Counterspelling Erudite?

[Halna LeGavilk]

A quick question.

Can you counter arcane/divine spells with an STP Erudite who has (Greater) Dispel Magic as one of his powers? Because Dispel Magic specifically dispels stuff, I'm not sure if it would work or not.

Perhaps you could dispel powers?

[FMArthur]

I'm not sure what you're asking. Why would it be any different from casting a normal Dispel Magic or even Dispel Psionics? Psionic-Magic transparency (which is the rule by default) indicates that they are both the same and can each be used to dispel both psionics and magic. If the rule is not in place, Dispel Magic acts like Dispel Magic - casting the normal spells from psionic power points is sort of the whole purpose of Spell to Power Erudite. Nothing changes the spell to be more like a similar spell... would you search through the psionic books for some psionic power similar to Streamers to use instead of it if you learned it through STP? No, that would defeat the entire point.

[Halna LeGavilk]

Thanks. :smallbiggrin: I figured that you could, but due to this line:

Counterspelling works even if one spell is divine and the other arcane.
In the SRD, I wasn't sure, so I figured I would check beforehand.

[Psyren]

The answer unfortunately is no; Transparency does not apply to Dispel Psionics in this way, because the power contains no wording allowing it to be used as a counterspell.

But what of Dispel Magic, as an Erudite power, being used for its counterspell function?

While I would personally allow it (it's a lot less broken than other things an StP Erudite could be doing), that one's a no as well: "A psionic power cannot be used as a counterspell, nor are psionic powers subject to being counterspelled." (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20060613a)

[Halna LeGavilk]

From the same text:


As noted earlier, most psionic powers are subject to dispelling (unless their descriptions say they are not). When a psionic power can be dispelled (as most of them are), one can effectively counter them with a dispel magic spell (or the dispel psionics power). While psionic powers are not normally subject to counterspells, dispel magic is not really a counterspell. When you use dispel magic as a counterspell, what you're really doing is quickly casting a targeted dispel effect at the correct moment to negate the enemy spell and not creating an opposite magical effect that cancels your enemy's spell.