A few questions (players stay out)

[Ormur]

I asked for advice about how to defend NPC's against a caster on the forum and was advised to have the NPC's cast silence on sticky pebbles and throw them at them.

I figured a casting silence on an arrowhead would also do the trick if it hit. She doesn't have silent spell or protection from arrows beyond mage armour and such. That brings me to what the caster would do. How long should it take for her to dislodge an arrow that hit her after realizing it was silenced? Should I roll for where the arrow hit and have that factor in?

That being said I'm afraid the battle is going too badly for the players and that the caster is their only chance of surviving/escaping. Three out of five failed a stinking cloud save, two are nearing zero hit points and the other can't do anything but heal so that leaves the caster and a factotum/warblade hiding in the forest a 100 ft away from the enemies. They're up against a rogue under greater invisibility, a higher level bard with dragonfire inspiration, melodic casting and a bunch of other tricks he hasn't even touched, a lower level batman wizard, an archery ranger and two mooks.

Maybe I'll just have them all captured. They'll be pretty hard to contain anyway.

[Quirp]

Arrows are normally destroyed on a hit, so your Silence spell would be wasted.
Have your players considered running? It is a very handy tactic in such situations (the ranger might screw this though).

[Foryn Gilnith]

Silence is an emanation, so as far as I can tell, an arrowhead with Silence wouldn't do much. It's not a spread, so it couldn't turn corners, so it's only really projecting a little cone of silence from the target's body, which doesn't stop sound from coming out of the target's mouth.

[Beelzebub1111]

Silence is an emanation, so as far as I can tell, an arrowhead with Silence wouldn't do much. It's not a spread, so it couldn't turn corners, so it's only really projecting a little cone of silence from the target's body, which doesn't stop sound from coming out of the target's mouth.

No, silence is a 20ft emination that comes from the target of the spell.

but the real question is, why the arrow? Couldn't you just cast silence on the caster or area that they are in? you know, cut out the middle man?

[ScionoftheVoid]

No, silence is a 20ft emination that comes from the target of the spell.

but the real question is, why the arrow? Couldn't you just cast silence on the caster or area that they are in? you know, cut out the middle man?

To the first point, the arrowhead is presumably stuck in the person. Emanations are easily blocked so it may not affect the caster much. The arrow destruction on a hit kinda screws the idea too.

By casting silence on an object it doesn't grant a save. The area the caster is in application is ambigious as to whether or not it gives them a save. When trying to shut down a caster the last thing you want is a Will save to resist it.

[Beelzebub1111]

To the first point, the arrowhead is presumably stuck in the person. Emanations are easily blocked so it may not affect the caster much. The arrow destruction on a hit kinda screws the idea too.

By casting silence on an object it doesn't grant a save. The area the caster is in application is ambigious as to whether or not it gives them a save. When trying to shut down a caster the last thing you want is a Will save to resist it.

Quoting the SRD:

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.

The only time a save is allowed is if it is centered on an unwilling creature to move with it. You can still target a point in space in the same square as them.

If you say that the caster's own body blocks the area of effect of the silence, then you could cast it on a bolas or net.

[PinkysBrain]

To the first point, the arrowhead is presumably stuck in the person.

That kinda depends on your view of what hit-points mean.

[Skorj]

Silence is one of the few spells with Long range (400+ feet), so there's little purpose in casting it on an arrow. Silence is great for dealing with multiple casters - no save (unless you cast it on someone), you gain time for your minions to attack them, and typically the casters will starburst trying to find the edge of the spell (since you can't tell ahead of time where that is).

Note that there's a non-core Bard spell (amplification?) that reverses silence.

[Forever Curious]

...what's stopping you from casting Silence on something the caster is wearing? Spellbook (wizard), armor (cleric), CLOTHES!?

Unless this is specifically not allowed...

[Foryn Gilnith]

Items in a creature’s possession or magic items that emit sound receive the benefits of saves and spell resistance,

Attended objects usually get saves (and saves are bad in this case), and Silence is no exception. Save-or-lose still isn't too bad, though.

[StoryKeeper]

What about a sling? I haven't checked on the whole "projectile destruction" thing lately, but surely a metal bullet from a sling would remain in tact after being fired.

[PinkysBrain]

Strictly speaking not in D&D, but even if you ignore that it wouldn't stick in him which was what the OP wanted. Any way, rules wise what the OP wants wouldn't work ... and balance wise it shouldn't work. The spell is good enough without making it easy to stick it on someone without a save.

Why can't the rogue take a silenced stone and grapple the wizard or something?

[Corey]

Well, my idea of how to use Silence as a PC is to cast both it and Invisibility on a summoned creature. That said, the first PC who's trying to use this trick doesn't really have a good answer to the question of which of the spells he's going to cast SECOND. (Casting anything on an invisible target? Hmm. Casting a touch spell on a Silenced target, when he's a bard? Hmm. And Reach metamagic doesn't happen to work for him in this case.)

Next best is to cast Silence on a random pebble. It's not mobile per se -- but you could send a summoned creature (possibly invisible) to pick it up and follow a caster around.

Other idea is an Unseen Servant to carry an item around, but that's kind of slow.

[sambo.]

Kill 'em all and make 'em roll new characters!

especially the viking rodent.

[Malificus]

cast silence on where the wizard is (rather than on him or his stuff). Ask for a save anyway. See if he tries stepping out of the area.

[Ormur]

Yes, casting the spell on the caster or an attended object forces a will save which would be pretty easy to beat, hence the shenanigans. The caster is also flying in midair so a 20ft radius sphere in space would only force the caster to take move a bit to cast spells. It also precludes casting it on other NPC's for grappling (the only NPC that can fly is the bard and he's not going to cast silence on himself or try to grapple).

However based on your answers and a better reading of the SRD it becomes dubious whether it would work to shoot someone with a silenced arrow. By RAW all projectiles are destroyed on a hit but there is nothing I can find about the effect on the spell if the object it's centered on is destroyed. If the arrow is buried in the caster's abdomen the emanation could by blocked by the body. Then of course there are no rules in D&D about where things hit, how projectiles are removed from wounds and how long it would take etc. A friend of mine suggested a move action and a heal check for damage to remove the arrowhead so that wouldn't be very unbalancing per se.

A pebble with silence and sovereign glue as was suggested originally would probably work and potentially be a lot harder to get rid of (how to throw it at the caster is another matter) but I didn't prepare the NPC's for that so I think I'll just scrap the whole thing for now. I have other options and the battle is hard enough already. It's an interesting tactic though and shows there are plenty of things D&D rules don't cover. Of course I'm the DM but I'd rather not kill the players with dubious rule interpretations.

Kill 'em all and make 'em roll new characters!

especially the viking rodent.

Are you joking, I have a campaign to run. It would break verisimilitude to plant them on my carefully laid rails.