Convenient ways to get personal range Silence

[Jowgen]

Being subject to magical silence is a mixed bag.

You can't speak, make Listen checks, use verbal components or use Sonic effects; but on the other hand you can't fail move silently checks or be affected by Sonic effects. So it is a situational but potentially very useful thing. One of the main issues is that the regular silence spell produces a rather large area of silence.

To my knowledge, there are 2 items that can grant a creature the benefits of silence without producing an area effect.

First is the Shackles of Silence, BoED, 12000 gp. They silence the subject (2.5 ft barrier around, depending on size) continuously so long as it wears the shackles. As it's never specified that they need to be worn in a way that actually hinders, these are a pretty good (and potentially very fashionable) way to get at will silence on oneself only.

Second is the Silent Strike weapon special ability from Dragon 330 p. 67. It's a +1 WSA that forces any creature struck by the the weapon to save of be silenced per the silence spell for 4 round (subsequent hits reset the duration).

First question, are there any others I might've missed?

Second, Silent Strike seems not only cheaper but potentially more versatile, but I'm not 100% sure whether my idea for that is the best it can be, so any input on that would also be most appreciated.

My current working model is a Poison Ring with Silent Strike on it, as you can explicitly prick yourself on it trying to ready to weapon, which should be enough to trigger the Silent Strike. Normally this is a DC 15 Dex check, but if one could do a Sleight of Hand Check instead then that could allow for free action self-silencing. Also, from the way it is written, Silent Strike does not seem to require for (lethal) damage to be dealt for it to trigger, so one should be able to avoid the damage somehow as well.

[The Viscount]

If it's the succeeding on Move Silently checks you're interested in, you can also accomplish that by becoming incorporeal.

[InvisibleBison]

Silence is an emanation, which means it spreads outwards from its point of origin but doesn't turn any corners and therefore can't affect things with total cover from its origin. I think this can be used to get an ordinary silence spell to only effect one person:

Cast silence on an ordinary, non-magical ring. Put on the ring, then put a glove on over the ring. The silence effect can effect you, or maybe the entire square you occupy, because there's nothing blocking the emanation, but the glove prevents the effect from spreading outward.

Would this work, or is there something I'm missing?

[Zaq]

It's very impractical, but technically Reversed Silent Caster is basically a single-target Silence effect. It can even be put into a potion if that's your thing. The reasons that it's impractical, of course, are that it has a ridiculously short duration (1 round, though it can technically theoretically be Extended to a whopping 2 rounds) and that you have to be noisy to cast it in the first place.

I had thought that the Silence SLA that whisper gnomes get was single-target and not an emanation, but upon closer inspection, that doesn't seem to actually be true; it must be self-targeted, but that's about it. Still, whisper gnomes are about as stealthy as you get for 0 LA, so it might be helpful, even if they aren't exactly new and obscure.

[Thurbane]

Zone of Silence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/zoneOfSilence.htm) can often be far more convenient than for this sort of thing than Silence.

It's on the Beguiler spell list as a 3rd level spell, so Eternal Wands are an option (with a hour/level duration, you should only need one or two wands to cover your typical adventuring day).

Or a custom item of "always on" Zone of Silence, if your DM is OK with that.

[Jowgen]

If it's the succeeding on Move Silently checks you're interested in, you can also accomplish that by becoming incorporeal.

I like incorporeal for that, but the protection against Blasphemy et al is a big part of Silence's appeal, plus getting Incorporeal is a serious investment.


Silence is an emanation, which means it spreads outwards from its point of origin but doesn't turn any corners and therefore can't affect things with total cover from its origin. I think this can be used to get an ordinary silence spell to only effect one person:

Cast silence on an ordinary, non-magical ring. Put on the ring, then put a glove on over the ring. The silence effect can effect you, or maybe the entire square you occupy, because there's nothing blocking the emanation, but the glove prevents the effect from spreading outward.

Would this work, or is there something I'm missing?

Issue I see is that afaik, emanations and bursts calculate their effects in 5 ft square intervals. If the ring's emenation can affect the creature wearing it, that means it can reach into the square of the creature wearing it, so it can affect the whole square. Then what keeps its LoE from reaching out from there?

There are also the rules on how solid a barrier needs to be to block and emenation, and some strewn about rules how/whether creatures even count, i.e. I think it's never stated that the tissue of a creature blocks things like emendations.

