RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
If you use dispel magic to dispel an ongoing magical effect, you have to make a dispel check.
Certain spells are able to dispel each other (such as haste and slow).
I had it in my head that using a spell to dispel the effects of its "opposite" required a dispel check, but I can't find where I got that idea from.
Did I imagine/assume it? Is it buried somewhere unintuitive to look?
Thanks.
You imagined it. Dispel magic requires a dispel check. Spells that specifically counter each other automatically do so.
|
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
Spells that specifically counter each other automatically do so.
Note that I'm talking about dispelling, not countering (I already know that countering with the right spell doesn't require a dispel check).
Does that distinction change your answer, or no?
Nope. Haste and slow, for example, would automatically neutralize each other.
If you're using slow to negate haste, the target(s) still have to fail the will save first, so it's not always "automatic," though.
Jiggy the only spell I can find that calls out a dispel check, other than dispel magic, is Quench.
Quench
School transmutation; Level druid 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Area or Target one 20-ft. cube/level (S) or one fire-based magic item
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none or Will negates (object); Spell Resistance no or yes (object)
Quench is often used to put out forest fires and other conflagrations. It extinguishes all nonmagical fires in its area. The spell also dispels any fire spells in its area, though you must succeed on a dispel check (1d20 +1 per caster level, maximum +15) against each spell to dispel it. The DC to dispel such spells is 11 + the caster level of the fire spell.
Each creature with the fire subtype within the area of a quench spell takes 1d6 points of damage per caster level (maximum 10d6, no save allowed).
Alternatively, you can target the spell on a single magic item that creates or controls flame. The item loses all its fire-based magical abilities for 1d4 hours unless it succeeds on a Will save. Artifacts are immune to this effect.
Diminish plants notes that it automatically dispels other effects.
Diminish Plants
School transmutation; Level druid 3, ranger 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF
Range see text
Target or Area see text
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
This spell has two versions.
Prune Growth: This version of the spell causes normal vegetation within long range (400 feet + 40 feet per level) to shrink to about one-third normal size, becoming untangled and less bushy. The affected vegetation appears to have been carefully pruned and trimmed. This version of diminish plants automatically dispels any spells or effects that enhance plants, such as entangle, plant growth, and wall of thorns.
At your option, the area can be a 100-foot-radius circle, a 150-foot radius semicircle, or a 200-foot-radius quarter-circle. You may also designate portions of the area that are not affected.
Stunt Growth: This version of the spell targets all normal plants within a range of 1/2 mile, reducing their potential productivity over the course of the following year to half normal.
This spell has no effect on plant creatures.
What this all means for spells a that dispel their opposite such as haste/slow I'm not sure. It might be something that was over looked or they may have felt it was similar to the being dead in the sense that what they mean is so obvious that we don't need it explained.