Hopsong
Villager
This is a two part question about the use of a certain spell in a specific situation as well as my handling of it...
(I tried to avoid an outright spoiler but a good player could figure it out so STOP READING unless you want to be spoiled.)
In the final fight in the basement of the Death House, my 2nd level Warlock (with a Great Old One Pact) led off with a Dissonant Whispers spell. The DM read the spell card and said nothing happened. OK. When my initiative came back around (and one party member was already assimilated by the 'Vegetable Borg') I asked the DM for an Arcana check to try to figure out what happened. I rolled high and the DM said it appeared the monster didn't hear the spell and noted that my character doesn't see any ears. I said, "But wait, I have telepathy!" but the DM said, "What are you going to do?" At that point I ran although not far or fast enough, but that's another--horrible, horrible--story.
Rules question: Can a Dissonant Whispers spell ("You whisper a discordant melody that only one creature...can hear, wracking it with terrible pain...") be cast using Awakened Mind ("...your alien knowledge gives you the ability to touch the minds of other creatures. You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see...You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language.")? More specifically, would it work on a monster with Condition Immunity: Deafened?
My handling of it question: Should I have tried to cast the spell again stating that I would do so telepathically? My biggest regret is that my protest about using telepathy was bogus. Probably as a result the DM didn't acknowledge the possibility (or the understanding) of casting it this way. I hate rules lawyering but I've read people on EN World talk about casting Suggestion telepathically and it doesn't seem outrageous. And the party really needed something because, to paraphrase Locutus/Jean Luc, resistance was futile. Since Bolothamog, my Far Realms patron, is not answering my questions I thought I'd ask EN World.
(I tried to avoid an outright spoiler but a good player could figure it out so STOP READING unless you want to be spoiled.)
In the final fight in the basement of the Death House, my 2nd level Warlock (with a Great Old One Pact) led off with a Dissonant Whispers spell. The DM read the spell card and said nothing happened. OK. When my initiative came back around (and one party member was already assimilated by the 'Vegetable Borg') I asked the DM for an Arcana check to try to figure out what happened. I rolled high and the DM said it appeared the monster didn't hear the spell and noted that my character doesn't see any ears. I said, "But wait, I have telepathy!" but the DM said, "What are you going to do?" At that point I ran although not far or fast enough, but that's another--horrible, horrible--story.
Rules question: Can a Dissonant Whispers spell ("You whisper a discordant melody that only one creature...can hear, wracking it with terrible pain...") be cast using Awakened Mind ("...your alien knowledge gives you the ability to touch the minds of other creatures. You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see...You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language.")? More specifically, would it work on a monster with Condition Immunity: Deafened?
My handling of it question: Should I have tried to cast the spell again stating that I would do so telepathically? My biggest regret is that my protest about using telepathy was bogus. Probably as a result the DM didn't acknowledge the possibility (or the understanding) of casting it this way. I hate rules lawyering but I've read people on EN World talk about casting Suggestion telepathically and it doesn't seem outrageous. And the party really needed something because, to paraphrase Locutus/Jean Luc, resistance was futile. Since Bolothamog, my Far Realms patron, is not answering my questions I thought I'd ask EN World.
