Anti-Magic / Dead Magic Areas / True Sight and Supernatural Albilities

[Lasher Dragon]

I guess I always thought that a supernatural effect was inherently different from a magical effect.

 

[Funeris]

i guess..maybe its semantics.
they could've called it "slightly better than a spell like ability". That might've eliminated this confusion.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

i guess..maybe its semantics.
they could've called it "slightly better than a spell like ability". That might've eliminated this confusion.

Well, spell-like abilities emulate spells. In fact, they are essentially spells that don't require preparation, spell slots, or components. Possessing a spell-like ability generally lets you cast a particular spell x times/day. For example, a balor's spell-like abilities all emulate spells found in the Player's Handbook. So they can be dispelled exactly like the spell they emulate. In some cases (some of the warlock's invocations, for example), the spell-like ability doesn't actually emulate an existing spell, but functions like a spell anyway, and can be affected as though it were a spell. These cases are an exception to the general rule that spell-like abiliites emulate spells.

Supernatural abilities are magical, but do not emulate spells. A beholder's flying ability, for example, does not emulate the fly spell, nor does a dragon's breath emulate any evocation. They cannot be dispelled, since they're not spells. They do however depend on magic, and in areas in which magic does not exist they can't function.

 

[dcollins]

The other thing that distinguishes them is there's generally a pattern that (it's not hard to find counterexamples, but):
- Spell-Like abilities always take an action to trigger, they're cast on somebody else by a specific act, while
- Supernatural abilities are usually continuous and an "always-on" aspect of the creature itself, like an aura, special sight, gaze or touch-turns-to-stone, always on fire, magical flight, etc. You can see that it generally doesn't make much sense to "dispel" them when they're just coming out of the creature all the time anyway.

Dragon's breath is one notable exception to this pattern. Probably could've been Extraordinary and it would make more sense in some ways.

 

[hobbit_killer]

Dragon flight

Back to Dragon Flight, wasn't there a ruling somewhere that any speed over a certain amount was considerd supernatrual. I believe it was 90. It was to prevent monks from going the speed of sound or something. I could be wrong.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

I always thought of supernatural as, like, extranatural LOL

This is interesting. So in a null-magic area:
A ghost cannot manifest, or do anything really.
A wight cannot energy drain nor create spawn even if it could
A basilisk cannot petrify you
A beholder cannot move

Now, would this affect a golem? Would it still function? For that matter, would a skeleton or zombie still be animated?

 

[Funeris]

Exactly...and the ghost is what got me on this train of thought in the first place...and subsequently caused me to bomb my comrades with a couple emails today. I was looking over the ghost template...and all their special ablilites are supernatural...which means (apparently) they get effed in a null-magic area.

Of course after the ghost then I got to thinking about a druid and its wild-shape ability. Which apparently is just an illusion that works permanently except for in (again) a null-magic area.

Then I brought up Dragon's breath...
Hobbit Killer brought up Dragon Flight...
and Yeti decided to post....

 

[Lasher Dragon]

It's interesting to me... perhaps that's why so many people believe in ghosts yet hardly anyone ever sees one... too much damn antimagic around here hehehe

 

[dcollins]

The 90-ft-speed-is-Supernatural is a rule specifically for Monks only (see PHB: "Monk: Fast Movement").

Golems and undead function normally in an antimagic field (see PHB: "Spells: Antimagic Field").

 

[Felix]

I was looking over the ghost template...and all their special ablilites are supernatural...which means (apparently) they get effed in a null-magic area.

Actually ghosts are just fine in Anti-magic zones, since they reside on the ethereal plane. It's their Manifest (Su) power that gets effed. And if that's the case, then they won't really be able to affect much on the Prime Material.