Silence

[FrankTrollman]

Actually, Sonic is an element type in D&D. That's why you can be protected from it with protection from elements.

Zing.

-Frank

 

[Hypersmurf]

Actually, Sonic is an element type in D&D. That's why you can be protected from it with protection from elements.

No, it's an Energy type in D&D. In 3E, Protection from Elements protects you against energy.

In 3.5, Protection from Energy protects you from energy. There is no Protection from Elements in 3.5 - they've matched the name to the effect.

Interestingly, while in 3E, Endure Elements let you endure energy, in 3.5 it lets you endure elements.

-Hyp.

 

[FrankTrollman]

http://www.victoly.com/~infernarl/tehwin.html

-Frank

 

[hong]

Dear Frank,

You are not funny.

Please be funny.

J0r fR3nD,

 

[fusangite]

Dear Frank,

You are not funny.

Please be funny.

J0r fR3nD,

I've never agreed with Hong before.

Nobody's going to answer my question, are they?

 

[Marimmar@Home]

I never thought silence to worded in an unclear way. Cast it on a character and he gets a save, cast it at a point in space and noone gets a save. Even if the players argue about it, the text in the spell description would take precedence over the stat-block entry of the spell according to the errata file.

As for silence being powerful, I have to agree. Last session my players got surrounded in a hallway. The enemy cleric cast silence and suddenly all of the oh so mighty wizards and druids were knocked out of the fight while enemy spell casters rained their spells in.

~Marimmar

 

[Kodam]

Hi!

First to fusangite: As I see it, according to the rules silence stops all sound in the area - no save, no SR. Except if the caster tries to center it on a creature: in this case the target creature has a will save and SR, which negate the spell alltogether.



Ok, maybe I was wrong on the action type: I do agree now that someone can cast a spell after walking out.

But since I'm not talking about a fight in the fields but about a fight in a dungeon: just imagine a typical dungeon room. How much space will be "loud" after the silence is cast? And won't the "loud" space be right in front of the "silencing party"? Would your mage really like to walk there?

Situation: Enemy (E) has won Init against Player (P).
Round 1: E acts as it pleases him (-> E ist sculpting the fight) ; P casts silence
Round 2: E HAS to dispel the silence (assuming he can't safely move out which is very likely the case in a dungeon); now P can act as it pleases him! (-> now P's in charge!)

What I just was trying to say was, that you can force the enemy to react to YOUR actions rather than acting himself. But perhaps I'm overestimating this...


Silence counters all spells with the casting time of one full round with no chance to fail since you can't move 30 ft. while you concentrate on casting a spell, right?

This second level spell requires you as a caster to take one feat and invest a 4th level slot on mid levels or even a 7th level slot (silent greater dispelling) on high levels because a mere dispel magic won't be enough at caster level 17 or so...

Silence IS quite powerful in all dungeons! And that's why I think there should a save at least for this second level spell.

Kodam

 

[green slime]

This problem whereby the low level PC wizard realises he has been struck by a clerical silence spell, and realises he just has to wander off in one direction for a mere 15 feet in order to regain full spellcasting powers is a consequence of magic being so inflexible in DnD.

Even twice Widened Silence (if you allow such things), an 8th spell, only covers 30 feet radius.

IMO, there should always be a level of uncertainity regarding such things. The players shouldn't really know the amount die rolled for the fireball, and he shouldn't be so sure that he only needs a mere 15 feet of movement to escape the silence, either.

A 5 feet-radius/level, max 50 feet (at twentieth level) would make things far more interesting, IMO.

 

[Darklone]

Hi!

First to fusangite: As I see it, according to the rules silence stops all sound in the area - no save, no SR. Except if the caster tries to center it on a creature: in this case the target creature has a will save and SR, which negate the spell alltogether.

SR applies even in your first case as I already said.

SPELL RESISTANCE
Spell resistance is the extraordinary ability to avoid being
....
When Spell Resistance Applies
...
Area Spells: Spell resistance applies if the resistant creature is within the spell’s area. It protects the resistant creature without affecting the spell itself.

 

[DM2]

This problem whereby the low level PC wizard realises he has been struck by a clerical silence spell, and realises he just has to wander off in one direction for a mere 15 feet in order to regain full spellcasting powers is a consequence of magic being so inflexible in DnD.

Even twice Widened Silence (if you allow such things), an 8th spell, only covers 30 feet radius.

IMO, there should always be a level of uncertainity regarding such things. The players shouldn't really know the amount die rolled for the fireball, and he shouldn't be so sure that he only needs a mere 15 feet of movement to escape the silence, either.

A 5 feet-radius/level, max 50 feet (at twentieth level) would make things far more interesting, IMO.

All of those would be good ways to add to the flavor and enhance the mystery.

It would also add more things for the DM to keep up with, unfortunately. With the shear number of magical effects used in most combats, imagine trying to keep track of who is still in or out of a variable diameter silence spell without letting the players know where the actual bounds are...

That said, its probably a great idea to have custom or unusually metamagicked versions of these spells used against the players sometimes, to foil their book-learned sense of how to dodge those oh-so-normal traps.

DM2