Was "Bad GM Rulings?", Now Silence spell

[Jhulae]

Only Clerics and Bards get silence, and a cleric would need to know ahead of time whether she's going to need a silence, really. It's one of those spells that I don't really see a lot of clerics memorizing all the time.

It is a good spell, though. No doubt there.

 

[azhrei_fje]

The things is, people frequently complain about overpowered spellcasters, and this spell is a serious thorn in their eye. Any cleric supporting the enemy with a readied silence seriously threatens the viability of all spellcasters, requiring them to have and use the Silent spell feat (or a rod for it), or some items from the MIC (but which require swift activation, making it harder to use quickened spells), or use smart tactics depending on the terrain to be out of reach of the silence effect (like, around a corner, or somehow hidden).

You know, maybe, it's not a problem, maybe, it's actually good!

This would certainly make a wand of silence very powerful, since the save DC is irrelevant unless the spell is actually targeting a creature, and save DCs are the primary reason why my party doesn't use wands for anything except no-save or no-SR spells.

Bumping the spell to 3rd level not only makes the spell slot used more precious, but also increases the price of the wand by 2.5x (from 3x2-6 to 5x3=15). I'm liking the level bump instead of the Will save more and more...