Fast help for sonic damage!

[IceBear]

Yes, but as I pointed out on the other thread (Sean's rant on invisibility) invisibility is also an illusion and it doesn't affect people's senses, just the way light interacts with the spell.

IceBear

 

[Macbrea]

Does silence bend sound, so that a persons preceptions of it are altered?

 

[IceBear]

I bring that up because many people think Invisibilty works by influencing your mind because it's an illusion. I was just trying to point out that some illusions don't actually affect you at all.

Silence is a Glamer.

Glamer: A glamer spell changes a subject's sensory qualities, making it look, feel, taste, smell, or sound like something else, or even seem to disappear.

In the case of a silence spell, the glamer is nullifying all the sound in the area of affect (making it sound like nothing). The only concern I have is with the "seem to disappear" bit.

IceBear

 

[Xarlen]

Silence is a Glamer.

Glamer: A glamer spell changes a subject's sensory qualities, making it look, feel, taste, smell, or sound like something else, or even seem to disappear.

If a Glamer changes the subject's sensory qualities, then it is basicly making the subject unable to hear/speak. So, how is that stopping a spell's sound? The sound is there, you just can't hear it.

 

[Darklone]

Another point of view. This whole talk has started about something from none corerule books: Energy substitution.

If you look at the corebooks, sonic spells that do damage are considerably weaker than other energy spells of the same level. IMHO that's to balance that there are so few resistances or immunities against it, otherwise sonic energy would rock, as it does now with the noncorerulestuff.

Silence killing all sonic energy attacks is nothing to discuss since there are no corerule spells that would endanger that balance.

So what we essentially talk about is: Is energy substitution (sonic) balanced? IMHO: no. That's the problem. So if any sorcerer or wizard in my games want to learn something like this, I would ask him to research a sonic spell.

Byebye Feat.

 

[Xarlen]

Here's something else. Look at the Silence spell. It says sonic attacks. It gives spesific mention of the Horn of blasting.

From the SRD:

This horn appears to be a normal trumpet. It can be sounded as a normal horn, but if the command word is spoken and the instrument is then played, it has the following effects, both of which happen at once:

A 100-foot cone of sound issues forth from the horn. All within this area must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 16). Those who succeed are stunned for 1 round and deafened for 2 rounds. Those failing the saving throw take 1d10 points of damage, are stunned for 2 rounds, and are deafened for 4 rounds.
An ultrasonic wave 1 foot wide and 100 feet long issues from the horn. The wave weakens such materials as metal, stone, and wood. This effect deals 1d10 points of damage to objects within the area, ignoring their hardness.
If a horn of blasting is used magically more than once in a given day, there is a 10% cumulative chance with each extra use that it explodes and deals 5d10 points of damage to the person sounding it.

Nowhere does it mention Sonic Damage. It says Damage. But it doesn't give a descripter of Sonic Damage. The base spell that is used to create it, Shout, does not give a Sonic Damage descriptor.

Look at Fireball, Cone of Cold, Lightning Bolt, etc. They all say they do Fire, Cold, Electricity damage. Shout does not Spesify what the damage is.

The spell prevents Sound attacks. Bardic abilities, harpy cries, they all require the person to Hear the attack, just like a Language comprehension spell.

 

[IceBear]

If a Glamer changes the subject's sensory qualities, then it is basicly making the subject unable to hear/speak. So, how is that stopping a spell's sound? The sound is there, you just can't hear it.

The subject of the silence spell is the sound in an area, not a person. If you read the description of a glamer it says it affects the sensory qualities of the subject making *it* look, sound, feel, etc like something else. It doesn't say it makes you see or hear something else. That's an important difference.

As a point, invisibility is also a glamer, but a creature whose mind cannot be affected still can't see you, because it affects the light coming from you; it never affects the creature looking for you.

IceBear

 

[Caliban]

If a Glamer changes the subject's sensory qualities, then it is basicly making the subject unable to hear/speak. So, how is that stopping a spell's sound? The sound is there, you just can't hear it.

In this case the subject isn't a person. The subject is the sound itself. The sensory quality of all the sound within the area are being altered (into silence).

Otherwise it wouldn't prevent spellcasting with verbal components.

 

[Xarlen]

The subject of the silence spell is the sound in an area, not a person. If you read the description of a glamer it says it affects the sensory qualities of the subject making *it* look, sound, feel, etc like something else. It doesn't say it makes you see or hear something else. That's an important difference.

I don't quite follow. Are you saying that the area can't hear anything? Of course it can't. its' an area, not a thing.

Even so, I don't see how just not being able to hear it in an area would prevent the damage. Using this logic, could you cast a glamer on a rock, to make it feel cold, and thereby cool a bucket of water?

 

[Xarlen]

All right. It alters the sensory of sound, making sound not heard. We've allready established that even if sound isn't heard, it still deals damage.