Casting antimagic field on others?

[Zanos]

Having another argument with my DM. He insists that you can cast an antimagic field on someone else, because it has a range of 10 feet. Myself and the other players argued that the spells range is not the same as what you can target, and that antimagic field must be centered on the caster and moves with them.

In the past he puts some weight on the opinions of people here, so I'm asking again to help us resolve this.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Having another argument with my DM. He insists that you can cast an antimagic field on someone else, because it has a range of 10 feet. Myself and the other players argued that the spells range is not the same as what you can target, and that antimagic field must be centered on the caster and moves with them.

In the past he puts some weight on the opinions of people here, so I'm asking again to help us resolve this.The spell has no target, not even the caster, and so it cannot target anyone and must follow the text in the Area section, meaning it is always centered on you. You could always use arcane archer's imbue arrow ability to target someone else.

[Necroticplague]

Having another argument with my DM. He insists that you can cast an antimagic field on someone else, because it has a range of 10 feet. Myself and the other players argued that the spells range is not the same as what you can target, and that antimagic field must be centered on the caster and moves with them.

In the past he puts some weight on the opinions of people here, so I'm asking again to help us resolve this.


Level: Clr 8, Magic 6, Protection 6, Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 10 ft.
Area: 10-ft.-radius emanation, centered on you
Duration: 10 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: See text
An invisible barrier surrounds you and moves with you. The space within this barrier is impervious to most magical effects, including spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. Likewise, it prevents the functioning of any magic items or spells within its confines.

Note that the area is specifically 'centered on you', and it lacks any form of 'target' line that could allow you to change that. The spell description itself specifies it surrounds and moves with you, not with a 'targeted object' or 'targeted creature'. There is literally nowhere in the spell that even remotely implies it can be centered on anything else. The range and area are a bit redundant, because the only effect that Range has is to invoke this clause.

If any portion of the spell’s area would extend beyond this range, that area is wasted. Standard ranges include the following.
Not very well-written, but that's Core for yah.

[Psyren]

I mean, taken literally, it would mean that you can cast it anywhere within 10ft. but it will always appear centered on you anyway. So while your GM could attempt to cast it elsewhere, not much good would come of that.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If you share it with your familiar, special mount, psicrystal (for the psionic version), or similar, the companion critter is the "you" in this instance, so there's that.

[Fizban]

The reason the spell lists a 10' range is because area spells cannot extend past their listed range. If you throw a fireball out to maximum range, it will cut off half of the fireball. All personal emanation spells have a range entry (unless the writer screwed up) for this reason.

[Psyren]

If you share it with your familiar, special mount, psicrystal (for the psionic version), or similar, the companion critter is the "you" in this instance, so there's that.

And even then it has to stay within 5ft., which isn't the most useful circumstance.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

And even then it has to stay within 5ft., which isn't the most useful circumstance.Cast it on your familiar or whatever directly, so it can move away from you.

[Necroticplague]

Cast it on your familiar or whatever directly, so it can move away from you.

That's not how the relevant part of Share SPells works

Share Spells: At the master’s option, he may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) he casts on himself also affect his familiar. The familiar must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit.
If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the familiar if it moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the familiar again even if it returns to the master before the duration expires. Additionally, the master may cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar (as a touch range spell) instead of on himself.Antimagic field doesn't have a Target at all, much less a target of You, so you can't use that method of Share Spell with AMF. And the other method breaks if they move away.

[Psyren]

Cast it on your familiar or whatever directly, so it can move away from you.

You can't, as it's not actually "Target: You."

EDIT: Somehow I missed Necrotic's reply ._.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Depending on how you look at it, Ocular Spell MIGHT overcome this, as antimagic field does not have a Target of Personal (as it doesn't have a Target at all). Ask the DM about it.

A greater glyph of warding or a greater glyph seal would both allow you to apply antimagic field as a trap, and it shouldn't affect the caster, though it does make things a bit wonky if the DM rules that it's still centered on you. I'd say the "you" is the glyph itself, rather than the caster. Is that a houserule? Things are a bit fuzzy, here.

[A_S]

A 10th level Master Abjurer (CM) can use Antimagic Field the way OP's DM rules, because of their Major School Esoterica class feature.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

A 10th level Master Abjurer (CM) can use Antimagic Field the way OP's DM rules, because of their Major School Esoterica class feature.There is no Target on AMF, so master abjurer won't help.