too much over the years. It became so common so fast that even the 1e PH and DMG had explanations why certain tricks wouldn't work (why you couldn't use Enlarge/Reduce to 'squeeze someone to death in their armor' for instance).

 

[PnPgamer]

of course.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Bats actually have decent eyesight, and can fly just fine without sound provided there is enough light to see (and the dimmer the light, the better their vision). That being said, studies actually do show that they crash more often when relying strictly on eyesight. This doesn't mean they perpetually crash or anything without their echolocation, just that they do so a bit higher than normal. They also crash a bit more than normal in bright light, even while using their echolocation. A blind bat echolocating still crashed a little less often than a regular bat in bright light did, and the research seems to point to some sort of hormonal cause; some hormone production switches on in bright light that interferes with their interpreting the incoming sonar pings. In all likelihood, I'd say they'd switch to sight, and get the hell away from the area in the fastest, safest route possible, and not come back. It would likely freak them out quite a bit, and that colony, at least, would avoid your group's party for the rest of that particular excursion. I don't think they'd crash all over the place, though. Just try to leave asap.

I still believe, they would be very irritated when they first enter the silence zone. And thus I Imagine, that while flying in a swarm they may get problems. A single bat not so much.

 

[Tectuktitlay]

I still believe, they would be very irritated when they first enter the silence zone. And thus I Imagine, that while flying in a swarm they may get problems. A single bat not so much.

Oh, sure. That's why I'd probably have them just book it the hell out of there. A zone of silence is a place they do not want to be, and it'd also be a weird dead zone to them from outside. Any inside when it hits will be somewhat disoriented and use their eyes to get away. But any bats on the outside? Their pings in the direction of the zone would not return at ALL, and that would likely freak them out enough to make them vacate the area posthaste. They would not go anywhere near a silenced zone.