[RPG] Does the spell “Silence” affect the caster

area-of-effectdnd-5espell-componentsspells

While I was DMing a D&D 5th Edition game, one of my player's sorcerers cast the spell Silence while they were 5 feet away from an enemy caster. They centered the spell on the space that the enemy caster was in, and a round of combat finished. On the sorcerer's turn, they asked me if they could use a verbal spell while in the area of their Silence spell. Their reasoning is that they had cast the spell, so they could prevent it from affecting them.

In this situation, I decided to not allow it because it would unbalance the spell. But I want to know what other people would think about this.

Would the caster of the Silence spell be able to prevent it from affecting themselves?

Best Answer

The Sorcerer is indeed Silenced by their own spell.

Nothing in the spell description excludes the Sorcerer from the spell. The only way to get around this is if the Sorcerer also has the Subtle Spell meta-magic skill selected so that they can remove the Verbal component.

Nothing about casting a spell makes you immune to its effects unless it's stated in the spell description.

Standing still, there is no way to tell via mundane means

Darkness vs Blindness

Being inside an area of darkness puts you inside a heavily obscured area. This is true whether the darkness is nonmagical or magical (as in the one created by Darkness).

PHB 183

Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Characters face darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon or a subterranean vault, or in an area of magical darkness.

All creatures inside a heavily obscured area suffer from the Blinded condition.

PHB 183

A heavily obscured area—such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage—blocks vision entirely. A creature in a heavily obscured area effectively suffers from the blinded condition (see appendix A).

Silence vs Deafened

An area covered by the Silence spell makes a much more direct comparison to Deafness:

Silence

For the duration, no sound can be created within or pass through a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point you choose within range. Any creature or object entirely inside the sphere is immune to thunder damage, and creatures are deafened while entirely inside it.

And so, there is no way to tell.

Except...

You can leave the area of effect

Both Darkness and Silence create static, non-mobile areas of effect. An easy, mundane way to know is to walk in a straight line until you have walked a certain distance. If you are still blind, it's the Blindness spell; otherwise you will be able to see the area of darkness behind you. If you are still deaf, it's the Deafness spell; otherwise you will start being able to hear again.

Alternatively, you can cast Detect Magic

Blindness/Deafness is a necromancy spell, whereas Silence is an illusion spell, and Darkness is an evocation spell. If you could cast Detect Magic, you would be able to tell the difference between these schools.

You can also try casting spells

Spells which require a Verbal component fail entirely inside an area of Silence, but you can still cast them while Deafened. For example, you can use a Healing Word on yourself. If you regenerate hitpoints, then you must be under the Deafness spell.

Can you use Blindness/Deafness/Darkness/Silence as a tool?

On your final question: is it a tool you have as a DM? Yes, of course it is. You could set up traps and puzzles that require sight or hearing to be gone. Or you can have deaf party members due to the Deafness spell trying to communicate with the other non-deaf party members. It's fun (for you, at least).

Will the players feel hassled? That depends on them. If you would really like to spring it on them, I say give it a shot. But if you genuinely believe they will strongly hate it, ask them to be sure. The reactions of your players will depend on that particular set of players and is not something the people at this Stack can determine for you.

Your job is to present them with obstacles and puzzles to challenge them. This is just one of those ways to do that. So yes, it is within your toolbox if you want to use them.

[RPG] How does Counterspell work and can it be used on Silence

To sum up the mechanics of counterspell:

If a creature with counterspell available can perceive any spell within range being cast, they can attempt to counter it. They don't need to know what spell it is, or even have it on their class list to make the counter. Based on this, and what I gather from your context, the short answer is: yes the NPC could have cast counterspell.

Let's tackle the issues one at a time with this knowledge:

Issue 1:

The NPC doesn't have to know that a silence spell is being cast. All they need to know is that a spell is being cast at all. Counterspell counters any spell after all. How would they know that a spell is being cast? Because silence has verbal and somatic components. So, as long as the NPC can see or hear the caster casting something, the NPC has the option to counterspell it.

Issue 2:

Yes. It's been established in the Sage Advice Compendium that (emphasis mine):

If a spell that’s altered by Subtle Spell has no material component, then it’s impossible for anyone to perceive the spell being cast. So, since you can’t see the casting, counterspell is of no use.

So, if the NPC can't perceive the spell being cast, then they can't counterspell it. In most circumstances (casting during combat or from a different room) it's up to the DM to determine if the NPC can perceive the casting. But if the DM rules (or is convinced) that the NPC can't perceive the casting, then the NPC can't counterspell. In this case, I assume that the NPC could see you casting, and you were within range, so counterspell would have been a legal reaction.

Issue 3:

It could, though it doesn't have to. There are some optional rules that allow creatures to identify a spell as it's being cast, but those are... well... optional. Unfortunately, the DM just has to make a call on what this particular NPC would do, and stick to it. There is no rule pulling the decision one way or another. It's reasonable for the DM to rule that the NPC would take the risk and not counterspell whatever you decide to cast. But, it's just as reasonable for them to rule that the NPC would assume that any spell you cast is a threat that can't be allowed to pass, and so would counterspell it regardless of what it turned out to be.

Issue 4:

Technically, a creature doesn't automatically know anything about the effect of whatever spell a different creature is in the process of casting. But the rules are, again, silent on this matter beyond that. So, if the group decided that minimizing metagaming is something that they want to strive for, neither they, nor the DM should know what spell is cast before deciding to counterspell. But that is a conversation that you all will need to have as a group. Some groups are more lenient where everyone knows what spells are being flung around. And still others let the players know what the enemies cast, but not the other way around. You all have to decide for yourselves what would be the most fun.