Sunday, March 26, 2017

D&D 3.5 - Can my character with Spell Immunity to Silence talk to other characters in the Silence?

Our party of intrepid adventurers encountered pixies that could cast silence on themselves at will with a 15' radius.  This greatly affected the abilities of the spell casters.  One spell caster cast Spell Immunity (PH 282) against silence on himself.  As expected, this caused an interruption in game play to debate the rules of spell immunity to silence.  We identified five possible scenarios to be adjudicated.  Poof casts Spell Immunity, Silence on himself.  Talia, the bard, is outside the area of silence and singing.  Poof moves into the area of silence.  Devis is already in the silenced area.

Q1) What happens when Poof attempts to cast a spell while within the area of silence?
A1) Obviously, he can cast verbal spells successfully due to his Spell Immunity.

Q2) Can Poof hear Talia singing when she is outside the area of silence and he is inside the area?
A2) Yes, because he is immune to the effects of the silence spell.

Q3) Can Talia, being outside the area of silence hear what Poof is saying when he is in the silence?
A3) We decided the answer was Yes, although an argument could be made that sounds emanating from Poof get blocked by the area of silence before reaching Talia.  We felt that would violate the spirit of the Spell Immunity spell and would also possibly imply that Poof could not even cast spells within an area of silence if "the universe" could not hear what Poof was casting.

Q4) Can Devis, who is also within the same silence area as Poof, hear what Poof is saying?
A4) No.  Even though the silence does not affect Poof and his ability to put vocalizations into the air, those vocalizations do not reach Devis because Devis is affected by the silence.  This does imply that the vocalizations could go past Devis to reach Talia beyond him and she, being outside the area of silence, could hear him.

Q5) Can Poof hear what Devis says when both are in the area of silence?
A5) Again no.  The sounds Devis makes are blocked by the silence spell.  The spell is effectively muting Devis while not affecting Poof.

Sound emanates from one source, vocalizations from mouths in these examples, and is received by another source, the ears.  This complicates trying to create rules based on the laws of physics.  Does the silence spell affect the source of the sound, or the reception of the sound?  One of our group thought that silence only impacted hearing, not vocalizations, but that the reason you were unable to cast spells within an area of silence is that you were unable to hear yourself in order to vocalize correctly.  We were able to rule out that interpretation by the fact that even verbal commands to items did not work, and the description of "Control Plants" spell on PH 213 implies that all vocal communication is impossible for people within silence.

The above is our House Rule.


UPDATE on March 29, 2017:
After a close reading of the Silence spell, I see that our house rules are incorrect, but we plan to play by our house rules rather than what the books say.  We think the silence spell is overly powerful (for a 2nd level spell) when cast upon a moving creature.

THE CORRECT RULES: 
Spell Immunity does not work unless Spell Resistance is allowed: PH 282 “…immunity doesn’t protect a creature from spells for which spell resistance doesn’t apply...”

In the Silence spell it lists this for “spell resistance”:
Spell Resistance: Yes; see text or no (object)

“…The spell can be cast on a point in space, but the effect is stationary unless cast on a mobile object. The spell can be centered on a creature, and the effect then radiates from the creature and moves as it moves. An unwilling creature can attempt a Will save to negate the spell and can use spell resistance, if any. Items in a creature’s possession or magic items that emit sound receive the benefits of saves and spell resistance, but unattended objects and points in space do not…”

I am pretty sure it should be ruled that Spell Immunity to silence would only apply to an attempt to cast silence directly upon the target.  If you would attempt to say that silenced flying monsters are “creatures” and thus a different ruling would apply (I don’t think it would), that could easily be resolved by saying there is a Silence upon an object the monsters are carrying because the monsters cast the silence upon that object instead of themselves.


The silence spell is probably overly powerful when it is used to cast upon a willing creature, thus that is why we wanted to allow Spell Immunity to work against it.


The Best Way to Roll for Hit Points

Here is my favorite approach to rolling Hit Points, especially for 5E.   Per the 5E rules, you can roll the dice or accept the "standar...