D&D 5E What can be dispelled?

[iserith]

That's the crux of it; if a DM wants to rule it a certain way in his campaign, that is perfectly acceptable and fine, and it might even work sometimes and NOT others and that is also the decision of the DM. Maybe this succubus charm can be dispelled, but no, this vampire's cannot, it's just too powerful, it beats your spell and no roll required. I think though, in the end what players might want is some kind of consistency so they can base their actions on what worked or did not work previously. Which creates a gray area with ad hoc adjudication.

Here's how I see it: The players have no recourse to the rules as they are the domain of the DM to use as he or she pleases to serve the game experience. A player does have recourse to the DM's rulings in the exact or substantially similar fictional situations. So if the DM has ruled that dispel magic will break the succubus' charm, when the players encounter another succubus or perhaps an incubus, then they'd be right to expect dispel magic is going to work. Later in the campaign when they face a vampire, they aren't in the exact or substantially similar fictional situation and thus should not assume dispel magic will work to break its charm. A good thing to do at this point would be to try and recall lore to see if it might work, which may or may not call for an Intelligence ability check, before potentially wasting the spell.

 

[steeldragons]

Here's another Dispel-related question:

I'm a paladin/sorcerer with Mounted Combatant. I cast Polymorph on myself to turn myself and my steed into Tyrannosaurs. Someone else casts Dispel Magic on me and I turn back into a paldin. Is my steed still a Tyrannosaurus?

(If so, yay! Free advantage to attack large-sized creatures for the next hour.)

I would be inclined to rule No.

This is, I presume, using that paladin's ability to effect your steed with whatever spell you cast on yourself? In the first place, I would not let you use polymorph in such a manner...but forgetting that for the moment, the single spell that was cast was polymorph. That spell has been dispelled. The fact its effect worked on you and your steed isn't really relevant...the spell that turned you both has been dispelled. No tyranosaur steed for you. Sorry.

Now, as a Paladin/Sorcerer (which, again, would not be permitted in my game, but we'll proceed) if you are saying you want to TWIN Polymorph on yourself and your steed...as a TWINNED metamagic spell...effectively "working the spell twice instead of once"...NOW it's a party with cans o' worms for everyone to enjoy! How does Dispel Magic interact -if at all!- with Metamagic effects?

 

[iserith]

Here's another Dispel-related question:

I'm a paladin/sorcerer with Mounted Combatant. I cast Polymorph on myself to turn myself and my steed into Tyrannosaurs. Someone else casts Dispel Magic on me and I turn back into a paldin. Is my steed still a Tyrannosaurus?

(If so, yay! Free advantage to attack large-sized creatures for the next hour.)

Since I don't recall what the rules are for Mounted Combatant or for a paladin's steed (neither have come up in my games before) and I won't spend time during play to look it up, I'd just ask you to tell me how you think it works and go with your interpretation. I would trust that whatever you decided was intended to help the group achieve the goals of play and not an attempt at taking advantage.

 

[Paraxis]

I would trust that whatever you decided was intended to help the group achieve the goals of play and not an attempt at taking advantage.

Can't something be both, I would always try and take advantage of every situation, give me an inch and I will take a mile, but at the same time using said advantage to help the group achieve the goals of play and have fun.

 

[iserith]

Can't something be both, I would always try and take advantage of every situation, give me an inch and I will take a mile, but at the same time using said advantage to help the group achieve the goals of play and have fun.

Here I'm referring to the goals of play in the Basic Rules: having a good time and creating an exciting, memorable story during play. So, sure, you can both try to eek out an advantage and achieve the goals of play. If we should fail to achieve the goals of play and I suspect you're playing in bad faith, don't expect to be at the next session though. I take a dim view of those who abuse the trust of others.

 

[thalmin]

Here's another Dispel-related question:

I'm a paladin/sorcerer with Mounted Combatant. I cast Polymorph on myself to turn myself and my steed into Tyrannosaurs. Someone else casts Dispel Magic on me and I turn back into a paldin. Is my steed still a Tyrannosaurus?

(If so, yay! Free advantage to attack large-sized creatures for the next hour.)

Your steed has a CR 8?

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Your steed has a CR 8?

Hmmm, looks like I may have misremembered the text of Find Steed. I thought it said any spell which you cast that targets only you also affects your steed, so presumably turning yourself into a tyrannosaur per text of Polymorph would also affect your steed in the same way; but in fact it says that it targets only your steed, which makes it exactly like Twinned Spell. So I guess you can turn your steed into some other animal, not necessarily the kind you yourself turn into, so the Dispel question doesn't matter.

So I offer you another natural-language ambiguity in place of that one. The text of Dispel Magic states: "Any spell of 3rd level or lower on the target ends," emphasis added. Does the spell end for that target, or does it end for all targets? If I Mass Suggestion twelve guards, and someone casts Dispel Magic on one of the guardsmen to dispel a Bestowed Curse, can that end Mass Suggestion on the other guards too? My reading of the spell says, "I think so, yes." I may be influenced by the AD&D version of the spell, but I think that's probably the intended usage in 5E as well. Does anyone disagree?

 

[steeldragons]

Hmmm, looks like I may have misremembered the text of Find Steed. I thought it said any spell which you cast that targets only you also affects your steed, so presumably turning yourself into a tyrannosaur per text of Polymorph would also affect your steed in the same way; but in fact it says that it targets only your steed, which makes it exactly like Twinned Spell. So I guess you can turn your steed into some other animal, not necessarily the kind you yourself turn into, so the Dispel question doesn't matter.

So I offer you another natural-language ambiguity in place of that one. The text of Dispel Magic states: "Any spell of 3rd level or lower on the target ends," emphasis added. Does the spell end for that target, or does it end for all targets? If I Mass Suggestion twelve guards, and someone casts Dispel Magic on one of the guardsmen to dispel a Bestowed Curse, can that end Mass Suggestion on the other guards too? My reading of the spell says, "I think so, yes." I may be influenced by the AD&D version of the spell, but I think that's probably the intended usage in 5E as well. Does anyone disagree?

Mass Suggestion is 3rd level or lower? Or Bestow Curse for that matter? Which may be, but I'm preeeeetty sure MassSugg. isn't. Don't have my books with me.

In either event, if there are multiple spell effects that are 3rd level or lower spells on that ONE target, then yes, they all come off...that ONE target. The other 11 people under the Mass Suggestion would need to be treated/handled individually.

So wouldst ruleth I.

 

[KarinsDad]

I would be inclined to rule No.

This is, I presume, using that paladin's ability to effect your steed with whatever spell you cast on yourself? In the first place, I would not let you use polymorph in such a manner...but forgetting that for the moment, the single spell that was cast was polymorph. That spell has been dispelled. The fact its effect worked on you and your steed isn't really relevant...the spell that turned you both has been dispelled. No tyranosaur steed for you. Sorry.

No different than Conjure Animals.

Once the spell is dispelled, all of the animals disappear.

 

[KarinsDad]

It wasn't a try it was simple english comprehension.

You stated that the problem was shoddy writing on the part of WotC. You stated that WotC rushed this. I say, nonsense. WotC wrote it fine for what was intended in 5E, dispelling spells. If you want it to rule 0 it back to an earlier version of D&D, great. Do so. But this is not a case of WotC writing the spell poorly. They didn't. The confusion appears to be coming from people who want the spell to work the way it did in earlier versions. That's ok, but WotC nerfing the spell does not mean that WotC wrote shoddy.