This is basically the same territory as someone casting Darkness on a rock and keeping it in their mouth. There is no specific rule that deals with this weird emanation situation, so it's DM call. A ring that emanates silence will probably have the same sort of weird considerations attached to it. Not saying it's against RAW or impossible to argue, it's just a very "unclear answer" kinda deal imo.



It's very impractical, but technically Reversed Silent Caster is basically a single-target Silence effect. It can even be put into a potion if that's your thing. The reasons that it's impractical, of course, are that it has a ridiculously short duration (1 round, though it can technically theoretically be Extended to a whopping 2 rounds) and that you have to be noisy to cast it in the first place.

I had thought that the Silence SLA that whisper gnomes get was single-target and not an emanation, but upon closer inspection, that doesn't seem to actually be true; it must be self-targeted, but that's about it. Still, whisper gnomes are about as stealthy as you get for 0 LA, so it might be helpful, even if they aren't exactly new and obscure.

That's roughly what I remembered: there are things with silence abilities or stuff that could work to upgrade silence, but once you look at them none are actually any good.


Zone of Silence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/zoneOfSilence.htm) can often be far more convenient than for this sort of thing than Silence.

It's on the Beguiler spell list as a 3rd level spell, so Eternal Wands are an option (with a hour/level duration, you should only need one or two wands to cover your typical adventuring day).

Or a custom item of "always on" Zone of Silence, if your DM is OK with that.

Interest. Certainly a more viable for generic stealth stuff and protection against Blasphemy et al, although it does force you to keep 5 ft of distance and can't be used offensively. The Shackles are more reliable defensively with their all day duration, while the Silent Strike Poison ring also comes with offensive applications against stuff like enemy casters...

Both in price and utility, I think Eternal Wands of Zone of Silence and the Shackles of Silence pull about even depending on what you want to use them for. On the whole, provided you are able to prick yourself for a 4-round reset, I do think the Silent Strike Poison Ring wins out though.

[InvisibleBison]

Issue I see is that afaik, emanations and bursts calculate their effects in 5 ft square intervals. If the ring's emenation can affect the creature wearing it, that means it can reach into the square of the creature wearing it, so it can affect the whole square. Then what keeps its LoE from reaching out from there?

There are also the rules on how solid a barrier needs to be to block and emenation, and some strewn about rules how/whether creatures even count, i.e. I think it's never stated that the tissue of a creature blocks things like emendations.

This is basically the same territory as someone casting Darkness on a rock and keeping it in their mouth. There is no specific rule that deals with this weird emanation situation, so it's DM call. A ring that emanates silence will probably have the same sort of weird considerations attached to it. Not saying it's against RAW or impossible to argue, it's just a very "unclear answer" kinda deal imo.

I agree that it's a weird rules situation, but I think you are overstating how unclear the situation is. As I see it, there's four ostensibly reasonable interpretations: 1) The silence spell spreads throughout its entire area. 2) The silence spell only affects the square occupied by the ring-wearer. 3) The silence spell only affects the ring-wearer. 4) The silence spell has no effect.

Interpretations 1 and 4 are definitely wrong. 1 is wrong because the glove blocks line of effect between the ring, which is the silence effect's point of origin, and all squares beyond the one occupied by the ring-wearer. 4 is wrong because the ring-wearer undeniably has line of effect to the ring.

So the only question is between interpretation 2 and 3, both of which would be useful for someone who wants a single-target silence effect, though obviously 3 would be superior.

[Deophaun]

Interest. Certainly a more viable for generic stealth stuff and protection against Blasphemy et al
It won't protect against blasphemy, as it allows sound in. Its function is to not allow sound to leave. Now, if you managed to encapsulate the blasphemer within the zone, everyone outside would be protected from it, though you wouldn't.

[Jowgen]

It won't protect against blasphemy, as it allows sound in. Its function is to not allow sound to leave. Now, if you managed to encapsulate the blasphemer within the zone, everyone outside would be protected from it, though you wouldn't.

My mistake. That is what I get for getting distracting watching Kevin Smith specials while rules lawyering.

You are correct, the lack of protection against sonic/langauge-based attacks makes Zone of Silence basically useless.

[Thurbane]

You are correct, the lack of protection against sonic/langauge-based attacks makes Zone of Silence basically useless.

Useless for rendering yourself deaf, not useless for stealthing.

But point taken.