"I Attack The Darkness!" (With a Dispel . . . paging Caliban!)

[Forrester]

Someone help me out here. Let's say that there's a standing area effect that I want to dispel -- Darkness, Solid Fog, Stinking Cloud, whatever. Let's say that I can't see the center of the spell (i.e., where it originated from), or perhaps I simply don't know exactly where it originated from when it was first cast.

Can I still targeted dispel it? If I want to get rid of a Solid Fog, do I have to target the center of it, or can I just see it and nuke it?

If I cannot, I have to settle for an area dispel, one which would nuke the area effect in the overlap area between the Dispel and the effect, right?

 

[Zenon]

AFASIK, you don't have to target the center of the original effect to do a targeted dispel (or an area one). I believe you just need to be able to get at part of the effect to dispel it.

IIRC, you would need to do a Spellcraft check to identify the spell effects after it has been cast (in order to know the name of the spell you are targeting with the dispel).

If you could not identify it exactly, then I think you are stuck using an area dispel to try to get rid of it.

Hopefully, someone can back this up (or show I'm wrong if the above isn't correct).

 

[Kyramus]

if you are using an opposing spell then you'll need to know the source spell.
if you don't know the source spell, use spell craft.

if you fail the spell craft you need to do an area dispel.


Dispelling a spell in effect has never needed to target the center of the spell effect, it's always the spell IN effect.

IE dispell as an area effect, targetting the darkness. roll opposing dispel checks and done.

Darkness in the area, and you use continual light, they cancel each other out unless the darkness spell is of a higher level than the light. It has been known that the simple light spell (level 0) doesn't dispel the level 2 darkness spell. The "dispelling" spell has to be of equal or higher level than the "in effect" spell.

 

[Darklone]

Dispel magic dispels the whole darkness if you have the center of the darkness spell in your area dispel and if not, it still dispels the part of the darkness in the area of the dispel.

 

[Destil]

Note that with the targeted (non area of effect) version of dispel magic you can target a single spell, in which case you just need to identify the spell and cast, no worrying about the center or anything.

 

[Caliban]

Someone help me out here. Let's say that there's a standing area effect that I want to dispel -- Darkness, Solid Fog, Stinking Cloud, whatever. Let's say that I can't see the center of the spell (i.e., where it originated from), or perhaps I simply don't know exactly where it originated from when it was first cast.

Can I still targeted dispel it? If I want to get rid of a Solid Fog, do I have to target the center of it, or can I just see it and nuke it?

If I cannot, I have to settle for an area dispel, one which would nuke the area effect in the overlap area between the Dispel and the effect, right?

As Destil said, if you do a targeted dispel on the Darkness, you don't need to see the origination point.

If you want to take the entire spell out with an Area Dispel, you need to include the center of the spell in the area affected by the Dispel.

 

[dcollins]

I agree that a targeted dispel is allowed regardless of whether you can see the center point of origin or not.

I see nothing in the rules that requires a Spellcraft check to identify the spell prior to doing this.