Dead-magic zones and Character knowledge.

[heavyfuel]

What happens if a character enters a dead-magic zone/AMF?

Scenario 1: No magic, magic items, or ranks in K.Arcana/Spellcraft: The simple commoner enters an AMF, does he notice anything? I assume not, but maybe the world is so full of magic that an AMF just "feels odd".

Scenario 2: No magic, magic items, but has ranks in K.Arcana/Spellcraft: The expert that's been studying magic for a while, but can't cast spells. Can he recognize an AMF (SRD says it's invisible)? What about a No-magic zone?

Scenario 3: Spellcaster without magic items: When does he realize his spellcasting abilities are gone? The second he enters the area, or when he tries to cast something and it fails?


Is there a RAW on this? How about you guys' general opinion?

[Arbane]

Don't forget characters with Sp or Su powers - presumably they'd notice something was wrong.

[heavyfuel]

Don't forget characters with Sp or Su powers - presumably they'd notice something was wrong.

Damn, totally had forgotten about them. Thanks for the heads up!

So what about them? I assume that a character like a pixie would notice herself suddenly becoming visible, but would a vampire realize that he can't go into gaseous form until he tries to?

If the vampire tried, would he waste his action, or immediately realize that he can't and be able to do something else?

[Vogonjeltz]

Don't forget characters with Sp or Su powers - presumably they'd notice something was wrong.

Presumably only if they tried to use the abilities, or if they had an 'always on' ability that generated an obvious effect, like how 30% of magic weapons emit light.
Otherwise, there's no clues until they try.

[Qwertystop]

Keep in mind that Antimagic Field's range isn't that big, and it lasts a couple of hours at best. If you're in an Antimagic Field, you're within ten feet of a high-level caster who cast it fairly recently.

[Graypairofsocks]

Creature with magical abilities know when they are in a dead magic zone or antimagic field.

I can't remember exactly where this was said, but I will try to find it.

[VoxRationis]

I would assume scenario 3 depends exactly on how Vancian your DM wants things to be. With a strict "fire-and-forget" approach to someone's magic, the AMF would probably go unnoticed until it's too late. But many would be of the opinion that a mage would have a better connection to magic than that.

[Shieldbunny]

In Faerun, any non shadow weave caster automatically knows he's entered an area of no magic. He fills his disconnection from the weave. Not sure about elsewhere though.