Can I use Empower Spell on _dispel magic_?

[azhrei_fje]

I'm reviewing a cleric build for the campaign that I'm running and looking for unusual uses or combinations of spells. Since the cleric has the Empower Spell feat, I'd like to find a good use for it. So here come some questions.

The first one is in the subject line: if this cleric uses Empower Spell on dispel magic, is the 1d20 roll increased by 50%? Is that considered a "variable, numeric effect"? Regardless, I plan to have this cleric use the area effect version of dispel magic for the first couple of rounds while his melee machine partner engages the party.

Also, I may give this cleric a spell storing weapon. What are some good spells to store in the weapon? I'm considering bestow curse and blindness/deafness. Any other ideas?

It looks like plane shift and slay living are great spells for this cleric to use against fighter types and spellcasters, respectively. Any comments on this?

Thanks everyone! I humbly await the response of the hivemind.

 

[irdeggman]

I don't think so.

The d20 roll is not a numeric "affect" anymore than the d20 roll for a skill check or an attack roll is a numeric "affect".

There is no scaled result, the result of the d20 roll determines whether or not the dispel works - not what happens (it is a yes-no answer).

 

[shilsen]

No, you can't. As the description of the ... wait for it ... wait for it ... Empower Spell feat explicitly tells you.

 

[irdeggman]

No, you can't. As the description of the ... wait for it ... wait for it ... Empower Spell feat explicitly tells you.

Yup

Saving throws and opposed rolls (such as the one you make when you cast
dispel magic) are not affected,

 

[azhrei_fje]

Doh! Y'know, I read the feat description 3 or 4 times but never saw the text "caster level check" and thought maybe ...

I suppose it is an opposed check, after all. Darn.

Okay, thanks all. We now return you to your regularly scheduled forum browsing...

 

[mvincent]

Doh! Y'know, I read the feat description 3 or 4 times but never saw the text "caster level check" and thought maybe ...

To be fair: it's in the PHB, but not the the SRD.

 

[ppz]

Also, I may give this cleric a spell storing weapon. What are some good spells to store in the weapon? I'm considering bestow curse and blindness/deafness. Any other ideas?

IMC, I was playing a wizard who kept the barbarians spell storing greatsword buffed with Vampiric touch. Just a thought if you have a friendly wizard...

 

[azhrei_fje]

And even better, the dispel magic doesn't say that the roll is an opposed roll, it says that it's a dispel check. If you read that like skill check, then it should be something that can be empowered, because empowering doesn't work on "saving throws and opposed rolls".

Empower Spell [Metamagic]
Benefit

All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by one-half.

Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. An empowered spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Would empowering work on a spell that provided a bonus (or penalty) to a variable skill check? If the answer is yes, then it should work on a dispel check as well. Granted, some skill checks can be opposed rolls (Bluff vs. Sense motive), but if the spell description uses "skill check" instead of "opposed roll", why not take it at face value?

 

[shilsen]

Since the PHB specifically uses the example of Dispel Magic and says it doesn't work, I don't think there's much of a valid argument for it to be empowerable.

 

[mvincent]

if the spell description uses "skill check" instead of "opposed roll", why not take it at face value?

Er... according to the rules, a dispel magic check is an opposed roll (even if the opposition is a static number). The fact that examples like this are not provided in the SRD only gives one excuse for not knowing it initially (assuming one uses the SRD as your primary reference souce, instead of the PHB), but not an excuse for ignoring it once known.