Is this combo as broken as I think it is?

[Balord]

This has probably come up before, but I thought I'd ask anyways.

Would you allow an archmage to use 'mastery of shaping' in combination with an antimagic field? I love the idea of creating spaces within a spell's area that are immune to the spell's effect, but the idea of a shapeshifting wizard within an antimagic field seems a little over the top. Is there much of anything that could challenge such a character? Or should this sort of combo be banned?

 

[JimAde]

Why would you not allow this? Mastery of Shaping works on any spell with an area (including an emanation like Antimagic Field). Not a problem.

 

[Thanee]

There are plenty creatures, that do not rely on magic. During a grapple, you share the space, so you would also not be affected by the antimagic. Ranged attacks and spells should affect the wizard normally, since he is not inside the area himself. And at this level you can shut down Antimagic Fields with Mordenkainen's Disjunction, too.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Balord]

I thought ranged spells sort of 'winked out' once they hit an antimagic field. Or do they pass through?

 

[Thanee]

It doesn't seem so, they would just pass through.

It only says, that summoned creatures wink out, and - of course - that spells or magical effects do not affect anything inside the field.

Bye
Thanee

 

[JimAde]

I believe (though I'm not certain) that ranged spells are completely blocked by an Antimagic Field. So something like Scorching Ray would simply not work (for either the archmage or anyone trying to attack him). The archmage's magic items and so on would continue to work, but his spell effects would not be able to cross the field.

So he could have Protection from Arrows up (or something similar) and he would be safe from just about all ranged attacks. That still doesn't prevent somebody from just walking up and smacking him, though. And he would be unable to affect any foes in melee range of himself with magic.

 

[JimAde]

Hmm. Thanee posted while I was typing and now I'm not sure. Off to check the FAQ.

 

[Infiniti2000]

It doesn't seem so, they would just pass through.

It only says, that summoned creatures wink out, and - of course - that spells or magical effects do not affect anything inside the field.

I'd argue that AMF breaks line of effect. I base this on the text "brought into", which I believe includes line of effect (i.e. rays, etc. passing through) and not just spell effects attached to an individual and brought into the area. More importantly, it also says that the space within the barrier is impervious to most magical effects. I take this to mean that it doesn't allow these effects to pass through and not just that the space itself cannot be, say, charmed or disintegrated.

 

[dcollins]

3rd Ed. Main FAQ says it blocks line of effect:

Does an antimagic field suppress a spell effect at the point
of origin or the area of effect? For instance, if I cast silence
on myself and then cast antimagic field (assuming I have the
Silent Spell feat), would the entire silence spell be
suppressed (because it’s centered on me), or just the 10-foot
radius surrounding me, leaving a 5-foot ring of silence
around the outside of the antimagic field?

It depends on the spell. Silence is an emanation, so the whole
effect is suppressed if the point from which the effect emanates
is inside the antimagic field. With an area spell, only the part of
the area that is within the antimagic field is suppressed. Note
that the antimagic field blocks line of effect, so an area cannot
extend through the antimagic field. For example, if you brought
the antimagic field into a fog cloud effect, only the portion of
the fog cloud that is within the antimagic field would be
suppressed. On the other hand, if you cast antimagic field in a
corridor 10 feet wide, the fog cloud effect could not spread past
the antimagic field. Note that a spread effect will flow around
an antimagic field if it has space to do so, just as it would
spread around any other barrier.

 

[JimAde]

Ok, that's what I thought. So since it "blocks like of effect" that should also mean that you can't, for example, center a spell on the far side of an Antimagic field (since you need line of effect from you to the spell's target). So the theoretical archmage can't really cast any spells outside his own square, but nobody else can really affect him either. What he gets for his master of shaping is that he can cast spells on himself and his magic items all still work. Could be a good tactic to heal or buff up in the middle of action.