Bead of Karma and dispelling

[Hiro Quester]

I'm playing a druid with a lot of self-buff spells active most of the time; e.g. Luminous Armor, Greater Resistance, Heart of..., Primal..., Energy Immunity, Energy Resistance, etc. Plus more short duration buffs like Bite of the Werebear, Barkskin, Bull's Strength, etc. when we anticipate an encounter.

The bad guys know this, and so target a dispel magic at me a lot. DM has ruled that a ring of counterspells is very hard to find in our world, and a ring of spellbattle is too overpowered and will never exist in our world.

So I'm thinking a bead of Karma, to +4 my caster level, at least for the all-day buffs I cast in the morning. This makes them last longer, have bigger effects, etc. and --I think-- makes them harder to dispel. It's that last thing I'm not sure of.

SRD says this about Caster Level:

In the event that a class feature, domain granted power, or other special ability provides an adjustment to your caster level, that adjustment applies not only to effects based on caster level (such as range, duration, and damage dealt) but also to your caster level check to overcome your target’s spell resistance and to the caster level used in dispel checks (both the dispel check and the DC of the check)

Normally the DC of a spell is based on 10 + spell level + casting stat modifier. That is, increasing caster level does not increase the spell DC for saving throws, etc.

Can someone confirm that I'm reading this right, that the DC for dispelling can be different than the standard DC of the spell for saving throws?

So when the DM is rolling to dispel spells that I cast while the bead of Karma was active, I should tell him the DC to dispel those spells is 4 higher than the standard DC listed in my spell sheet?

[PseudoPanda]

That's correct, increasing your caster level makes a spell harder to dispel because the DC to Dispel a spell is not the same as a Spell's DC. This is explained in the description of Dispel Magic:


One object, creature, or spell is the target of the dispel magic spell. You make a dispel check (1d20 + your caster level, maximum +10) against the spell or against each ongoing spell currently in effect on the object or creature. The DC for this dispel check is 11 + the spell’s caster level

It makes sense if you think about it since most personal buff don't technically have a spell DC (though you could easily calculate one, of course).

[Douglas]

The DC to roll a save against a spell has nothing to do with the DC to dispel the same spell. The former comes from the general rules for spells. The latter comes from the specific rules of the Dispel Magic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/dispelMagic.htm) spell, which the overwhelming majority of ways to dispel things borrow for their own mechanics.

[Hiro Quester]

Thanks. I completely missed the description of the DC for dispelling in the Dispel Magic description.

We have been doing the targeted dispel wrong all this time. Many of those buffs that were dispelled last time would have survived if we had been doing it right.

And this definitely makes the Bead of Karma worth the investment.

[Keld Denar]

There is also the Ring of Enduring Arcana, in Complete Mage, IIRC, which also adds 4 to your CL, but only WRT the difficulty to dispel your spells. If you have both that and the Beads, you'll be at +8 on your long term buffs and pretty well protected from anything that isn't Disjunction.

[Hiro Quester]

The ring of enduring arcana does sound useful,thanks, Keld!

I just have to convince my DM that it applies Aldo to divine caster (nothing in the description says it doesn't) and that it can be worn mostly continuously both by a small gnome Druid, and by the large tiger he wildshapes into (no wilding clasps in our world).

The long finger shape makes it harder to imagine it fitting on a tiger's claw. The fact that the lattice seems to actively shift and flow bodes well though.