Silence Spell

[Atalius]

I noticed they changed Silence in PF2. It now works only on a willing target. Anyone have any neat ways of using this spell besides infiltrating a fortress or something like that. Some methods of using it in combat on my companion Rogue or someone?

[Ediwir]

That’s what it was originally meant to do, honestly. Utility.
Caster shutdown came up by accident.

[Joey Cote]

I disagree. The original silence 15' radius spell from back in AD&D days was fully intended to help shut down anything with a Vocal element in its components.

The 4th level version is kind of nice by throwing it on the party melee character since there isn't a save to avoid being silenced if you are in the zone. But not nice enough to take up a 4th level slot.

[Edge93]

Certainly good for shutting down casters with the level 4 version. In fact on a Fighter it's great as it removes the option to Step out of reach and cast, since the Step won't carry you out of the Silence so they have to take the AoO on movement if they want to get out and cast.

As an aside, Quicken Spell to remove the Verbal action of a spell is a cool way to get aside this once a day.

As for utility, it can be useful for Stealth as in certain situations it might invoke the "If an enemy has no way to detect you then you get an auto 20 on Sneak checks". Normally this is applied to Invisibility but I think Silence could do it in some situations.

[Ediwir]

A Quickened nonverbal spell would still provoke because of its Somatic casting component, however, and likely bust anyways.

[citricking]

Quickened spell would have verbal reaction, still wouldn't work in silence.

[Edge93]

Ediwir wrote:

A Quickened nonverbal spell would still provoke because of its Somatic casting component, however, and likely bust anyways.

Yeah, sorry, should've clarified. I more meant if you were in Silence but weren't staring down the barrel of an AoO. XD

Though if you were in Silence with a looming AoO you could Step and Quicken Spell to cast in the Silence and not have to move in a way that provokes.

[Edge93]

citricking wrote:

Quickened spell would have verbal reaction, still wouldn't work in silence.

Quickened Spell doesn't turn one of the actions into a reaction, that's Fast Channel you're thinking of probably. Quicken Spell just outright removes an action. Conversely if Silence is't around you can also use it to drop the somatic action on a spell so it doesn't provoke.