Author Topic: Permanent Silence?  (Read 6882 times)

Offline kevin video

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Permanent Silence?
« on: June 09, 2013, 05:58:59 PM »
Is there an ability or spell that someone can take that'll allow them to permanently silence (make them unable to speak and make sound)? I'm looking at a template that will turn a person into a tree (as stone to flesh but a variant on the original wood to flesh from back in the day), however, they're still able to speak afterwards.

Was thinking of making a creature that decides he's going to curse lumberjacks and loggers by turning them into trees themselves. However, I don't want them to be able to talk.

While the Silence spell is nice, adventurers would immediately know that they've stepped into the radius. Was looking for something that's much smaller. I guess Wish would work too, but that's way too powerful. Lesser Wish, maybe?

Truthfully I'd rather another template or curse ability that you can just tag onto the creature.

The creatures in question would be a dryad with a forest giant protector.
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Offline Demelain

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2013, 06:11:37 PM »
Would Bestow Curse work for that?

Offline kevin video

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2013, 06:48:37 PM »
Would Bestow Curse work for that?
I think it would, yes. It's a higher level spell than Silence so it should be fine. Do you have a way of adding it to a character?
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Offline Arz

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2013, 06:49:43 PM »
Permanency based around the level of see invisibility.

Offline kevin video

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2013, 07:01:18 PM »
Permanency based around the level of see invisibility.
You can't Permanency Silence. It's only limited spells that can do it. However, I did look up the "curses" that Bestow Curse can do, and "Mute" is one of them. It's permanent short of the standard Wish/Miracle/Deus Ex Machina spell break.

Just a matter of getting the spell via a template of some kind.
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Offline NunoM

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2013, 04:21:05 PM »
Sorry, i didn't understand one of your points in the OP.
Why are the lumberjacks able to speak when turned into trees? Is it part of the spell?

A "Flesh to Stone" spell won't let them do so, why would a "Flesh to Wood"?

Offline kevin video

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2013, 04:34:11 PM »
Sorry, i didn't understand one of your points in the OP.
Why are the lumberjacks able to speak when turned into trees? Is it part of the spell?

A "Flesh to Stone" spell won't let them do so, why would a "Flesh to Wood"?
It's part of the curse. Supposedly it's "ironic" to do it.

And Flesh to Wood wouldn't let them either.

Quote
Curse of the Green (Su): natural attack—contact; save Will (DC 10 + 1/2 the green guardian’s HD + its Cha modifier), frequency instantaneous, effect tree polymorph; the target of this curse suddenly stiffens. His skin turns to bark, his toes dig into the ground as roots, and his fingers become branches and twigs. In a moment, he is polymorphed into a tree for all eternity. The victim’s face is turned into a wooden mask on the trunk of the tree. He can still speak, and may even cast spells that have only verbal components, but otherwise he is transformed into a rather ordinary tree. The curse bestowed by this effect cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.
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Offline Demelain

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #7 on: June 12, 2013, 04:39:31 PM »
What if he cuts out their tongues first?

Offline kevin video

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #8 on: June 12, 2013, 04:54:46 PM »
What if he cuts out their tongues first?
Probably be very gruesome. Be a much darker campaign than I'd originally would have anticipated. I suppose their tongues could be burned out.

There might even be an evil spell that could do that.
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Offline nijineko

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #9 on: June 12, 2013, 05:32:10 PM »
making a custom item of continual silence should not be too expensive. stick a pebble of one in the fork of a branch, or in a convenient crevice in the bark.

Offline kevin video

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #10 on: June 12, 2013, 06:07:27 PM »
making a custom item of continual silence should not be too expensive. stick a pebble of one in the fork of a branch, or in a convenient crevice in the bark.
But then that gives you a 20-ft radius area of silence. The adventurers are going to immediately know something's up when they can't hear anything at all.
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Offline NunoM

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #11 on: June 12, 2013, 06:29:43 PM »
You could use natural ways of noise reduction.
Gag them with vines or some kind of overgrowth...? Or he could root them in a swamp and set their mouths underwater, or something. (The spells mentions nothing about the need to breathe, does it?)

Maybe set a birds' nest inside the mouth? Fill the mouth with dirt?

Or... in an extreme way... burn/saw/wood warp the mouth away, effectively muting them, or turning their speech unintelligible.

Offline kevin video

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2013, 06:35:18 PM »
You could use natural ways of noise reduction.
Gag them with vines or some kind of overgrowth...? Or he could root them in a swamp and set their mouths underwater, or something. (The spells mentions nothing about the need to breathe, does it?)

Maybe set a birds' nest inside the mouth? Fill the mouth with dirt?

Or... in an extreme way... burn/saw/wood warp the mouth away, effectively muting them, or turning their speech unintelligible.
It's a mask. You don't see the mouth.
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Offline nijineko

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #13 on: June 12, 2013, 06:37:45 PM »
so shape the area. the metamagic will bump up the price a bit, but still shouldn't be too expensive. (i hope)

Offline Kethrian

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #14 on: June 12, 2013, 08:57:43 PM »
Well, you did say this whole tree transformation thing was a curse anyway.  Why not just tag on the mute option from Bestow Curse right into it?
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Offline ksbsnowowl

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #15 on: June 12, 2013, 09:01:18 PM »
Warp wood to cover the mask/face area with surrounding wood, making it look like a knot?

Then maybe allow a DC 25 or 30 listen check to hear the muffled mumblings of the face beneath the knot?

Edit: What is this curse from?  A template of some kind?  I assume it is PF-based.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2013, 09:02:59 PM by ksbsnowowl »

Offline kevin video

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #16 on: June 12, 2013, 10:28:29 PM »
Edit: What is this curse from?  A template of some kind?  I assume it is PF-based.
Yeah, the template's called Green Guardian, but it's not actually PF. It's 3rd party d20 3.5/PF compatible.
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Offline Kasz

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Re: Permanent Silence?
« Reply #17 on: June 13, 2013, 07:02:55 AM »
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

"No, I cast a permanent silence on it"

"Ah...right, that settles that then."



In seriousness, a continual item of silence was mentioned before... but surely you could make it a smaller area, i.e. 5ft/1 square so it only fills the tree's space and it would actually be cheaper? due to being a more limited version of the spell. 
As long as it's within 5ft of the tree's "mouth" then it'd work... Hell if you made it into a pearl, like a pearl of speech, but a pearl of silence, force it into the lumberjack's mouth and then do the tree curse. so then it should only effect the mouth, and he can't take it out.

Cursed Pearl of Speech?