D&D 5E ToA: Dispel Magic in the Tomb

[robus]

I've finally made it to the tomb section of ToA and something that strikes me as unclear is the inconsistency of Dispel Magic. (initially I thought that it would be just plain unavailable as it's an obviously easy way to get around some traps and a tricky bugger like Acererak would shut that off first thing! . Instead it seems to work for some things and not others.

This bothers me because I could see my players thinking that I'm just arbitrarily nerfing their skills when it suits me.

So it seems like there should be some way for them to know (by telegraphing) whether it's worth even trying to dispel the magic?

Alternatively I'd be happy to let them know that dispel magic just fizzles in the tomb, for the obvious reason noted above...

So I thought I'd see what other people are thinking about this?

(Very happy to see that the school of magic is described for most magic'd things - that I've read so far - so Detect Magic can give some info without me needing to make it up!).

 

[jaelis]

Seems reasonable to allow an arcana check to suss out whether something would be susceptible to dispel magic.

 

[robus]

Seems reasonable to allow an arcana check to suss out whether something would be susceptible to dispel magic.

Hmm, that’s interesting. Though in the middle of an emergency there may not be that luxury. And I really don’t want to get accused of randomly nerfing when the is hitting the fan!

 

[jaelis]

I don't think anyone could complain if you allowed a check like that but said it took a minute of study or something. In the press of events, you just have to take your best guess and see how it goes

At least, some previous study would have let the players know that DM isn't always going to work.

 

[robus]

Reading further I love how on pg 151, dispel magic makes the challenge harder when invoked on the floating platforms.

Acererak is crafty enough that allowing dispel magic to work sometimes should make those challenges harder, not easier, IMHO!

 

[janosicek]

I would rule like this:
Arcana check to see whether something can be dispelled:

As free action with disadvantage
OR
As a standard action
OR
As a 1-minute action with advantage

 

[André Soares]

I've finally made it to the tomb section of ToA and something that strikes me as unclear is the inconsistency of Dispel Magic. (initially I thought that it would be just plain unavailable as it's an obviously easy way to get around some traps and a tricky bugger like Acererak would shut that off first thing! . Instead it seems to work for some things and not others.

This bothers me because I could see my players thinking that I'm just arbitrarily nerfing their skills when it suits me.

So it seems like there should be some way for them to know (by telegraphing) whether it's worth even trying to dispel the magic?

Alternatively I'd be happy to let them know that dispel magic just fizzles in the tomb, for the obvious reason noted above...

So I thought I'd see what other people are thinking about this?

(Very happy to see that the school of magic is described for most magic'd things - that I've read so far - so Detect Magic can give some info without me needing to make it up!).

I made it very clear to my players that I'd follow as much of the RAW of the adventure as I could, so they probably would not think I'm "cheating". Maybe if you want to give them the information if a spell or effect is dispellable or not, let them make Arcana checks, with the DC based on the spells level or the level of the trap, something like that.

The easy way, if you are willing to change the adventure, is to just disallow Dispel in the whole Thomb.

 

[André Soares]

Hmm, that’s interesting. Though in the middle of an emergency there may not be that luxury. And I really don’t want to get accused of randomly nerfing when the is hitting the fan!

Xanathar's has some rules for Arcana checks for finding out what spell is being used in combat, using a reaction. maybe using the same rules for dspal would work too?

 

[CapnZapp]

I've finally made it to the tomb section of ToA and something that strikes me as unclear is the inconsistency of Dispel Magic. (initially I thought that it would be just plain unavailable as it's an obviously easy way to get around some traps and a tricky bugger like Acererak would shut that off first thing! . Instead it seems to work for some things and not others.

This bothers me because I could see my players thinking that I'm just arbitrarily nerfing their skills when it suits me.

So it seems like there should be some way for them to know (by telegraphing) whether it's worth even trying to dispel the magic?

Alternatively I'd be happy to let them know that dispel magic just fizzles in the tomb, for the obvious reason noted above...

So I thought I'd see what other people are thinking about this?

(Very happy to see that the school of magic is described for most magic'd things - that I've read so far - so Detect Magic can give some info without me needing to make it up!).

Could you describe a few examples where you believe Dispel Magic would make a difference?

You speak of an "obviously easy way". It would make it easier to reply if we knew what you had in mind.

 

[robus]

Could you describe a few examples where you believe Dispel Magic would make a difference?

You speak of an "obviously easy way". It would make it easier to reply if we knew what you had in mind.

Well I was making these comments over a year ago But I remember there was at least a couple of traps that were susceptible to dispel magic (which made me go "wuh?") and thus the trap was neutralized.

I'll have a reskim through that section of the book this evening and pull out a couple of examples, it was quite plain in my reading.

Also I've not run this adventure (we're still slogging through my OotA reboot) so this was all theoretical.