Detecting an anti-magic field

[nute]

Simple question - can Detect Magic perceive the existence of an anti-magic field?

~M.

 

[gfunk]

My guess is no. It would register the same as if no magic existed at all.

 

[Hypersmurf]

You need a version of the Weather Rock.

You cast Nystul's Magic Aura on a rock. You hold the rock in front of you and cast Detect Magic.

If the rock stops appearing as magical, then you know one of three things :

1. NMA has expired or been dispelled.
2. Detect Magic has expired or been dispelled.
3. You're standing in an Anti-Magic Field.

-Hyp.

 

[Steverooo]

Simple question - can Detect Magic perceive the existence of an anti-magic field?

~M.

Detect Magic detects background magic, and even the residual magic left over in some stuff, so I would allow it.

Kinda like a lot of people think that black is the color to wear, for sneaking around at night, when the truth is that a black object against a starlit backdrop is generally easy to see. Ninjas wore grey.

Similarly, I would think a zone of NO magic in a fantasy world would stick out like a zone of shadow in a sunlit field, or a plum on a snowfield. YMMV. The rules don't say...

 

[Drawmack]

I would say that you can detect an anti-magic field with detect magic but not directly.

An antimagic field suppresses any spell or magical effect used within, brought into, or cast into the area, but does not dispel it. Time spent within an antimagic field counts against the suppressed spell's duration.

So your detect magic would stop working when inside an antimagic field. Therefor you would detect the antimagic field by stepping in and out of it.

 

[Pax]

Cast continual flame on a bagful of beads ... say, a few thousand of them.

Affix said now-flaming beads at various points on a very long string.

Swirl said string around in an arc; wherever the continual flames wink out, is an antimagic field (or in the FR, a Dead Magic Zone).

8)

 

[Darklone]

Have a wiz in the party with permanencied Detect Magic. As soon as the groups stops blinding him, you're in dead magic zone.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So your detect magic would stop working when inside an antimagic field. Therefor you would detect the antimagic field by stepping in and out of it.

That's why you need the magic rock, though... 'cos otherwise you can't tell the difference between "There's no magic nearby" and "My spell stopped working".

-Hyp.

 

[Vaxalon]

Cast continual flame on a bagful of beads ... say, a few thousand of them.

Affix said now-flaming beads at various points on a very long string.

Swirl said string around in an arc; wherever the continual flames wink out, is an antimagic field (or in the FR, a Dead Magic Zone).

8)

Two thousand continual flaming beads would cost 100,000 gp to create. That doesn't sound like a cost-effective solution.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So what happens if you cast something like Continual Flame or Nystul's Magic Aura on "a bowl of water", or "a bag of sand", or, God help us, "a loaded crossbow"?

In 1E, we had a cleric and a wizard who retired... they made a living casting Continual Light on chickens and selling the feathers as good luck charms...

-Hyp.