Spoiler Alert! : About the pre-final battle of Red Hand of Doom

[Shin Okada]

I will DM the part V of the Red Hand of Doom campaign within few months.

Now, reading the description of "17. Inner Sanctum", I have several things to check before actually running that encounter.

It says that the entire chamber is filled by an Unhallow spell and "s silence spell keyed to affect all nonworshipers of Tiamat"

In this case, should I allow PCs making a saving throw for resisting Silence effect when entering the area of Unhallow? Or not?

And, it also says,

The unhallow spell functions at caster level 11th -- taking it down should be the primary goal for PC spellcasters if they hope to e able to add anything to the climatic combat in the inner sanctum.

But HOW?

Unhallow has a duration of instantaneous and thus cannot be dispelled. So basically, that information regarding caster level is no use. Basically, the only way to "taking it down" is to counter by Hallow. But it has casting time of 24 hours and of course, impractical. What kind of countermeasure is the author assuming? Or anyway, what kind of countermeasure is possible for ordinary 9th-10th PCs?

 

[Kwitchit]

Could Dispel Magic take down the silence effect? After all, while Unhallow is instantaneous, the tied spell effect "lasts for one year...regardless of its normal duration". I think that means it has a duration of 1 year, so can be dispelled. The battle is still taking place in an Unhallowed area, so the PCs have the magic circle against good to contend with- though fortunately there are no Undead here!

Also, there's always the option of casting spells from inside the shaft...

 

[mvincent]

When my party did it, I resorted to casting dispel magic (from the shaft) on the silence effect.

From the 3.5 FAQ (if desired):
"you can use dispel magic to end the duration of
the spell effect tied to the hallow or unhallow"

 

[Kwitchit]

So that works then. Either a Dispel out of the shaft or a Silenced Dispel (easily within reach at this level) should allow the casters to prove their worth. Also, if you have a RBDM, it means you can stop miming!

 

[Doug Sundseth]

That was a really good encounter in which to be a flying warlock with Voracious Dispelling.

 

[Shin Okada]

Thanks. If dispel will work, our party will make it I guess. There is a cleric with magic domain and Domain Spontaneity feat and a Sorcerer who leaned Dispel Magic and has +1 CL due to Draconic Power feat. A lot of Dispel Magic could be cast.

 

[Elethiomel]

When I ran through this module, it was ruled that in order to have line of effect to near enough to the spell's center to dispell the spell you had to be inside the Unhallow.

 

[Shin Okada]

When I ran through this module, it was ruled that in order to have line of effect to near enough to the spell's center to dispell the spell you had to be inside the Unhallow.

So you ruled that PC's in the shaft can't see the center of the room?

If so, PCs can "partially Dispel" the silence effect by using Area version of Dispel Magic and create a 20 foot radius circle of "non-silent" area, right?

 

[Elethiomel]

So you ruled that PC's in the shaft can't see the center of the room?

If so, PCs can "partially Dispel" the silence effect by using Area version of Dispel Magic and create a 20 foot radius circle of "non-silent" area, right?

I wasn't the GM. If I'd been the GM I would have ruled that if you correctly guessed the center of the emanation effect you could cast an area Dispel Magic from inside the shaft (where you can't see the center or "target point" of the spell and hence the center can't see you and you are not within the Unhallow effect) that had the center of the spell within its area, hence dispelling the entire effect. Emanations emanate from a point - less an Antimagic Field or Wall of Force you can't break line of effect with a spell that doesn't also break line of sight.

It was ruled that without being able to see the center of the spell, you couldn't target the center of the spell, and hence couldn't dispel it.

"partially dispelling" an emanation is not possible.

 

[Shin Okada]

"partially dispelling" an emanation is not possible.

So you mean,

From SRD,

Area Dispel: When dispel magic is used in this way, the spell affects everything within a 20-foot radius.
.
.
.
For each ongoing area or effect spell whose point of origin is within the area of the dispel magic spell, you can make a dispel check to dispel the spell.
For each ongoing spell whose area overlaps that of the dispel magic spell, you can make a dispel check to end the effect, but only within the overlapping area.

The latter option doesn't work for emanation spells?