Captain Cap
2018-06-21, 09:25 AM
Description of the feat Subsonics, from the Complete Adventurer:
You can produce music or poetics so subtly that opponents do not notice it, yet your allies still gain all the usual benefits from your bardic music. Similarly, you can affect opponents within range with your music, but unless they can see you performing or have some other means of discovering it, they cannot determine the source of the effect.
The text seems to suggest that you can influence enemies without them acknowledging the attempt (and for a basic bard the only music effects on opponents are Fascinate and Suggestion, the second one requiring the first one). However in the Player Handbook, about Fascinate, is written:
Each creature to be fascinated must be within 90 feet, able to see and hear the bard, and able to pay attention to him.
So the target must pay attention, and so be able to identify the source of the effect. Does Subsonics let you ignore this requirement? If not, wouldn't the second part of the description be pointless?
You can produce music or poetics so subtly that opponents do not notice it, yet your allies still gain all the usual benefits from your bardic music. Similarly, you can affect opponents within range with your music, but unless they can see you performing or have some other means of discovering it, they cannot determine the source of the effect.
The text seems to suggest that you can influence enemies without them acknowledging the attempt (and for a basic bard the only music effects on opponents are Fascinate and Suggestion, the second one requiring the first one). However in the Player Handbook, about Fascinate, is written:
Each creature to be fascinated must be within 90 feet, able to see and hear the bard, and able to pay attention to him.
So the target must pay attention, and so be able to identify the source of the effect. Does Subsonics let you ignore this requirement? If not, wouldn't the second part of the description be pointless?