Interesting Dispel Magic Questions

[GeneralVryth]

Why are you so adamant that a spell with range self cannot affect the caster in any way?

Whether it's admitted or not now, it was hinted at earlier in thread. Basically, this entire debate is spawned from not wanting more buffs dispelled when Shadow Blade is.

Yes. When one doesn't overthink things, it is pretty clear.

I feel like I have said this exact thing more than I would care to

Leomund's Tiny Hut is the tuber you are looking for. Tiny Hut has a Range of Self, and I think it fair to say, the magic forms the hut around the caster, but does not rest on the caster.

There seems to be a great deal of inconsistency, with the Range of Self, in general. The term is an umbrella term, with around 4 practical sub-specializations.

A Range of Self can be used to describe Tiny Hut, in which the magic rests in the hut.
The PHB states the following under Range: "Spells that create cones or lines of effect that originate from you also have a range of self, indicating that the origin point of the spell's effect must be you.."

Tiny Hut would seem to violate this notational guidance.

A Range of Self, can be used to describe the effects of Blur, in-which it seems likely the magic rests upon the caster.

A Range of Self can be used to describe the effects of Mirror Image, or, Spirit Guardians, and given the lack of accord in this thread, we can collectively agree to come to our own opinions about whether the magic rests upon the caster, or becomes a free floating vapor/spell effect.

Then we have odd ball effects such as Commune or Augury, where does the magic rest on those spells? From a religious studies perspective, it might make sense thematically for the charismatic communication that takes place with the Commune spell, (charismatic in religious terms means a direct communion with the divinity, no intermediary required), that the spell effect would rest upon the caster, since it is the caster that is directly communicating with the divinity.

The devs do not seem to have diligently followed their own guidelines presented in the Chapter 10 Spellcasting section. In effect there is no hard fast rule for where a spell resides, it becomes another case of "use your judgement", as the rules were not written with that granularity in mind.

I think Korvin has the right of it, looking too hard at the rules, shows how threadbare, the rules are.

One thing you are missing in your assessment is duration. Anything with an instantaneous duration is going to be resolved before it can be dispelled and pretty much all such effects can't be dispelled. Everything with a concentration based duration (along with the self target) is going to be an ongoing effect on the caster. The only question is spells with a non-concentration duration, which will need to be handled on a case by case basis, though I suspect Tiny Hut is one of the only real oddballs here.

Which is why, I strongly suggest people swap out 5e's Dispel, for a prior version found in earlier editions. If players chose to cast the area effect option that was allowed in prior editions of D&D, the practical question of where a spell resides, is effectively rendered moot.

The alternative would be to work out a heuristic to apply, an easy test, to determine which of the four sub-specializations of the Range of Self, applies to a particular effect.

I don't think this helps. Remember the unstated driver here is to avoid having multiple buffs dispelled which older versions of Dispel Magic allowed. Also, an area effect then brings up which effects are targeted, and potential for random rolls, it makes things more complicated.