1. I recognize nothing in
the description of A-M that says you can't cast spells / use Sp / Su powers or activate magical devices with in A-M, or that such actions are liable to fail. All it says is "suppresses". So, by RAW, it's easier than what I propose. This tells me that in this case [RAW = RAI]. I just don't agree that it should be trivial.
2. Antimagic Field is dismissable, meaning that for all intents and purposes it's not only an active, but also a
reactive spell effect.
3. I see no reason why a 6th level spell should be the ultimate off-switch.
Hmm. Let's look at point 1. What follows is from a section of the SRD other than the spell description for
Antimagic Field, and if often overlooked in discussions like this.
SRD said:
ANTIMAGIC
An antimagic field spell or effect cancels magic altogether. An antimagic effect has the following powers and characteristics.
• No supernatural ability, spell-like ability, or spell works in an area of antimagic (but extraordinary abilities still work).
• Antimagic does not dispel magic; it suppresses it. Once a magical effect is no longer affected by the antimagic (the antimagic fades, the center of the effect moves away, and so on), the magic returns. Spells that still have part of their duration left begin functioning again, magic items are once again useful, and so forth.
• Spell areas that include both an antimagic area and a normal area, but are not centered in the antimagic area, still function in the normal area. If the spell’s center is in the antimagic area, then the spell is suppressed.
• Golems and other constructs, elementals, outsiders, and corporeal undead, still function in an antimagic area (though the antimagic area suppresses their spellcasting and their supernatural and spell-like abilities normally). If such creatures are summoned or conjured, however, see below.
• Summoned or conjured creatures of any type, as well as incorporeal undead, wink out if they enter the area of an antimagic effect. They reappear in the same spot once the field goes away.
• Magic items with continuous effects do not function in the area of an antimagic effect, but their effects are not canceled (so the contents of a bag of holding are unavailable, but neither spill out nor disappear forever).
• Two antimagic areas in the same place do not cancel each other out, nor do they stack.
• Wall of force, prismatic wall, and prismatic sphere are not affected by antimagic. Break enchantment, dispel magic, and greater dispel magic spells do not dispel antimagic. Mage’s disjunction has a 1% chance per caster level of destroying an antimagic field. If the antimagic field survives the disjunction, no items within it are disjoined.
Okay, let's look at the highlighter sections.
The first one said, "No supernatural ability, spell-like ability, or spell works in an area of antimagic (but extraordinary abilities still work)"
The third one said, "Magic items with continuous effects do not function in the area of an antimagic effect, but their effects are not canceled (so the contents of a bag of holding are unavailable, but neither spill out nor disappear forever)."
So, can you activate a magic item? Yes. It won't work, and you'll essentially be going through the motions, but you can do it, just as you can scream in an area of
Silence.
Magic items either work as a continuous effect, or they cast a spell or spell like effect. Between the two sections quoted, both of those possibilities are covered.
Can you cast a spell? Again, yes, just as you can scream in an area of
Silence. You can go through the motions, it just won't achieve anything.
Now technically, you could cast a spell while inside, so long as the target was outside, and the spell "originated" outside. That is, a spell like
Chain Lightning could be cast at a group of targets outside the AMF, since the spell manifests from the first target, and spreads to the other targets from there.
A spell like a regular
Lightning Bolt, however, is a line effect, starting at the caster, or more precisely from a corner of the casters square. If that origination point is inside the AMF, the spell fails completely.
Any spells targeted at anyone or anything inside the AMF fail, because you can't cast "into" an AMF.
So what part of the printed rules don't you "recognize"? The part that says items cease to function in an AMF?
The part that says that spells that originate inside an AMF fail?
The part that says you can't cast spells into an AMF?
Or am I misreading something? Was your statement that you don't "recognize" anything in the spell somewhat akin to the defendant in court declaring that he doesn't recognize the authority of that court?
That is, were you saying that you didn't understand the rules, or were you declaring your independence from them?
