Dispel Magic

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by wizgeorge, Apr 29, 2005.

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  1. wizgeorge

    wizgeorge Prophet of Wizardy

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    Does dispell magic spell or scroll ever work? I've tried to use it numerous times and it never does anything. I used a scroll bought from Burne on the chest in the firetemple. Nothing. How do you know if it even works. What are the indications if it's successful?
     
  2. Allyx

    Allyx Master Crafter Global Moderator Supporter

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    I wouldn't know I've never seen it work either, the players handbook states that you can use dispel magic to counter spells, that doesn't work either. I tried it with zaxis at level 8 trying to counter a salamanders fireball, needless to say my group got a little toasted around the edges!
     
  3. Zebedee

    Zebedee Veteran Member Veteran

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    As Zaxis would say "This fireball is burning my soul, not to mention my eyebrows...".

    I've not been able to get it to work. I'd always assumed it would clear buffs on opponents (and also help clear spell permanancy...) but sadly not. Need to retest in my current game just to confirm that I'm remembering correctly.
     
  4. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Back in my bug-testing days on the Atari boards, I was able to counter Salamanders' fireballs with Dispel Magic. IIRC, it sort of happened automatically, as long as you had Dispel magic memorized and had readied counterspell as your action.

    It would say something to the effect of, "Wizard attempts counterspell - success!" in the rolls window, and the spell would fizzle.

    Interestingly, the Atari bug-list people considered counterspelling salamanders' fireballs a bug, which is why I was testing it. The thinking was that with salamanders it's a special ability and not really a spell, so . . . no counterspell.

    I wonder if somebody "fixed" this for 3.0.4?
     
  5. Livonya

    Livonya Established Member

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    Yes, dispel magic works.

    It is easy to test this and to show this working.

    It is an area of effect spell. Everyone in the area gets a save roll for each of their magical effects. Those that fail are removed those that make the save are not.

    I know it works because when testing one of the demons I would count the number of spell effects I had running. The demon would cast dispel magic, and I would then find that there were less spell effects running.

    As a counter spell you need to sellect counterspell in your radial menu.

    - Livonyua
     
  6. wizgeorge

    wizgeorge Prophet of Wizardy

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    I tried it on the chest in the firetemple and nothing happened. I wonder what the level of the spell on the chest is? If Alrrem is 12th level and the scroll I got from Burne is 8th level, then there's no chance of dispel removing the fire trap. There's no dialogue or message that says whether it failed or succeeded. I guess I'll never get that chest opened.
     
  7. VaultDweller

    VaultDweller Member

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    I'm fairly sure you can't use Dispel Magic to remove a magical trap.
     
  8. Zebedee

    Zebedee Veteran Member Veteran

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    My bad. Loaded a game up from just before I stopped using dispell. It was a spell permanancy issue. Guess I need to think about using it a bit more now :)
     
  9. Pinky's brain

    Pinky's brain Member

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    Strictly speaking most magic traps are magic items, so even if the rules were implemented correctly dispel magic would only disable them for 1d4 rounds ;)

    (A lot of DM screw with this rule so rogue-less parties are less screwed ... but meh, I think that rogue-less parties should suffer!)
     
  10. wizgeorge

    wizgeorge Prophet of Wizardy

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    It is my understanding that dispell magic should work on anything magical. The % might be low, but it might work. Use to be 50/50, +or- who was stronger. A firetrap on a door for example. Rogue does a search/disable device/open lock or whatever. If it failed the trap went off, and you took the damage. Open lock, successful, you can open door. What I don't understand, is Wonnilon picked the lock okay. Rouge can't disable a magical spell placed on chest, so #1 fighter tries to open, boom, firetrap goes off. The lock has been picked and the trap has gone off so now the chest should open. But it wont. Even tho the lock was picked and the firetrap went off the spell stays on the chest, That's not right. I think something isn't quite right here.
     
  11. Pinky's brain

    Pinky's brain Member

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    By the rules it should work on anything magical, but unless the trap is an actual spell such as an explosive rune it should only surpress the magic for 1d4 rounds. Magic items, such as most magic traps, follow different rules than spells.
     
  12. 0rion79

    0rion79 Established Member

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    How do I?...

    Since we are already talking about Dispell magic, may somebody tell me how to use it as single target spell and not like an area spell? Everytime that I cast it, I just have the option of the blue circle that targets everything in the area inside, including party members. Instead I would like to have it to target maybe 1 single enemy wizard! I know there must be a way, since Dispell magic works in 3 ways: area spell, single target spell, counterspell. Area S. works for sure, this post is about the counterspell, but what about the single target mode?
     
  13. Kalshane

    Kalshane Local Rules Geek

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    I believe this has already been discussed, and the consensus was there's no way to do a single target with the spell right now.
     
  14. 0rion79

    0rion79 Established Member

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    Aww.. I missed that post then, thanks for answering anyway.
     
  15. Pinky's brain

    Pinky's brain Member

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    How about a seperate spell?
     
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