In tonights adventuring session we encountered a boss fight. I (a witch) casted silence upon myself, we were fighting an evil cleric. She was exactly 20 ft away from me. When my GM began casting a Verbal component spell I said "silence is in effect within 20 ft the spell states". He said "the enemy is just out of reach". I was surprised. Is he right the spell doesn't hit an enemy who is 20ft away? Or was he just trying to make the encounter more difficult? What are your thoughts?
If the AoE of the spell is 20', and the enemy is 20' away, they should be affected by the Silence. Your GM was, by the rules, incorrect.
If he's a new GM, he may have just realized how ridiculous that spell is and delivered an impromptu nerf.
As is the normal with most area of effects, the caster or source of the effect must select an intersection of squares as the center of the effect. In the circle templates below the intersection is indicated.
You can see a template chart here > Space and Reach chart.
You as the caster would select one intersection (Typically the one closest to your intended target, assuming you could see them), and calculate within 20ft from there. If the medium creature is inside an affected square, it is silenced, if one corner of a large creature is in your zone, it is silenced still.
A 5ft step by the cleric would have made it irrelevant anyways.
Yes IF he five foot stepped.
Are you sure that the enemy was within 20ft of your character?
Or was there 20ft of distance between you?
The game dictates there's a 5ft difference between the two.
Are you sure that the enemy was within 20ft of your character?
Or was there 20ft of distance between you?
The game dictates there's a 5ft difference between the two.
Enemy was 20 ft away he was in the fourth square away from me.
Then yes, counting from outside your character's space, if he's in the 4th square, he'd be subject to the area.
In tonights adventuring session we encountered a boss fight. I (a witch) casted silence upon myself, we were fighting an evil cleric. She was exactly 20 ft away from me. When my GM began casting a Verbal component spell I said "silence is in effect within 20 ft the spell states". He said "the enemy is just out of reach". I was surprised. Is he right the spell doesn't hit an enemy who is 20ft away? Or was he just trying to make the encounter more difficult? What are your thoughts?
Sounds like the GM didn't want you to trivialize the boss fight.
I played a Bolt Ace, and in the first boss encounter I almost critically one-shot the bad guy on the first round of combat. But he gave the mount he was riding Deflect Arrows, and made him able to block the bolt I shot at him. By the rules, the mount couldn't have done that, but I ran with it because the GM didn't want the boss fight to be extremely disappointing.
Back to your issue, 20 feet is 20 feet is 20 feet. If the BBEG is 20 feet away, he'd be silenced, end of discussion. Unless he can cast Silent spells, he wouldn't be able to perform spellcasting at that square.
Of course, nothing is stopping him from simply taking a 5 foot step, and then following up with the verbal component spell, that wasn't propagated here, so I don't think the GM would've considered that as a valid activity.
@Atalius
If he's in the 4th square away from you, he's 15ft away. You're not helping your situation saying contradictory statements. Either he's 20ft away and not affect, or he's 15ft away and is affected.
If you say "he's 20ft away, and the spell has a 20ft radius" then he's not in range, because he's at the limit of the radius. (He's not *within* 20ft, he's AT 20ft.)
So either he's in the 4th square away from you, which is 15 ft away, or he's 20ft away, which is the 5th square away from you (there's 20 ft between you.)
While you may have been in the right, mixing up the language of the hex or square map is bound to lead to situations where (deliberately or not) your GM makes mistakes. Attempt to clarify this in future scenarios, because I have a feeling you saying "he's 20ft away" and "in the 4th square from me" is the issue. Those are contradictory statements, and people ascribing motive to the GM while the statements made here are contradictory means it's just as easy for the GM to be confused by the jargin being used.
Given the 5ft thing, maybe he planned on taking a step and then didn't. The rules here are pretty cut and dry, but the story isn't IMO.
Ur the first to point that out and be confused by it. He was in the fourth square away from me not the fifth.