Curmudgeon
2008-01-14, 07:19 PM
The following essay is a result of my trying to figure out how to protect a spellcaster from having all their ongoing spells dispelled. Since every dispel check involves comparing the result against the caster level used for an ongoing spell, a really high CL is all you need. But that's not a very practical solution.
Dispel Magic and its cousins aren't stopped by spell resistance. An area dispel, which stops once it dispels a single spell on you, can be addressed by getting a bunch of Magic Mouth spells cast on you at levels higher than all the spells you care about, with triggers like "Look -- it's a flying whale!" You can get good protection by paying NPC casters for this spell, at various CLs. You won't guarantee that your good buffs won't be dispelled, but you can make it more likely that a Magic Mouth will go instead.
The biggest problem is the targeted dispel, which will cycle through all your ongoing spells, potentially wiping out many or all of them with a single casting.
One approach to avoiding targeted dispels is to just make your character difficult or impossible to target. With total concealment you can't be targeted, so Invisibility or an unbeatable Hide check will do the trick. Deeper Darkness runs for days, and gives you 20% concealment within its radius. If you read the spell exactly as written, the spell creates the shadowy illumination inside its area, and this illumination doesn't extend past the 60' radius -- meaning you have total concealment from outside. A simple Ebon Eyes spell makes this concealment not impair you. Other magic, like a Cloak of Displacement, can provide miss chances that aren't from concealment, so they stack with those from actual concealment. Illusions like Mirror Image can make picking a target have a very low likelihood of success.
Most protections against particular spells, such as Spell Immunity, work by effectively making spell resistance infinite. As Dispel Magic ignores SR, that's no help. You can get real immunity to a single spell if you're wielding a Spellblade weapon (Magic of Faerun page 141): the wielder is immune to a single spell chosen at the time the weapon is created. But then which spell do you choose?
Dispel Magic
Slashing Dispel (PH2)
Dispel Magic, Greater
Reaving Dispel (Spell Compendium)
Chain Dispel (PH2)
Dispelling Breath (Spell Compendium)
Dispelling Screen (Spell Compendium)
Dispelling Screen, Greater (Spell Compendium)
(Special consideration should also be given to Reciprocal Gyre (Spell Compendium) here. It doesn't dispel your ongoing spells, but it functions like a dispel effect except it damages you for each spell instead.) Protecting from just one of these spells isn't enough.
If you can afford them, Lavender & Green Ioun Stones will do very well, absorbing targeted spells up to 8th level. This should work on all of these dispels except for Reaving Dispel -- until you burn out the Ioun Stone.
Maybe the best answer is to just be ready to counterspell. Normally counterspelling is next to useless, requiring you to use up your standard action each round just in case. But there are a few ways of improving on this default, including:
Duelward (Spell Compendium) lets you counterspell as an immediate action.
With Battlemagic Perception (Heroes of Battle) you sense any spell/SLA within 100' automatically, and can counterspell as a free action.
The Reactive Counterspell feat (Player's Guide to Faerun) will let you counterspell without preparation, at the expense of your next turn.
As long as you can counterspell when needed, and you're ready with your own Greater Dispel Magic, that might be enough.
How do we change that might to will? There are a few ways. A big part of a dispel check -- on both sides -- is the caster level. Dispel Magic tops out the caster level part of the check at 10; Greater Dispel Magic makes that limit 20; and Chain Dispel puts the limit at 25. There are various ways to boost your CL generally, including the following:
Practiced Spellcaster feat (Complete Arcane/Complete Divine): +4 CL, up to the limit of your HD
Orange Ioun stone: +1 CL
Candle of Invocation: +2 CL for a Cleric while it burns
Bead of Karma: +4 CL for a divine caster, for 10 minutes daily
Ankh of Ascension (Magic Item Compendium): +4 divine CL if you sacrifice another divine spell
Ring of Arcane Might (Magic Item Compendium): +1 arcane CL
Create Magic Tattoo spell: +1 CL/24 hours; takes 100 gp and 10 min
The Tome of the Stilled Tongue: relic of Vecna (Complete Divine) that grants a permanent +2 CL (at the cost of -2 CON) There are also a few things that specifically bump up the caster level part of your dispel check:
The Elven Spell Lore feat (PH2) grants +2 CL only for Dispel Magic or Greater Dispel Magic.
The Clerical Purification domain (Spell Compendium) lets you cast Abjuration spells (which includes all these dispels) at +1 CL.
Still, as I mentioned earlier, the caster level part of the dispel computation is always limited. Once you hit that 10/20/25 CL limit, you're done. So we need ways to increase your dispel check that are independent of the caster level check. Luckily, I've found a few:
The Clerical Inquisition domain gives +4 to dispel checks.
A Dispelling Cord (Magic Item Compendium) gives +2 to each check, limited to 5 uses per day.
The Spellcaster's Bane spell (Complete Mage) provides a +2 insight bonus to dispel checks, and to caster level checks made to counterspell.
There's just one piece of the dispel formula left: the d20. Here the feat Maximize Spell (or Sudden Maximize, or Incense of Meditation, or any other equivalent technique) is essential. All that work of bumping up the caster level and other parts of your dispel check can be negated by the difference between rolling a 1 and rolling a 20 on your dispel check. Adding Maximize to your Greater Dispel Magic (bumping the spell to a 9th level slot) is the single greatest technique you can use to ensure you can counterspell anything that comes at you, and protect your ongoing spells.
To be ready to counterspell I advise crafting yourself a Staff of Dispelling. You'll need Craft Staff, Greater Dispel Magic, and Maximize Spell. Your result should be a staff that's priced based on caster level 11 (the minimum for Greater Dispel Magic), but which can be used at your effective caster level with all boosts applied. Not only does this staff give you the best counterspelling protection to save your own spells, it's also your greatest weapon to remove the defenses your enemies have erected against you.
