How does Self-Silence Work

[Rooshi49]

. . . For example, a level 6-7 bard can self-silence themself and run right next to that epic mage spawn. Is the level 6 bard going to kill anything? Absolutely not. It will keep the spellcaster from haste-casting IGMS/Horrid wilting at your party long enough for the stronger party members to take it out, though!

So as someone who has been playing a bard build and has tried this tactic multiple times, I feel like its . . . weird. Its janky and I feel like it doesn't work alot of the times I expect it to work.

So it begs the question. HOW exactly does it work?
I know that in PVP if you don't hostile someone before you use it it won't work. But in PVE that shouldn't be an issue. . but many times I've ran into mages with silence on and they still were casting spells. Which confounds me. Are there certain spells that can be cast while silenced? Like . . are there purely somatic spells? Do high level mages just have the feats to cast while silenced?

Anyone know some specifics?

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

Without knowing what mobs you're referring to, I can only assume they either have silent spell or auto-silence feats. Not much else makes sense, unless it's a spell-like ability. They /might/ not be subject to verbal component requirements. The wiki doesn't elaborate on this, but a way to check would be to check your combat log for text that reads "Creature X USES Mordenkainen's Greater Missile Storm" as opposed to "Creature X CASTS Mordenkainen's Greater Missile Storm." (...I think spell-like abilities get used instead of cast... I'll double-check later).

There is a short list of spells without a verbal component in the game that will always work even when silenced; clarity, ethereal visage, lesser dispel, and ray of enfeeblement. Some of the mobs might be casting lesser dispels (at low levels).

[The Rambling Midget]

Self-Silence puts an aura around you, and auras are notoriously unreliable in NWN, especially during lag. There are only four spells that have no verbal component, so it's unlikely that's the issue you're running into. However, if casting starts before the NPC is considered to be within the aura, it'll succeed as normal, and it may take longer than you expect for the aura to "catch up". I also wouldn't put it past the devs to give certain NPCs auto-silent or have them use silent spells, in order to prevent excessive silence shenanigans.

[dominantdrowess]

The Silence Spell and mobile area of effect bug is subject to lag.
http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Silence_(spell)

There's a fix here on the vault, but I have not checked it.
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nw ... ompilation

"Silence (nw_s0_silence, nw_s0_silencea and nw_s0_silenceb) : The silence aura was stacking with itself, also the immunity check was messy, working half of the time, the circle no longer breaks"

I am told that aura-fixes also exist in the probably more reliable:
https://neverwintervault.org/project/nw ... ch-project

[msterswrdsmn]

To be honest, I've been popping self-silence a lot for both pve and pvp as of late, and i've never had an issue with it lagging out or not following me. The aura will disappear visually if I run through an area transition, but it will still work as normal even if i can't see it.

I know that in PVP if you don't hostile someone before you use it it won't work. But in PVE that shouldn't be an issue. . but many times I've ran into mages with silence on and they still were casting spells. Which confounds me. Are there certain spells that can be cast while silenced? Like . . are there purely somatic spells? Do high level mages just have the feats to cast while silenced?

Yes! Anything that can be used to give a person immunity to silence/low level spells will effectively protect you from silence, as long as you pop it before you're hit with silence. The spell will still "stick" to you, making you a walking zone of silence as long as your protective spell/immunity is up.

Globe of invunerability, spell resistance, and ethereal visage will all do this. And possibly others i haven't experimented with.

I think critters with an innate spell resistance can also resist the spell effects, so depending on your CR and the enemies SR, this can be kinda janky at times. Is it something i'd recommend screwing with anyway? Yep! Shutting down 3 mages at once that would normally be spamming horrid wilting/IGMS/Meteor swarm and watching them try to smack you instead? Totally worth it, and your party will thank you.