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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hashmalum" data-source="post: 584111" data-attributes="member: 9450">Without the sound, you don't have the effects. Harmonic effects are the result of the sound vibrations being of the right frequency to set up a resonating vibration in the target. The pressure is also a direct result of the sound wave, not a "side-effect". Concussive effects are the result of violent shaking. If there's no sound, there's no vibration, no shaking, and no concussion.No, force effects that don't affect incorporeal creatures or objects have no spell descriptor at all. See unseen servant, which creates an "invisible, mindless, shapeless force" but has no force descriptor and no ability to move ethereal objects. See also telekinesis. There's also the fact that there is no "force resistance" special quality and there is no endure elements (force). Sonic damage and force damage don't have anything to do with each other.No. That is something that you made up. The feat says that you can modify a spell with an energy designator to use the chosen type of energy instead. For Energy Substitution (sonic), that means that the spell uses sonic energy. See the definition of "sonic" again, and read it until you understand it.Maybe not noise that humans can hear, due to it being outside their range of hearing. That doesn't mean it isn't stopped by silence. Silence negates the blindsight quality of bats and other creatures that use ultrasonic sound for echolocation. As for a vibroblade, that's a completely seperate issue; the vibration of the metal aids the metal's cutting effect. Anyway, we're discussing what silence does in D&D. I don't play Star Wars and I don't care how they handle sonic damage or any other type of damage there.Cold damage is completely useless against cold creatures. And there's no need to take a feat to get cold spells (or fire spells, for that matter) with so many efficiently damaging spells of that type already existing.  As a substitution (which is what you were arguing), cold (and fire) don't make sense unless you need to qualify for a PrC or want a themed character at the expense of power.Sonic damage, OTOH, without a feat isn't efficient at all (2d6 for shout, a 4th-level spell? No damage at all for shatter except against crystalline creatures?); the upside is that almost nothing has any protection against it. Sonic substitution gives you both great penetrating power and efficiency, which is why it is the best substitution.You don't have to hear the noise, but the noise has to strike the target, and silence prevents the noise from entering. The wording of the shatter spell says flat-out that it is the noise that has the effect. Unless you can find some errata that changes what shatter actually says, I'm not going to argue this point any further because the plain wording of the spell makes it obvious that you are simply wrong.If I pour water on a campfire, does it not extinguish it because the designer never said, "Rule 1 of campfires: pouring water on them will put them out?" If I leave a glass of water in the sun, will it never evaporate because the designers never made a rule about evaporation? Of course not. The players are expected to use logic and common sense in interpreting the rules. And it's a logical, common sense interpretation of the rules that silence blocks sonic damage.</blockquote>

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