Dispel Magic and its cousins aren't stopped by spell resistance. An area dispel, which stops once it dispels a single spell on you, can be addressed by getting a bunch of Magic Mouth spells cast on you at levels higher than all the spells you care about, with triggers like "Look -- it's a flying whale!" You can get good protection by paying NPC casters for this spell, at various CLs. You won't guarantee that your good buffs won't be dispelled, but you can make it more likely that a Magic Mouth will go instead.
The biggest problem is the targeted dispel, which will cycle through all your ongoing spells, potentially wiping out many or all of them with a single casting.
One approach to avoiding targeted dispels is to just make your character difficult or impossible to target. With total concealment you can't be targeted, so Invisibility or an unbeatable Hide check will do the trick. Deeper Darkness runs for days, and gives you 20% concealment within its radius. If you read the spell exactly as written, the spell creates the shadowy illumination inside its area, and this illumination doesn't extend past the 60' radius -- meaning you have total concealment from outside. A simple Ebon Eyes spell makes this concealment not impair you. Other magic, like a Cloak of Displacement, can provide miss chances that aren't from concealment, so they stack with those from actual concealment. Illusions like Mirror Image can make picking a target have a very low likelihood of success.
Most protections against particular spells, such as Spell Immunity, work by effectively making spell resistance infinite. As Dispel Magic ignores SR, that's no help. You can get real immunity to a single spell if you're wielding a Spellblade weapon (Magic of Faerun page 141): the wielder is immune to a single spell chosen at the time the weapon is created. But then which spell do you choose?
Dispel Magic
Slashing Dispel (PH2)
Dispel Magic, Greater
Reaving Dispel (Spell Compendium)
Chain Dispel (PH2)
Dispelling Breath (Spell Compendium)
Dispelling Screen (Spell Compendium)
Dispelling Screen, Greater (Spell Compendium)
(Special consideration should also be given to Reciprocal Gyre (Spell Compendium) here. It doesn't dispel your ongoing spells, but it functions like a dispel effect except it damages you for each spell instead.) Protecting from just one of these spells isn't enough.
If you can afford them, Lavender & Green Ioun Stones will do very well, absorbing targeted spells up to 8th level. This should work on all of these dispels except for Reaving Dispel -- until you burn out the Ioun Stone.
Maybe the best answer is to just be ready to counterspell. Normally counterspelling is next to useless, requiring you to use up your standard action each round just in case. But there are a few ways of improving on this default, including:
Duelward (Spell Compendium) lets you counterspell as an immediate action.
With Battlemagic Perception (Heroes of Battle) you sense any spell/SLA within 100' automatically, and can counterspell as a free action.
The Reactive Counterspell feat (Player's Guide to Faerun) will let you counterspell without preparation, at the expense of your next turn.
As long as you can counterspell when needed, and you're ready with your own Greater Dispel Magic, that might be enough.
How do we change that might to will? There are a few ways. A big part of a dispel check -- on both sides -- is the caster level. Dispel Magic tops out the caster level part of the check at 10; Greater Dispel Magic makes that limit 20; and Chain Dispel puts the limit at 25. There are various ways to boost your CL generally, including the following:
Practiced Spellcaster feat (Complete Arcane/Complete Divine): +4 CL, up to the limit of your HD
Orange Ioun stone: +1 CL
Candle of Invocation: +2 CL for a Cleric while it burns
Bead of Karma: +4 CL for a divine caster, for 10 minutes daily
Ankh of Ascension (Magic Item Compendium): +4 divine CL if you sacrifice another divine spell
Ring of Arcane Might (Magic Item Compendium): +1 arcane CL
Create Magic Tattoo spell: +1 CL/24 hours; takes 100 gp and 10 min
The Tome of the Stilled Tongue: relic of Vecna (Complete Divine) that grants a permanent +2 CL (at the cost of -2 CON) There are also a few things that specifically bump up the caster level part of your dispel check:
The Elven Spell Lore feat (PH2) grants +2 CL only for Dispel Magic or Greater Dispel Magic.
The Clerical Purification domain (Spell Compendium) lets you cast Abjuration spells (which includes all these dispels) at +1 CL.
Still, as I mentioned earlier, the caster level part of the dispel computation is always limited. Once you hit that 10/20/25 CL limit, you're done. So we need ways to increase your dispel check that are independent of the caster level check. Luckily, I've found a few:
The Clerical Inquisition domain gives +4 to dispel checks.
A Dispelling Cord (Magic Item Compendium) gives +2 to each check, limited to 5 uses per day.
The Spellcaster's Bane spell (Complete Mage) provides a +2 insight bonus to dispel checks, and to caster level checks made to counterspell.
There's just one piece of the dispel formula left: the d20. Here the feat Maximize Spell (or Sudden Maximize, or Incense of Meditation, or any other equivalent technique) is essential. All that work of bumping up the caster level and other parts of your dispel check can be negated by the difference between rolling a 1 and rolling a 20 on your dispel check. Adding Maximize to your Greater Dispel Magic (bumping the spell to a 9th level slot) is the single greatest technique you can use to ensure you can counterspell anything that comes at you, and protect your ongoing spells.
To be ready to counterspell I advise crafting yourself a Staff of Dispelling. You'll need Craft Staff, Greater Dispel Magic, and Maximize Spell. Your result should be a staff that's priced based on caster level 11 (the minimum for Greater Dispel Magic), but which can be used at your effective caster level with all boosts applied. Not only does this staff give you the best counterspelling protection to save your own spells, it's also your greatest weapon to remove the defenses your enemies have erected against you.