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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6792623" data-attributes="member: 6799649">In your own game you can do what you want, but as part of a rules debate, why would you have us believe that 'duration' (which is defined as the period of time the entire spell effect exists) means something totally different for eldritch blast? This is not four spells, each with an instantaneous duration! It is a single spell whose duration covers all four beams. Correct. You cannot target the casting of a spell (the VSM components) with dispel magic because chanting words and gesturing are not magical effects, and the spell effect does not begin until the casting is finished, by which time it is too late to prevent the effect from starting (the duration beginning).However, once the VSM components of eldritch blast are completed, the spell effect (four beams of crackling energy streak towards opponents) then the spell effect does exist and may be targeted by a dispel, if the spell effect's duration has not yet expired by the time the dispel goes off.If the beams are effectively simultaneous, with no time to react until they all hit (which would be true for both caster and dispeller), then the beams have come and gone so quickly that there is nothing to dispel.But, if there is enough time between beams for the caster to see what the first beam did before aiming the next, then there is enough time for the dispeller to release his already cast dispel magic. He has a valid target because the spell duration is still ongoing at that point; the spell duration (whether you call it 'instantaneous' or not) begins with the first beam and doesn't end until the last beam. Since it is dispelled after the first beam but before the second, EB is an existing spell at the time it is hit with the dispel.I don't know why JC wants it to work this way, but if the spell does work this way then the consequence is that it can be dispelled, contrary to what he wrote about instantaneous spells.</blockquote>

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