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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hashmalum" data-source="post: 582251" data-attributes="member: 9450">And an ice cube doesn't have the damaging characteristics that cone of cold does. The difference is quantitative rather than qualitative.Actually, it's quite obvious what sonic is--at least to everyone except you. But I do agree that including a new damage type to deal with a handful of spells, and then making it on par with the common damage types of fire, cold, electricity, and acid was a bad idea. Failing to give existing monsters any resistance to the new damage type, thus severely imbalancing it by comparison with the other four, was an even worse idea. And creating the ridiculous and ill-conceived Energy Substitution and Energy Admixture feats just to fill space in a splatbook was the icing on the maggot-ridden cake.Unfortunately, I doubt very much that sonic damage will vanish in the revision after they invented a bunch of new spells and monsters to try and pretend that it is a legitimate damagetype. And, of course, all the munchkins with Energy Substitution (sonic) will whine like whipped puppies. So I intend to make the best of it by keeping sonic damage in line somehow. Recognizing that sonic damage can be prevented by silence helps in that regard, but I'm willing to go above and beyond the basic rules if necessary--which is why I've been following this thread.The description of shatter doesn't mention silence at all. The wall of fire spell doesn't mention the rules for creatures catching on fire, either, even though as a long-duration magical fire, it certainly has the power to do so. The designers didn't always feel the need to spell everything out in simple terms for those who don't apply simple logic. You'll notice, however, that one thing that the shatter spell description DOES mention is that it "creates a loud, ringing noise that shatters brittle, nonmagical objects; sunders a single solid, nonmagical object; or damages a crystalline creature." Silence ensures that, among other othings, "no noise whatsoever issues from, enters, or passes through the area." Shatter works by creating a noise, and silence stops all noise. Ergo, shatter can't penetrate silence.</blockquote>

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