No verbal components? Does this mean you can send a message and reply without being able to speak? Nice upgrade, but seems weird with the spell description saying whisper

Quote from CupaKid >>

No verbal components? Does this mean you can send a message and reply without being able to speak? Nice upgrade, but seems weird with the spell description saying whisper

There's been so many arguments over the years of, "Oh, the guard overhears you say the words of the spell that's explicitly supposed to allow covert communication. It has a verbal component, after all" This fixes that pretty cleanly.
But yes, I don't know why they want to keep that description of "whisper" in the spell. One way to have it make sense if it's a silent whisper (just your and the replier's lips moving) that is part of the somatic component.

I don't understand why they even bother giving this spell the ability to communicate through obstacles such as walls or boulders or whatever else if any a single foot of materials blocks it, which the majority of walls will be. Maybe if you're hanging in a house made of straw or leaves or something it could be useful. Still nice to not have to worry about verbal components though I always felt it was weird that people might notice you casting a spell specifically designed for secret communication.

The message you whisper is not a verbal component. The whispering does not invoke the magic, it is simply carried by the spell.

So casting the spell:
The wizard takes a piece of copper wire they keep wrapped around their finger and traces a subtle pattern with the finger to charge the spell with the target in mind. They remove the wire from their finger and whisper into the coil. The wire resonates and the magic carries the sound to the ears of the intended target only.

The whispered message content is secondary and irrelevant to the casting of the spell.

It's morea divination spell as a transmutation.

What confuses me about the new wording is that despite removing the verbal component of the spell, it still says that "magical silence... blocks the spell." One would think that since the spell no longer has a verbal component, it should work through silence. Yes, the caster is creating a "sound" in the recipient's head, but no actual sound is being created.

Is it as simple as saying magical silence doesn't follow the rules of physics and because the message uses the notion of spoken language, it is interrupted? Maybe I'm overthinking it.

Quote from fentongreg84 >>

What confuses me about the new wording is that despite removing the verbal component of the spell, it still says that "magical silence... blocks the spell." One would think that since the spell no longer has a verbal component, it should work through silence. Yes, the caster is creating a "sound" in the recipient's head, but no actual sound is being created.

Is it as simple as saying magical silence doesn't follow the rules of physics and because the message uses the notion of spoken language, it is interrupted? Maybe I'm overthinking it.

Magical silence stops it because this isn't psychic words in their brain, it's whispered words in their ear. Telepathic abilities are written much differently.

Does the new version of the spell still let the casting go around corners and such? The new description doesn't specify one way or the other (unlike the old version).

Magical silence really doesn't follow the rules of physics. It's providing the silence of the vacuum of space (no molecules to vibrate, no way for sound to travel) without the vacuum.  So somehow air molecules aren't allowed to move to let the sound wave travel but people can still move through the affected area.  Soooo...it's magic.

I'm currently rewatching The Fellowship of the Ring and I found myself thinking about how Galadriel is speaking into everyone's minds like that. I realized the camera doesn't show her hands... She's old, she's wise, I bet she's more than capable of sub vocalizing and not moving her face lol. But she COULD be pointing at each of them and the camera isn't showing it lol