D&D 5E Blind People Get Dogs or Sticks: What Do You Give A Mute Spellcaster?

[ThePolarBear]

Starting a short-term campaign (12 weeks or so, just passing time before my/our current DM finishes classes and continues HotD,) and tonight was character creation and dinner. Everyone seems okay, typical race/class combos...


Chris wants to play a wizard.

One that is mute.

[...]

Brainstorm, please.

Verbal components aren't really important in what one says: It's the pitch and resonance that's what triggers the spell. The reason one can't really talk is about as important as the verbal component itself. "mute" but can still emits sounds of some sort it might still be possible for him/her to be a spellcaster. If not it might rely on trinkets and baubles (like different sized bells, littel dishes, crystal vials wit differnt liquids and quantities inside...) on the vest itself to trigger the specific sounds required by each spell, prehaps requiring the caster to have both hands always free. Or clicking the tongue in very specific ways, prehaps with a focus that's made for that reason alone and it's so particular to be one-of-a-kind.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Chris wants to play a wizard.

One that is mute.

You don't have to change anything necessarily as mute people still emit sounds and resonance, which verbal components is all about, rather than being about saying specific words being the source of spell’s powers. One could go on similar to tuvan throat singing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPN4ImIoVm0



Verbal (V): Most spells require the chanting of mystic words. The words themselves aren’t the source of the spell’s power; rather, the particular combination of sounds, with specific pitch and resonance, sets the threads of magic in motion. Thus, a character who is gagged or in an area of silence, such as one created by the silence spell, can’t cast a spell with a verbal component.

 

[MarkB]

Have him write down his spells' verbal components phonetically. Then, each time he casts, he hands a slip of paper to one of the other PCs and says "Okay, when I start to wiggle my fingers, read this out loud."

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I'd present the (very small) list of spells with no verbal components in the Player's Handbook and wish him luck...

 

[77IM]

I think that not being able to talk is enough of a drawback that it should balance the ability to cast all spells silently. So, I'd just give him the special ability to cast spells silently.

 

[Blue]

A Variant Find Familiar spell that grants a Parrot who will do the talking for him. This particular variation of the spell can be done without a verbal component.

I also play 13th Age which is similar to 5e but one of the difference is that each character has One Unique Thing. Maybe you are "The only gnome knight in the Order of Saint Cuthbert" or "Have a mechanical replacement arm made by a mad dwarf inventor".

A One Unique Thing from one of the creators of the system was that his caster had a talking snake that did all of the conversing because he saved his voice only for the pure joy of magic.

So a talking familiar was on the top of my mind and I see you've already suggested it. Excellent!

 

[Blue]

I'd present the (very small) list of spells with no verbal components in the Player's Handbook and wish him luck...

If the player is self-imposing a heavy penalty on him character to make it more interesting, I'd personally be invested in meeting him half-way so that we can play something cool and make great stories, instead fo just screwing him over in such a way saying "This may be magical fantasy, but your idea can't be done successfully and has no place here".

There's no rules for self-imposing a penalty like this, so by the flip side I don't feel constrained by the rules to make it incredibly punishing to someone who just wants to try a cool concept and is willing to hobble himself to some degree but still wants some way to be able to cast their spells.

 

[knasser]

His Spell casting requires both hands free, one for Somatic components, and one for sign language. Basically, he has learned to compensate for his lack of Verbal components by making advanced two-handed somatic based spells.

I was about to reply that sign-language makes no sense - after all, who exactly is there to watch him when he casts a spell alone in the dark... but then I realised it's the same Thing that is always listening when someone speaks a spell. And then it became creepy.

 

[Beleriphon]

There's no rules for self-imposing a penalty like this, so by the flip side I don't feel constrained by the rules to make it incredibly punishing to someone who just wants to try a cool concept and is willing to hobble himself to some degree but still wants some way to be able to cast their spells.

I'd honestly borrow an idea from other games: in exchange for a serious drawback like being a mute wizard I'd give them a free "silent casting" feat that basically buys it off for the purposes of being a wizard.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

His Spell casting requires both hands free, one for Somatic components, and one for sign language. Basically, he has learned to compensate for his lack of Verbal components by making advanced two-handed somatic based spells.

This kind of reminds me of the 'class' in the 2.5e Spells & Magic book from way back when. Wasn't there an option for a wizard to be a "Geometer"? They basically had to carve, sketch, draw, paint, etc complex symbols and sigil's in order to cast their spells. I think there is a Palladium Fantasy magic user type that does that too (..."Diabolist"?...). I'd look at implementing something like that.

If you take the "Players Option" quartet of books as a "separate game based on AD&D", and tweak how the points system works, it actually runs pretty nicely. I ran a Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign waaaay back when using those rules. I think it was somewhere around a year in length. Lots of fun, overall.

^_^

Paul L. Ming