2

How loud are firearms in D&D 5e, and can Artificers modify or build firearms to reduces the noise they make?

How far can you hear a gunshot, and what would be the standard DC for Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect it?

I understand you can cast Silence on the firearm, but I'd want to know if it is possible to reduce the noise or induce disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect it by mechanical means.

Example:

  1. You can hear gunshot noise up to X feet away at a DC of Y.
  2. The Artificer modifies it or builds a new firearm with noise reduction.
  3. You can hear the modded gunshot now up to X-Z feet away at a DC of Y-Z.
V2Blast
  • 49,864
  • 10
  • 220
  • 304
Jhyarelle Silver
  • 11,163
  • 13
  • 74
  • 150

1 Answers1

12

There are no rules for firearm noise levels.

There are simply no rules for this. Firearms are an afterthought in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, as there is a general expectation that most campaigns won’t feature them. Since there are no rules for firearm noise, there are no rules for reducing that noise. All of this is up to the DM.

It is worth mentioning that there really aren't any concrete rules for hearing anything, which nitsua60 explores in this answer, but apparently an official DM screen suggests a very loud noise is audible from 2d6 × 50 feet away.

Firearms are really loud.

I have experience using firearms, and have implemented them in a campaign once, DMing for a player using Matt Mercer’s Gunslinger fighter subclass. Our rule was basically “anything and everything can hear your gun”. They are just too loud to worry about making perception checks for anything. This means the suggestion from the DM screen mentioned above is unfortunately quite low. The distance from which a gun shot remains audible is typically measured in miles.

Movie silencers are fake.

We’re all familiar with sound of James Bond’s suppressed PPK, or at least, the sound movie producer’s like to use for suppressed firearms - somewhere between a whisper and a fart. It isn’t real. Suppressed firearms are still really loud. So even if your artificer could make a silencer as efficient as modern day suppressor technology, chances are you could still hear it from hundreds, even a thousand, yards away (small calibers such as .22lr can be remarkably quiet, however).

Thomas Markov
  • 148,772
  • 29
  • 842
  • 1,137
  • I think the point of the DM Screen is that while very loud sounds might be heard from farther away, they don't initiate encounters. If one were in the woods one might hear a rifle shot from 1.5 miles distant but from an unknown location - but it would not yet be time to roll initiative and begin tracking combat rounds. – Kirt Aug 09 '21 at 16:16
  • @Kirt There really isn't any context given on the screen. It appears to just be "audible distance". – Thomas Markov Aug 09 '21 at 16:19
  • I second everything in this answer, but I specifically second the fact that you can hear a gunshot from a long way away and at least in relatively open areas you can get a pretty good idea of the direction it came from by the sound as well. – TimothyAWiseman Aug 09 '21 at 17:11
  • 2
    Your last point is only sort of true. If you get a commercial handgun and screw on a commercial suppressor, yes, it'll be loud. But a specially modified weapon that prevents the breach from opening and releasing gas (i.e. it's now a single-shot weapon that you reload manually) with a high-grade suppressor that has multiple wipes (self-healing rubber that seals behind the bullet to trap gas inside) can be very quiet indeed, to the point that the sound of the bullet hitting the target is louder than the gunshot. The wipes wear out very fast, so you only get 5 to 10 shots, but it's possible. – Darth Pseudonym Aug 09 '21 at 17:13
  • 2
    @DarthPseudonym Maybe, but we've left D&D at this point. Also I've never seen such a weapon in a movie. – Thomas Markov Aug 09 '21 at 17:18
  • @DarthPseudonym That sounds like the makings of its own answer, no? – screamline Aug 09 '21 at 17:19
  • 2
    The sound of a silenced Walther is about as loud as a slammed door (can 120 db) – Trish Aug 09 '21 at 17:29
  • @ThomasMarkov I haven't seen it myself - I was relying on Javelin's assertion that the table is in a section titled "encounter distance". – Kirt Aug 09 '21 at 17:44
  • 4
    @screamline No, a discussion of real-world silencers would be entirely off-topic. – Darth Pseudonym Aug 09 '21 at 17:55
  • @ThomasMarkov I'm not arguing about whether or not hollywood silencers are fake, just slightly disagreeing with your last two lines. – Darth Pseudonym Aug 09 '21 at 17:58
  • 1
    @DarthPseudonym Suit yourself, of course, but I don't think it's necessarily off-topic. The question asks "how loud are firearms," and to the extent you've ever made use of your knowledge of real-world silencers to inform your gameplay experiences, those experiences would be acceptable answer material. Certainly this answer is framed from the perspective that discussion of silencers, real and unreal, is on-topic. – screamline Aug 09 '21 at 18:12
  • As to your last point, the volume depends heavily on the ammunition's velocity; so I would suggest a little clarification about the volume of a period weapon with ammunition. This doesn't change the accuracy of your answer, it just helps to clarify the applicable conditions. – Journer Aug 09 '21 at 21:09
  • 2
    @DarthPseudonym I have personally fired a .22 pistol that had been built out into a thoroughly suppressed carbine. The guy who brought it to the range had no subsonic .22, and, by happy accident, we did and could share. It didn’t go “bang,” it went “click”. Literally the only sound was the action cycling. It still plunked fine though. Point being, you can get very quiet indeed if you’re willing to sacrifice everything else. – fectin Aug 09 '21 at 22:49
  • 1
    @fectin A subsonic, non-recipercating, low caliber gun could be almost silent. Like the Markov PPB. But a standard gun, like a Sten gun with silencer is still loud enough. Not as loud as a normal Sten, but some 120 dB instead of 150 dB means, that's still in the area of "screaming". Further Reading: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/03/20/are-firearms-with-a-silencer-quiet/ - 30 dB noise reduction is normal but if your gun is already a .22 plinker, you get to 116 dB, about a loud stereo, with supersonic ammo. – Trish Aug 10 '21 at 09:07