Silly Silence spell trick? (Constraining its emanation to only your square)

[Thikket]

Hi guys. Don't you hate silence?

Silence is an emanation. That means, amongst other things, that "It can’t affect creatures with total cover from its point of origin (in other words, its effects don’t extend around corners)" (from the SRD here).

Say I cast silence on a pebble and put the pebble into a shuttered lantern. Now I can use the lantern to send a "beam" of silence in a cone, right?

Say I use that same silence pebble and construct myself a silly hat: it looks like a fake metal halo with a closed top, attached to my helmet, kind of like an upside-down deep-lip pie tin. Now I look ridiculous. But if I mount that pebble onto the inside of that inverted pie tin, the silence effect ought to extend directly downward, right? And if I have a few Craft(Funky Metal Halo Pie Tin Hats) ranks (with synergy from Profession(Baker)!), I should be able to style the thing so that the silence emanates directly downwards and only affects my square -- after all, everyone else has total cover from the origin point of the emanation.

Now I throw on an invisibility (I'm so scared someone will see my ridiculous hat), and I'm sitting pretty with perfect stealth skills.

Any problems with this, other than the hat is so stupid looking that only gnomes should ever use this trick? Do you hate silence as much as I do?


[Edit: I posted this in General instead of Rules because the hat gives not only -2 Cha, but also -2 Int.; in other words, I am stupid.]

 

[rossik]

well...i kinnda liked the idea.
you can cas in a large halo (or whatever is the name of angels "hats")

 

[Plane Sailing]

Hi guys. Don't you hate silence?

Silence is an emanation. That means, amongst other things, that "It can’t affect creatures with total cover from its point of origin (in other words, its effects don’t extend around corners)"

So... if someone casts silence on a pebble and throws it at a wizard, all the wizard has to do is drop a cape over the pebble and suddenly he is no longer bothered by the silence spell?

 

[rossik]

So... if someone casts silence on a pebble and throws it at a wizard, all the wizard has to do is drop a cape over the pebble and suddenly he is no longer bothered by the silence spell?

...but if u cast silence to a needle, and "inject"it to the wizard?

DAN-DAN DAAAAANNNN!!!

 

[Hypersmurf]

Say I cast silence on a pebble and put the pebble into a shuttered lantern. Now I can use the lantern to send a "beam" of silence in a cone, right?

If the hole is at least one square foot, it doesn't block line of effect. If the hole isn't at least one square foot, it does block line of effect.

"A burst, cone, cylinder, or emanation spell affects only an area, creatures, or objects to which it has line of effect from its origin (a spherical burst’s center point, a cone-shaped burst’s starting point, a cylinder’s circle, or an emanation’s point of origin).

An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square foot through it does not block a spell’s line of effect."

The resolution of emanation spells isn't fine enough to direct like a flashlight.

-Hyp.

 

[Piratecat]

[Edit: I posted this in General instead of Rules because the hat gives not only -2 Cha, but also -2 Int.; in other words, I am stupid.]

I'm like a walking, talking headband of intellect!

Thread moved.

 

[Thikket]

So... if someone casts silence on a pebble and throws it at a wizard, all the wizard has to do is drop a cape over the pebble and suddenly he is no longer bothered by the silence spell?

That was my understanding of the situation, yes! I've seen that counter permitted in-game, but now I'm wondering if it's correct! Considering that the usual response I see is to simply kick the stone back at the thrower (or pick it up and throw it back), the cape-counter sounds like a stylish yet slightly less effective alternative.

My interpretation was that the cape is a solid barrier, which blocks line of effect, and therefore ceases the spell's emanation.

The resolution of emanation spells isn't fine enough to direct like a flashlight.

Aha! I didn't think about line of effect precise wording here. Let me make sure I understand the situation with an example...

Say I mount the silenced pebble to the center of a 3' x 3' wooden board. I upend the board so it is resting on its side, and lay it at the south side of my square. The pebble is elevated and facing north; to the pebble's immediate south is the 3' x 3' board.

My interpretation was that the board counted as a "solid barrier", and blocked line of effect to the south.

Is the small wooden board insufficient to count as a "solid barrier"? Is that because when I trace the corners of the squares, nothing has Total Cover due to the board?

[b]Thikket's probably-wrong interpretation of "solid barrier" and emanations:[/b]
"_" is the square containing the upright wooden board on its south border
  (the [i]silenced[/i] pebble is mounted on the board's north side.)
"x" is a square that has been [i]silenced[/i].
"o" is a square that is unaffected by the [i]silence[/i]


xxxxx
xxxxx
xx_xx
ooooo
ooooo

 

[IceFractal]

Maybe not enough precision for a flashlight effect, but it would be enough for the "Emanation Hat" trick here - the bottom opening could easily be a foot wide.

However, there is one aspect of this trick that may prove problematic. For the hat to provide total cover, not just soft cover, it probably can't be part of a creature. That means it would count as a separate object supported by you, not part of your attended objects. Which means you would need a separate Invisibility for it.


Another trick that works on the same principles. A tower shield blocks most magical effects when used to gain total cover, including Mordenkainen's Disjunction and Antimagic Field.

If you want something a bit fancier that doesn't require a readied action, you can use Contingency + Minor Creation to make a thin wooden cylinder around yourself when a Disjunction or AMF comes your way. Apparently, it can even have view slits smaller than 1', which could be handy.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Is the small wooden board insufficient to count as a "solid barrier"?

Right - the board would need to be 5'x5' (or, at least, 5'x4'10") to count as a solid barrier to line of effect; the 3'x3' barrier is effectively a 5'x5' section of wall with a hole 16 square feet in size - more than enough to permit line of effect beyond the barrier.

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Maybe not enough precision for a flashlight effect, but it would be enough for the "Emanation Hat" trick here - the bottom opening could easily be a foot wide.

But if the bottom opening is a foot wide, then the hat doesn't block line of effect, and the spell will emanate as normal.

-Hyp.