Does Silence affect Tremorsense?

[Shampoohorn]

??

 

[Sejs]

Nope. Silence negates sound, Tremorsense senses vibration. D&D says these are two different things.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

To look at it a different way:

Sound is vibrations in the air. Negated by Silence.

Tremors are vibrations in the ground. Not negated by Silence.

So Tremorsense, which picks up on vibrations in the ground, is not negated by Silence, which only stops vibrations in the air.

However, Fly does negate Tremorsense. There aren't any tremors in the ground if you aren't touching it.

 

[JChung2003]

Sound is vibration in any material medium, including but not limited to air.

For instance, sound travels in water. It actually travels quite well in water -- consider sonar.

I would rule that it affects the tremorsense special ability, but I haven't seen anything in the rules that favors either interpretation.

 

[LokiDR]

Sound is vibration in any material medium, including but not limited to air.

For instance, sound travels in water. It actually travels quite well in water -- consider sonar.

I would rule that it affects the tremorsense special ability, but I haven't seen anything in the rules that favors either interpretation.

Sound is a sub-set of vibration: vibration that is audible or nearly audible. I can vibrate my hand, but that isn't sound.

D&D doesn't make a clear distinction about vibration and sound, but tremorsense is not consider a sonic sense like some forms of blindsight. If tremorsense was stopped by silence, it should state that in the ability, which it doesn't.

 

[Sejs]

Sound is vibration in any material medium, including but not limited to air.

For instance, sound travels in water. It actually travels quite well in water -- consider sonar.

I would rule that it affects the tremorsense special ability, but I haven't seen anything in the rules that favors either interpretation.

It's been said by the sage that silence doesn't interact with tremorsense. Silence doesn't halt all vibration inside it's area.. the implications if it did would go waaaay beyond just not being able to hear or sense something.

It's one of those "Check your science at the door, this here's magic" kinda situations.

 

[Caliban]

The Line of Effect for Silence stops at the first barrier. The surface of the ground is sufficient to break the LOE for Silence, and thus the spell can't affect sound/vibration beneath the surface, while creatures with Tremorsense can still perceive it.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The Line of Effect for Silence stops at the first barrier.

Heyyy... so if I had a sealed helmet with a window - spaceman style - could I still cast spells with verbal components within a Silence spell?

That sounds like quite a cool idea for a magic headband, actually - press the gem in the centre, and it forms a barrier around your face, Batmobile-armour style - that allows you to breathe underwater or cast in a Silence spell...

-Hyp.