A Question on Dispel Magic


Rules Questions


If I had reason to believe a foe was under the effects of a Haste spell (or any spell for that matter) and I wanted to dispel the Haste, but not any other spell effects, could I simply target the Haste? Do I have to be able to see and identify the Haste aura via Detect Magic and Spellcraft?

Dark Archive RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

Quantum Steve wrote:
If I had reason to believe a foe was under the effects of a Haste spell (or any spell for that matter) and I wanted to dispel the Haste, but not any other spell effects, could I simply target the Haste? Do I have to be able to see and identify the Haste aura via Detect Magic and Spellcraft?

It's right there in the description of dispel magic:

PRD wrote:
You can also use a targeted dispel to specifically end one spell affecting the target or one spell affecting an area (such as a wall of fire). You must name the specific spell effect to be targeted in this way. If your caster level check is equal to or higher than the DC of that spell, it ends. No other spells or effects on the target are dispelled if your check is not high enough to end the targeted effect.

So yes, you can specify a single spell to be dispelled even if other effects exist on the target creature. You don't need to be able to identify the spell in question, but if you try to dispel haste and the target is actually under the effect of a similar spell that you only THOUGHT was haste, then your dispel won't work (unless your GM is nice).


Cool. I knew I could target a spell, but I didn't know if you had to "see" it to target it. Usually you can't target something you can't see.

Grand Lodge

Quantum Steve wrote:
Cool. I knew I could target a spell, but I didn't know if you had to "see" it to target it. Usually you can't target something you can't see.

The target of dispel magic is a spellcaster, creature or object. You cast it on your enemy and name a spell affecting that creature which you want to dispel, as Fatespinner described.


Starglim wrote:
Quantum Steve wrote:
Cool. I knew I could target a spell, but I didn't know if you had to "see" it to target it. Usually you can't target something you can't see.
The target of dispel magic is a spellcaster, creature or object. You cast it on your enemy and name a spell affecting that creature which you want to dispel, as Fatespinner described.

Huh. That would mean one could not dispel a Spell Turning. I was under the impression one could; Dispel Magic targeting the spell and Spell Turning only "turning" spells targeting the creature.

So that doesn't work anymore.

Dark Archive RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

Quantum Steve wrote:

Huh. That would mean one could not dispel a Spell Turning. I was under the impression one could; Dispel Magic targeting the spell and Spell Turning only "turning" spells targeting the creature.

So that doesn't work anymore.

Yeah, you can't actually dispel spell turning with dispel magic unless you use greater dispel magic, which has an "area dispel" option. That one gets by on the technicality that spell turning can't affect area spells. At that point, you just hope that spell turning is one of the highest level spells currently affecting the target (at 7th level, it probably will be!) since greater dispel checks against spells from highest to lowest level.


Fatespinner wrote:
Quantum Steve wrote:

Huh. That would mean one could not dispel a Spell Turning. I was under the impression one could; Dispel Magic targeting the spell and Spell Turning only "turning" spells targeting the creature.

So that doesn't work anymore.
Yeah, you can't actually dispel spell turning with dispel magic unless you use greater dispel magic, which has an "area dispel" option. That one gets by on the technicality that spell turning can't affect area spells. At that point, you just hope that spell turning is one of the highest level spells currently affecting the target (at 7th level, it probably will be!) since greater dispel checks against spells from highest to lowest level.

Sorry to necro this thread, but it's exactly the question I was looking for.

If you read the Dispel Magic description, the text of Targeted Dispel allows to target a spell effect :
PRD, Dispel Magic wrote:
Targeted Dispel: One object, creature, or spell is the target of the dispel magic spell.

So I'd rather think that dispel magic or greater dispel magic work against spell turning. The main problem for the dispelling caster, is to know that the spell turning is active.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Quote:

(Zagyg) If you read the Dispel Magic description, the text of Targeted Dispel allows to target a spell effect :

PRD, Dispel Magic wrote:
Targeted Dispel: One object, creature, or spell is the target of the dispel magic spell.
So I'd rather think that dispel magic or greater dispel magic work against spell turning. The main problem for the dispelling caster, is to know that the spell turning is active.

The problem will be someone reading that the actual stat block doesn't list "a spell" as a target. That said it also doesn't make sense that "an area" is a valid target for a dispel, since otherwise you cannot "dispel a wall of fire", which the spell lists as an example, unless you count the spell, or its area, as an object.

I would err on the side of being able to dispel Spell Turning.

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