Silence counterspell?

[RangerWickett]

GoI,L&GoI work just out fine.

What is that?

 

[Black Knight Irios]

GoI=Globe of Invulnerability
GoI,L=Globe of Invulnerability, Lesser

 

[Majere]

Just to agree with a few other people.
Our group uses silence all the time, very sneaky-beaky campeign.
We throw silences at casters too.
Its great.. for like a round
1) Even at relatively higher levels (10-13th) there are alot of decent second level buffs, few people will take more than 2/3 silences.
2) Even with a wnd of silence its taking a spell caster out for a whole ombat to sit an do not alot
3) If you have a problem with cohorts, dont allow spell casting cohorts ? It not like you cant buy a wand of dispel magic and do the same thing even if you house rule silence.
4) Any decent magic user has a rod of metamagic (silence) and/or silence spells prepared.

But more than the above, in confined spaces its not a practical solution because it covers the party too. If you happen to be fightings in the middle of a field then the caster has to move yes, but it you are in a house or a corridor, there might not be much room, and the party itself may be in silence and thus its caster in similar problems. Our currnet campeign has alot of confined combat, and in these situations the party itself usually ends up under the silence and unable to heal.

Just my 2c
Majere

 

[Scion]

I fail to see exactly what the problem is with repeatedly casting to delay mages.Sure this gets the mage out of the equation,but it also takes the Silence caster out of the equation too,since he has to devote every single round in Counterspelling his opponent.

Casting a single 2nd level spell and potentially being able to completely negate a caster for the entire length of the battle? You can have a follower do it, or some creature trained to do so.

A second level spell that can counter any level of spell with almost no chance of failure is 'bad'.

 

[Scion]

What is the logic behind a readied action taking place before the action you respond to?
If a standard action is a standard action, why would the one that is readied take half a second less time to complete?

Combat abstraction. Doesnt have to make sense, which is unfortunate, but that is how the game works. I usually just assume that the readied action begins all of the prelim portions of the casting and so it actually takes something like a full second less. So the readied spell goes off at 2:30 rather than 3:30.

 

[Scion]

But if there each and every square is silenced then communication is impossible as well

Nonverbal communication? If the party knows it will be a problem then they each have a continual flame somewhere on their body with a cloth covering it, if they are in trouble they rip it off (free action). Lots of battles are hectic, and possibly too 'noisy' to hear shouts or actually hear what is said, so this would be a good tactic either way.

BBEG who let's himself trick with silence, does not deserve the 'BB' only the 'EG'. GoI,L&GoI work just out fine. And who will ever have a silence heightened to 5th level.

Globe and minor globe? (sorry, lesser)

So a short duration, immoble, vocal component spell. Good luck getting that going.

 

[Scion]

We throw silences at casters too.
Its great.. for like a round

Hey grapple guy, I am going to cast silence on you, you go grapple that mage over there.

Hey cohort, whenever any caster is about to cast a sepll point this lantern at them and open the hood. Or take this tanglefoot bag and toss it at them. or...

Grappling and tanglefoot bags with silence pretty much means death for a caster. Sortof like a low level antimagic field that only works one way.

 

[Spatula]

I fail to see exactly what the problem is with repeatedly casting to delay mages.Sure this gets the mage out of the equation,but it also takes the Silence caster out of the equation too,since he has to devote every single round in Counterspelling his opponent.

The problem is that it makes regular counterspelling (or ad-hoc counterspelling with dispel magic) useless. Either way, the counterspeller is taken out of the equation, but the only other counters-everything spell is dispel, which is third level and doesn't always work.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Maybe I'm just seeing an overly simple solution here that everyone has already discussed in other threads and proven is fallible, but...

Why not just change Silence so that whenever something enters the area of effect, it gets SR and a Will save? That way if it's targetted on an object, casters still get a save. Failure means you're affected by the area of silence for the duration of the spell - you can move out and cast normally, but if you try moving back in, you're silenced (since you already failed the save).

Seems both simple and elegant to me, and reduces the spell's power without completely neutering it (though most spellcasters have good Will saves).

 

[Nightingale 7]

The problem is that it makes regular counterspelling (or ad-hoc counterspelling with dispel magic) useless. Either way, the counterspeller is taken out of the equation, but the only other counters-everything spell is dispel, which is third level and doesn't always work.

Yes,but the other spells you use for counterspelling can also be used actively.You may use a fireball to counter the rival mage's fireball,OR to char the mage's minions,while Silence is pretty much a dead slot versus a non-spellcasting opponent.I can see how a wand of Silence may prove problematic,but that is sound tactics,as is the silenced monk grappling the wizard's ass off.At higher levels Quickened spells can bypass this,since the rival mage can attempt to cast or maybe feign casting,then move away from the silenced area and cast his quickened spell.

If the rival mage has Silent Metamagic he can bypass Silence with some spells.If I was a mage fearing Silence(who doesn't?) I'd prepare a Silent Summon Monster and let him deal with the annoyance,and focus my other spells on the opponents.


If he is a sorcerer with Silent metamagic then Silence is pretty useless.

In the end,I see a lot of "if's" for the spell to work at "broken" efficiency,and would rather leave it as is.It's a pretty narrow spell,so it can get away with higher power level for his actual level,since it depends on many circumstances.