Hey guys. So I have a group of players that like to cast silence on a piece of their armor or a willing party member and then rush my casters. Sometimes I have my caster guarded by monsters or NPCs of some sort so I can maneuver my caster outside of the silence range, but there are times where the room is too small to maneuver or the enemy caster can't leave the area. It's a great strategy on their part but it's one that's easily exploitable unless I find a counter to it to keep them on their toes.
The question is what are some ways that a single caster can negate the silence spell assuming he can't leave it's effect?
Dispel magic won't work because it has a verbal component. But a Silent Metamagic Dispel Magic would. Any other thoughts?
Have villains with spell-like, supernatural, or extraordinary abilities. Outsiders of any kind spring to mind.
You can also try to create situations where the party has to talk, or has to cast spells. Have a creature, say a dragon, be buffed with mage armor & shield. Little short of dispel magic will make it easy to hit. They often have SLAs too, not to mention breath attacks.
Perhaps have villains set up behind a permanencied wall of fire. Or have an evil magic device that can only be deactivated by a vocal UMD check or something.
An enemy barbarian can attempt to spell sunder the effect. Hell, it can sunder the damn armor out of spite. May or may not end the spell, but if the party is just gonna silence for every fight vs magic, then they kinda deserve to have bs thrown back at them.
As for that single caster you really asked about? He's kinda boned without prep time tbh. Dunno what else to recommend... set up pit traps lol? Good luck however it goes.
Have the fights in bigger areas so you can leave the silenced areas.
Another idea is to "allow" the guards to let him rush forward. Then they surround him and stab him.
Have minions ready actions to shoot at casters so they have to make concentration checks.
Have a mook disguised as a caster so they don't know who to go after.
Have the caster far enough away and with enough meat shields that it takes a while to get to the caster. All the while focus fire on the person with silence on them. If your caster can spellcraft the spell he will know what is about to happen.
Thx for the responses guys. So far they have been good suggestions but not for a single wizard... I was thinking though, do wands require verbal commands to activate? If not then I guess I could give them wands of spells I want to make sure they can use... a wand of dispel or dimension door.
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Single wizards are just screwed if they get into combat. Sorry, but they just shouldn't be fighting alone. They're fragile and doing all the defending yourself eats up a LOT of resources; so does doing all the offence yourself. Wizards are best as force multipliers with an occasional attack spell thrown in, but you need actual force to multiply.
Depending on how you rule about Dimensional Agility*, the Shift (conjuration-teleportation school) power will let you teleport out of the Silenced (melee) area as a Supernatural action; no spell components and no AoO. It'll eat up a feat though.
A few summoned monsters will help block the Silenced character's charge lanes. (So will NPC enemy party members.) Many good wizard spells are Standard Actions, so even if the PC gets close, you can step out of the AoE and cast a spell.
Don't look like a wizard. Carry a pair of short swords and some fancy leather clothing that looks like armor (but isn't). People will think you're some weaksauce 2WF rogue build and that they should worry about you trying to flank people. Don't cast any spells on the first combat round.
Meanwhile your monk buddy wears a robe (cut in such a way not to hinder movement, and fancy star and moon embroiderments) and some spell component pouches; he'll pretend to cast Expeditious Retreat (you've taught him the proper spell components) and then go use Fast Movement and Acrobatics to close in on the PC spellcasters. Of course the route he takes looks like he's trying to escape by going around the PCs.
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* Whether the Dimensional Agility feat will remove Shift's downside that you can't move after Dimension Door is a but unclear; as a player I've found that it's a powerful and useful ability if allowed, a somewhat better alternative to Combat Casting.
Thx for the responses guys. So far they have been good suggestions but not for a single wizard... I was thinking though, do wands require verbal commands to activate? If not then I guess I could give them wands of spells I want to make sure they can use... a wand of dispel or dimension door.
If it is a single wizard he needs to have buffs in place. Having no obstacle between him and a melee guy is a death sentence anyway.
Some type of difficult terrain even from spells would help. Being able to fly would help.
A silent metamagic rod would be nice, but dont give them to every wizard or it starts to look suspicious.
Don't look like a wizard. Carry a pair of short swords and some fancy leather clothing that looks like armor (but isn't). People will think you're some weaksauce 2WF rogue build and that they should worry about you trying to flank people. Don't cast any spells on the first combat round.
Meanwhile your monk buddy wears a robe (cut in such a way not to hinder movement, and fancy star and moon embroiderments) and some spell component pouches; he'll pretend to cast Expeditious Retreat (you've taught him the proper spell components) and then go use Fast Movement and Acrobatics to close in on the PC spellcasters. Of course the route he takes looks like he's trying to escape by going around the PCs.
I am totally stealing this. Awesome.
