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The description of the zone of truth spell says:
you create a magical zone that guards against deception
But later on, it says:
On a failed save, a creature can't speak a deliberate lie while in the radius.
Say a character casts zone of truth on a mute person, or perhaps the party trickster simultaneously casts silence in the same area.
Under the mechanics of zone of truth, can an affected creature lie using sign language or a non-vocal form of communication?
As you noted, the effect of Zone of Truth is:
On a failed save, a creature can’t speak a deliberate lie while in the radius.
There are no explicit rules for sign language in 5e. It isn't provided as a language that may be learned, and it isn't incorporated into existing rules. There are some mentions of NPC sign language (such as Drow Sign Language). If your GM is allowing for sign language, you are in their territory.
The first sentence of Zone of Truth says:
You create a magical zone that guards against deception ...
This does not imply that it prevents every kind of deception. The specific effects are listed later ("a creature can't speak a deliberate lie"). The effect of preventing deliberate spoken lies is how it guards against deception.
Non-verbal communication may be deceitful. Zone of Truth regulates "speak[ing]". Non-verbal communication includes things like body posture, facial expressions, and other non-spoken contextual things.
If a regicide under Zone of Truth is asked, "did you kill the King?" they are not allowed to speak a lie. However, they can feign a surprised or innocent expression and body language to support it.
I agree that they can lie non-verbally, as the rules specify the the target cannot speak a lie.
However, even if they can, the conjurer knows their own magic and will probably just tell others "They need to speak, or else the spell won't work, do not trust their gestures!"
They could also just refuse to answer the question. "I do not want to answer this question", as the spell per se does not compel anyone to speak.
So...not much use for that in a practical way. The conjurer and interest parts will probably view this as elusive attempt to hide the truth, and it will have the opposite effect, most probably.
The magical zone created by ZoT guards against deception:
You create a magical zone that guards against deception
But there are multiple ways of satisfying that description. ZoT does not have to guard against all deception, or eliminate every possibility of deception. It just guards against deception.
The way in which ZoT 'guards against deception' is made clear by the rest of the spell's description:
On a failed save, a creature can't speak a deliberate lie while in the radius
So the spell guards against deception by stopping those under its influence from speaking a deliberate lie. That's the specific remit of the spell's guarding; accidental lies (whatever those are), hand-signals and written words are outside of the scope. If a spell does something, it's in the spell's description. If something's not in the spell's description, the spell doesn't do that thing.
I dare say that because the way they worded the effect:
On a failed save, a creature can’t speak a deliberate lie while in the radius.
That they actually intended for players to be able to feel smart about themselves and think ‘ohh they say speak!’
The people behind D&D have plenty of experience with how phrases in rules are overanalyzed. They could have easily just said ‘can’t lie deliberately’ but instead they chose to include ‘speak’ in the sentence.
I would say it’s not even up to the GM (other than everything being up to the GM in the end) but it’s just flat-out possible to lie non-vocally. However, the (n)pc’s who know the effect of the spell might see through that.
The Zone guards against deception. PHB page 178 states
Your Charisma (Deception) check determines whether you can convincingly hide the truth, either verbally or through your actions.
In the spell description of Zone of Truth, they are not referring to Deception the skill, but the definition of the skill lines up fairly well with the english language definition, which states that deception is the act of decieving someone, and decieve is defined as making someone believe something that is not true, with no mention of having to speak.
This means deception does not have to be vocal, or even verbal. However, there is some ambiguity. You cannot speak a deliberate lie. Speaking clearly means talking, making a sound with your voice in a certain language. Body language, sign language, and pantomime are not speaking.
They say speak a deliberate lie, yes, and RAW must interpret every word of the spell description. However, it seems obvious to me that they intended no deception to be possible, as shown in the earlier line.
Speaking is not defined in the rules; accordingly, we must look to common usage.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of "speak" is as follows:
- say something in order to convey information, an opinion, or a feeling. "in his agitation he was unable to speak"
[...]
- (of behavior, an object, etc.) serve as evidence for something. "his frame spoke tiredness"
Accordingly, body language is speaking as much as verbal speech is speaking.
