The Abundant Ammunition spell says "at the start of each round this spell replaces any ammunition taken from the container the round before. The ammunition taken from the container the round before vanishes."
Anti-Magic Field says "The space within this barrier is impervious to most magical effects, including spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. Likewise, it prevents the functioning of any magic items or spells within its confines." but also says "A normal creature can enter the area, as can normal missiles."
The missiles created by an Abundant Ammunition are created by the spell, but are normal for the round they exist. So, can an archer fire arrows from an Abundant Ammunition spell from outside an Anti-Magic Field and hit a target within?
If so, and the arrows hit or fall within the Anti-Magic field, will they still be replaced in the round after?
So let's go by what happens when an antimagic field interacts with a summoned creature:
Summoned creatures of any type wink out if they enter an antimagic field. They reappear in the same spot once the field goes away. Time spent winked out counts normally against the duration of the conjuration that is maintaining the creature. If you cast antimagic field in an area occupied by a summoned creature that has spell resistance, you must make a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) against the creature's spell resistance to make it wink out. (The effects of instantaneous conjurations are not affected by an antimagic field because the conjuration itself is no longer in effect, only its result.)
So abundant ammo does two things.
1. Put a one-round time limit on the existence of any ammo removed from the container (by any means - be it drawing or dumping).
2. Instantaneously spawn ammo into the container at the start of each round, all the way up to the amount that was there when the spell was cast. When the abundant ammo spell expires, whatever ammo is there remains and is normal for all purposes.
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So let's consider a few interpretations.
1. "The spawning is like a teleport. So the ammo can go in, but not be recalled; AA can't spawn ammo that was caught in an antimagic field. In that sense, the ammo behaves like a returning weapon, only returning to the enspelled container instead of the shooter's hand."
2. "The arrows are like summoned monsters. They temporarily poof for as long as they're within the antimagic field, and permanently (as expected) at the end of the round even if they're currently poofed. However, they can fly THROUGH the antimagic field and hit things behind it, because a charging summoned monster can do that."
(Which means... summoned monsters and AA shots can phase through walls if you place the antimagic field correctly... this is delicious?)
3. "The arrows are like a spell. As such, they're outright blocked (permanently poofing) the moment they hit. AA still replaces them, the way it would if you hit with the shots from a magical weapon."
4. "The arrows are normal, and the antimagic field doesn't suppress the temporary nature AA imposes on them. AA works exactly as written, with no respect to the field."
5. "I'm a munchkin. I want to fire lots of adamant / mithril / bluesteel / etc arrows into an antimagic field, have the field protect them from poofing due to AA's effect, but have AA still replace them, thus duplicating my valuable material arrows infinitely."
I'm inclined to go with 2 or 4, based on my readings of it.
Joey Cote:
True on both counts. On (2) in particular, it stems from me reading too far into something (namely, if AMF's caster moves away from where a summoned monster had poofed, it comes back if it has the duration to do so) and somehow changing that to the summoned monster non-existentially moving *through* the AMF to emerge on its own.
As for how you read abundant ammo, that doesn't make sense at the beginning or end of the spell effect.
At the beginning, the real ammo (which is being essentially cloned by the spell effect) is certainly not conjured, nor created by conjuration magic. Yet it is removed from existence when "replaced" by its newly created successor.
At the end, even created ammo remains, and is real for all purposes, which should not be true if the created ammo is being temporarily held together by magic.
The behavior seems almost like the old ammo is either being called or ported (as though a weapon enchanted with Returning) or is being consumed as though it were a "material component" for an instantaneous creation "spell" that the quiver "casts" to spawn the new ammo.
It seems more like the old ammo is being teleported back and repaired in the process. I feel pretty sure that the arrow would act as a regular arrow inside the field. I’m not sure if you’d get the arrows back outside the field if they landed inside though.
The spell specifies that it works at the beginning of the round after ammunition is drawn from it. That would indicate that the ammunition is not being created until after it has been fired. The spell also specifies that the drawn from the container the previous round vanishes when this happens. The primary reason for this is to avoid this spell being a avenue of unlimited wealth. If this did not happen a character could buy a quiver full of masterwork arrows and empty his quiver for the next minute per level and sell the extra arrows after the spells duration ran out.
What I would do would be to allow the spell to work, but while the arrows (or other ammunition) are in the AMF they remain. Once the AMF goes down all the ammunition in the area disappears.
Why doesn't the AMF dispel the summoned monsters?
Because antimagic field doesn't dispel anything, and hasn't throughout d20 System.
The "winking out" of summoned creatures is simply consistent with the way AMF works with any duration-based magic that would enter it. It doesn't allow the effect to work, but the duration is still tracked.It wasn't quite the same in AD&D; summoned creatures were physically prevented from entering, treating the antimagic shell as a warding effect like Protection from Evil 10' Radius / Magic Circle Against Evil. As in d20, such effects could not be used to force your way into areas containing hedged creatures, and could cause the effect to fail if you tried (after a "discernible pressure" as you shove the bubble into a creature.)
The section on summoning actually treats creatures and objects differently. Summoned creatures are sent back to where they came from when the spell ends or is dispelled, but that does not happen to a summoned object unless the spell description specifically indicates it does.
Antimagic Field also specifies what happens to a summoned creature, but does not mention objects. Since abundant ammunition is summoning objects not creatures they do not wink out.
Thanks everyone. I went with "The ammunition cannot vanish and cannot be replaced if you hit or the ammo falls in the area of the Anti-Magic Field". Of course if the quiver itself were in the field, it would fail entirely.
Thanks again!
Let’s look at exactly what happens with the spell. Before the spell is cast the character has a quiver with 20 non-magical arrows that are real arrows. The character cast Abundant Ammunition on the quiver. At this point all the arrows in the quiver are the original arrows. Next round the character pulls an arrow from the quiver. At the beginning of the next round the arrow that was removed from the quiver disappears and is replaced by a new arrow. At this point the character does not remove any arrows from the quiver before the duration expires. After the duration expires the quiver contains 20 non-magic arrows just like before. At this point the all the arrows in the quiver will continue to exist until they are destroyed in a normal manner. The arrow that was first pulled from the quiver no longer exists at all.
So my question is which was the real arrow? Was it the original arrow that existed before the spell was cast? Or is it the arrow that is left in the quiver after the spell’s duration runs out?
It’s notable that it’s not conjuration(creation), but instead (summoning).
Each conjuration spell belongs to one of five subschools. Conjurations transport creatures from another plane of existence to your plane (calling); create objects or effects on the spot (creation); heal (healing); bring manifestations of objects, creatures, or forms of energy to you (summoning); or transport creatures or objects over great distances (teleportation). Creatures you conjure usually—but not always—obey your commands.
How the spell “works” is unclear, but using the info we have, I think the arrows are being summoned back to the quiver after being shot.