A metamgic rod of silent spell could go a long long way. Also, it's a terrible idea to put a lone wizard against a party. In fact its always a bad idea to have a lone anything go up against a party unless it's 5+ CR above them. The action economy just creates too much of a problem.
Lets say you have a party of 4 vs the wizard, and the party and the wizard unexpectedly run into one another. No prep time for either party. The party casts silence on someone and runs toward the wizard on their turn. If the wizard got to go before the party did then he might be able to create some sort of movement impairment to stop someone from getting close, but silence covers a 20ft radius, which is pretty big. Depending on the terrain or layout, you may not have room to prevent yourself from being in range. You could also cast fly and fly up into the air, but now you're a target in the sky. The party will probably cast dispel magic on you (instead of silence) and then proceed to kill you in melee. Outside of getting away through flight or teleportation before the party acts they're going to cast silence and pummel you to death unless you can cause some interesting terrain to prevent them from closing in.
In short, 1 wizard is pretty much always screwed.
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Switch to a Witch. Hexes are Supernatural so Silence doesn't mean anything to them, and they have plenty of spells for when they're not in silence-range.
Some good stuff here. You'v all definitely answered my question. Now that I have a couple of ways to keep them on their toes, casting silence wont be a knee jerk reaction for them every time they see a caster. Thanks again. :)
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The Witch is a good one. But be careful about Cackling and Silence.
At higher levels (8+), try an evil priest with the Death domain, using the same negative channel to both heal himself and hurt the PCs will also come as a rude surprise - and it's a Supernatural ability, not blocked by Silence.
Also funny: have an illusion already in place. When one of the PCs in the Silenced area realizes it's fake, finely remind him that he can't actually SAY that to the other PCs, and if he wants to perform elaborate gesturing to communicate that, they'll all need to spend move+ actions to stand and watch each other carefully.
In fact, remind the Silenced players they can't talk to nor hear what the others are saying. This might be so annoying and inconvenient to them that they'll cut down on Silence because sharing tactics is just more important. (And sign language should require at least one free hand and a Linguistics point.)
Silent feat and Dimension Door or Teleport memorized. Why stay and fight when the odds are not in your favor?
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Thoughts:
Terrain.
Conjuration wizard with Teleporation subschool power. Shift is supernatural to move out of silenced area.
Traps in general, and perhaps one near something that makes a constant noise (eg flowing stream), and that activate when it is silent.
Contingency.
Encounters less dependant on casters.
Mix it up with the type of casters (cleric, magus, witch, etc)
In general though , supernatural powers seem the way to go.
Another option is spell tattoos, from Inner Sea Magic. (Requires the Inscribe Magical Tattoo feat.)
They're basically like silenced scrolls that you wear on your skin. Though they also cost 4x as much as scrolls, so they're by no means the most economical option.
Spell Tattoo description on d20pfsrd.com
Tattoo, Spell
Aura varies; CL varies
Slot none; Price variesA spell tattoo is essentially a wearable scroll inscribed on flesh instead of on parchment or vellum. These tattoos appear as colorful and intricate patterns rather than magical writing. The tattoo is a silent, spell completion item that only the bearer can activate. It vanishes when activated. A spell tattoo must be visible to the bearer and must be touched as part of its activation. These magical tattoos are not normally placed on the head, neck, or back as a result, since most creatures would require mirrors to activate them. A spell tattoo’s aura and caster level varies as per the scroll it emulates. A spell tattoo has a market price four times as much as an equivalent scroll.
CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Inscribe Magical Tattoo, the spell to be inscribed; Cost varies
As has been said before, be prepared. Fly, invisibility, MM rod of silent. Try and get above the range of silence, then hit the silenced fighter with dominate and tell them to "hug his friend the caster".
Personally I tend to... punish? (Kinda?) My players for knee jerk stuff. An area of silence can be a great thing... but it can be horrible as well. Maybe the only reason the cavern they are in is lit is because the NPC caster was making the light. They cast silence... light goes away... insert a pack of Worgs that now move completely silently. Oh... and they can find your PC's by smell. Their knee jerk just became an achilies heel.
For added flavor, have them pick off the party one at a time from the rear...
I don't believe in randomly creating monsters that would have been there had they not cast spell X. Silence is actually a good idea, not knee jerk reaction.
There is also no reason the party would not have a light source unless they are brand new.
Are group has used silence to pretty great use in situation through the first two Way of the Wicked. The four of us are on team Darkvision so we need no light, and we all took a point of linguistics and picked up sign language in case we need to speak to one another in the silence.
With a little prep time, and the right scrolls (or some cash), Symbol spells can be truly cruel.
Wear them on your chest, trigger condition "look at", and enjoy. I recommend Symbol of Pain for all of your PC day-wrecking needs.