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Message: <blockquote data-quote="airwalkrr" data-source="post: 5722885" data-attributes="member: 12460">First of all, shame on you and your fellow players for arguing with your DM in the middle of a game. Very bad form. He decides what is fair and what isn't and obviously decided this was not. So long as he is consistent, this is not a problem.Second of all, I hope it makes you feel better to say that you are absolutely correct in your interpretation, although I am unaware of any official word on the subject. It certainly isn't one of the hotly contested rules debates (of which there were many) from the 3e era.Finally, before going back to your DM with this, decide for yourself whether you are doing it because you feel it is going to have a seriously negative impact on game balance, or because you just want to win an argument. I mean, you are right, but fighting an argument just to win is never a very laudable motive. I sense some anger and a bit of resentment in your post and believe you might want to think this one over. I honestly don't believe it will make a very big difference in the grand scheme of things so long as your DM is consistent in the ruling. And remember that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. If an area dispel won't remove etherealness from an NPC, it won't work against a PC either. I have to admit that as a DM, one of the most cogent arguments a player can make concerning whether a ruling I've made is incorrect is by demonstrating in play how the situation can be exploited by a player. In these cases, I allow the player to take advantage of the exploit for the sake of consistency, then I may reevaluate the matter. Or I may not. It all depends on how drastically it impacts the game as a whole.Of course, had I been the DM this never would have been an issue because I never would have allowed my players to believe there was a rules dispute in the first place. If I didn't feel like dispel magic ought to carry to the Material Plane, I would have rolled some dice behind the table and said "nope, it looks your spell did not remove the etherealness spell." Then the players would have shrugged and said "Oh well, at least we tried." Any number of things could have happened. The area dispel check might have failed, or another lower or higher level spell might have been dispelled instead. There was no reason for the players to have ever known there was a rules dispute, but if they were talking about it and the DM disagreed (privately), he could always investigate it later and make the determination then. A good DM is sneaky and underhanded, but often has happier players as a result.</blockquote>

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