I have 2 scenarios that came up in our previous session regarding silence.
1. Silence itself requires V, S to cast. A player cast this with point of origin on the enemy caster's current location. My thought was that the enemy caster would move out of the silence to cast a spell. The players believe he would not know he was in a silenced field (extremely close quarters for this one; 50x50 room) until he attempted to cast a spell requiring V himself, thus wasting his action first, then moving. I'm open to either or something in the middle. My question clearly is: At what point does an enemy, caster specifically, realize silence has been cast? I was thinking of rolling a hidden perception check as the spell is cast for the enemy to see if they 1) see something was cast and/or 2) do they recognize what specific spell that was cast. Thoughts?
2. Silence was cast between players and the enemy caster in a narrow hallway with a low ceiling. 10ft wide x 60 ft long x 10ft height. If an enemy caster was going to use something sound based for damage, again, at what point do they realize a silence field is in between and his spell may not be effective?
My concerns: On one side I always want to challenge my players, and they do a fantastic job at not meta-gaming, and I don't believe in punishing great strategy. In return ,I don't want to meta the creatures actions to convenience based on what the party does. On the other end, a creature with high intelligence or one that may recognize the spell also should be privy to not being a completely ignorant and incompetent spell-caster, so I am trying to find that happy medium.
1. Silence itself requires V, S to cast. A player cast this with point of origin on the enemy caster's current location. My thought was that the enemy caster would move out of the silence to cast a spell. The players believe he would not know he was in a silenced field (extremely close quarters for this one; 50x50 room) until he attempted to cast a spell requiring V himself, thus wasting his action first, then moving. I'm open to either or something in the middle. My question clearly is: At what point does an enemy, caster specifically, realize silence has been cast? I was thinking of rolling a hidden perception check as the spell is cast for the enemy to see if they 1) see something was cast and/or 2) do they recognize what specific spell that was cast. Thoughts?
Unless you're in a completely quiet environment, the target should notice immediately that all background noise suddenly stopped. Whether they'd move out of the area depends on whether the target realizes that the Silence spell was cast. The enemy might not know about the Silence spell or might think they've gone deaf. Spellcasting is noticeable unless the caster has a way to remove all the spell components (e.g. with a Sorcerer's Subtle Spell), but there's no official method to recognize which spell was cast based on the components. Xanathar's Guide to Everything has an optional rule that involves making an Arcana check as a reaction or action.
2. Silence was cast between players and the enemy caster in a narrow hallway with a low ceiling. 10ft wide x 60 ft long x 10ft height. If an enemy caster was going to use something sound based for damage, again, at what point do they realize a silence field is in between and his spell may not be effective?
Again, it really depends on the environment and the situation. You should assume combatants are making noise unless they take the Hide action, so I'd assume the enemy would notice less noise (or no noise, in narrow hallways) coming from the direction of the players. But if the players aren't inside the silenced area, that's not going to help them against a Shatter spell centered on their side.
In the case of #2, I'd put it upon the enemy caster's perception. Clearly he'd know there was no silence spell on him, but when a sound-based effect did not reach the players even though it should have, it might take some figuring out to determine what's going on.
You can make the case that the enemy caster knows it cannot hear anything but, since it could be silence or something causing deafness, the caster may attempt a spell without moving. The key here is consistency. If, as the DM, you're always going to have casters move in this sort of situation, then they should do it whether the cause is deafness or a silence spell, though that can always be mitigated by factors such as a passive perception check to reveal that other people right next to the caster still seem to be able to hear and cast spells, or a Rary's telepathic bond linking the casters in question to others who help them determine whether the problem is silence or deafness.
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Greetings All,
I have 2 scenarios that came up in our previous session regarding silence.
1. Silence itself requires V, S to cast. A player cast this with point of origin on the enemy caster's current location. My thought was that the enemy caster would move out of the silence to cast a spell. The players believe he would not know he was in a silenced field (extremely close quarters for this one; 50x50 room) until he attempted to cast a spell requiring V himself, thus wasting his action first, then moving. I'm open to either or something in the middle. My question clearly is: At what point does an enemy, caster specifically, realize silence has been cast? I was thinking of rolling a hidden perception check as the spell is cast for the enemy to see if they 1) see something was cast and/or 2) do they recognize what specific spell that was cast. Thoughts?
2. Silence was cast between players and the enemy caster in a narrow hallway with a low ceiling. 10ft wide x 60 ft long x 10ft height. If an enemy caster was going to use something sound based for damage, again, at what point do they realize a silence field is in between and his spell may not be effective?
My concerns: On one side I always want to challenge my players, and they do a fantastic job at not meta-gaming, and I don't believe in punishing great strategy. In return ,I don't want to meta the creatures actions to convenience based on what the party does. On the other end, a creature with high intelligence or one that may recognize the spell also should be privy to not being a completely ignorant and incompetent spell-caster, so I am trying to find that happy medium.
Thanks all for the input!
Mike
Unless you're in a completely quiet environment, the target should notice immediately that all background noise suddenly stopped. Whether they'd move out of the area depends on whether the target realizes that the Silence spell was cast. The enemy might not know about the Silence spell or might think they've gone deaf. Spellcasting is noticeable unless the caster has a way to remove all the spell components (e.g. with a Sorcerer's Subtle Spell), but there's no official method to recognize which spell was cast based on the components. Xanathar's Guide to Everything has an optional rule that involves making an Arcana check as a reaction or action.
Again, it really depends on the environment and the situation. You should assume combatants are making noise unless they take the Hide action, so I'd assume the enemy would notice less noise (or no noise, in narrow hallways) coming from the direction of the players. But if the players aren't inside the silenced area, that's not going to help them against a Shatter spell centered on their side.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
In the case of #2, I'd put it upon the enemy caster's perception. Clearly he'd know there was no silence spell on him, but when a sound-based effect did not reach the players even though it should have, it might take some figuring out to determine what's going on.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
You can make the case that the enemy caster knows it cannot hear anything but, since it could be silence or something causing deafness, the caster may attempt a spell without moving. The key here is consistency. If, as the DM, you're always going to have casters move in this sort of situation, then they should do it whether the cause is deafness or a silence spell, though that can always be mitigated by factors such as a passive perception check to reveal that other people right next to the caster still seem to be able to hear and cast spells, or a Rary's telepathic bond linking the casters in question to others who help them determine whether the problem is silence or deafness.