Readying a Silence Spell?

[Ogrork the Mighty]

If you ready an action to cast a silence spell 5 feet behind an enemy spell caster with the trigger being the enemy spell caster beginning to cast a spell, what happens? (assuming the enemy's spell has a Verbal component)

Technically I think the readied action takes place before the enemy's spell is cast so the enemy caster would know that the area is now silenced but can the enemy caster then change his mind and not cast a spell? Or is he already committed?

 

[Vegepygmy]

He's committed. The whole point of the Ready action is to interrupt an enemy's action. If he could just change his action, you couldn't disrupt spellcasting by inflicting damage, either.

 

[irdeggman]

He's committed. The whole point of the Ready action is to interrupt an enemy's action. If he could just change his action, you couldn't disrupt spellcasting by inflicting damage, either.

Or counterspell.

But yes it technically takes place right before the action that invokes it.

From the SRD

Readying an Action: You can ready a standard action, a move action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. Then, any time before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character’s activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action.

Since spellcasting is part of another creature's actions - if he is casting a spell without a verbal component he can continue to do so, if not the spell fails.

 

[cdrcjsn]

Grats. You've discovered how our 3rd level party was able to beat what was supposed to be a 12th level recurring villain

But yeah. Everyone capable of casting silence should have this available at all times for this purpose. Get a scroll even (or three).

 

[irdeggman]

Grats. You've discovered how our 3rd level party was able to beat what was supposed to be a 12th level recurring villain

But yeah. Everyone capable of casting silence should have this available at all times for this purpose. Get a scroll even (or three).

You can't ready casting a spell from a scroll, unless you have the scroll out and ready to be read at all times - it (normally) takes a move action to get a scroll out and a standard action to cast a spell from it (depending on the casting time of said spell).

 

[Vegepygmy]

Grats. You've discovered how our 3rd level party was able to beat what was supposed to be a 12th level recurring villain

Was he a retarded 12th level recurring villain?

 

[Dandu]

Bard's have to make sounds to cast their spells, but pretty much every other spellcaster should have a way around Silence by level 12.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Bard's have to make sounds to cast their spells, but pretty much every other spellcaster should have a way around Silence by level 12.

Thankfully, Spell Compendium gave Bards the Joyful Noise spell, so a simple Silence effect doesn't have to be their kryptonite. But yeah, no primary caster should be crippled by Silence by level 12.

 

[UltimaGabe]

Bard's have to make sounds to cast their spells, but pretty much every other spellcaster should have a way around Silence by level 12.

The easiest thing to do would be to, you know, move out of the Silence effect. As long as it's not cast directly on him (which would allow a save, thus making it close to useless) there's nothing stopping him from just moving out of the area and casting the rest of his spells normally.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

It depends on the environment. In cramped quarters of some dungeon rooms, a Bard may not have an easy time getting out of the Silenced area if there are enemies blocking off escape.

Otherwise, yeah, just move somewhere else.

It would be rather funny if someone gave the party Rogue a pebble with Silence cast on it and then he tried to sneak up on an enemy caster and offensively use Sleight of Hand to hide the pebble on said caster's person before he could realize what was going on.