Dispel magic question

[Jimbob]

Morning all,

This is a simple question about dispel magic.
If you have a wizard of 10th level and I want to cast a targeted dispel on him are all his spells a caster level check DC 21 no matter what level the spell is be it a first level mage armour or a higher level buff, or have I missed some thing in the SRD?

Cheers

[Eldariel]

That's pretty much it, with one exception: It is possible for casters to cast spells at a lower CL than their maximum, up to minimum required to cast spells of that level. It's just almost never done since it has little purpose; higher CL is almost always better. But for concealing magic or feigning weakness or failing Dispel-check on Explosive Runes, it's occasionally handy.

As such, if the mage for some reason had cast Mage Armor at CL1, it'd be mere DC11 to Dispel. But yeah, provided he's cast 'em all for maximum duration and dispel resiliency on max CL, yeah, it's DC21 for all of them.

[PhoenixRivers]

Often, casters will utilize the ability to utilize less than all of their caster level when crafting magic items, to reduce the cost of the item. Case in point: Wands and potions.

[Jimbob]

Thank you very much guys

[hewhosaysfish]

From the SRD:

You automatically succeed on your dispel check against any spell that you cast yourself.

[root9125]

Which is why an explosive runes bomb doesn't ACTUALLY work. But if you can make a wand of DM, then it isn't YOU using dispel.

[JeenLeen]

That's pretty much it, with one exception: It is possible for casters to cast spells at a lower CL than their maximum, up to minimum required to cast spells of that level. It's just almost never done since it has little purpose; higher CL is almost always better. But for concealing magic or feigning weakness or failing Dispel-check on Explosive Runes, it's occasionally handy.

As such, if the mage for some reason had cast Mage Armor at CL1, it'd be mere DC11 to Dispel. But yeah, provided he's cast 'em all for maximum duration and dispel resiliency on max CL, yeah, it's DC21 for all of them.

Tangental: Does a wizard or other prepared caster determine the CL when casting the spell or when preparing it in the morning?

[Kylarra]

Which is why an explosive runes bomb doesn't ACTUALLY work. But if you can make a wand of DM, then it isn't YOU using dispel.

Actually it still works, since what you use for E-runes bomb isn't targetted dispel, but the area dispel which doesn't have a forced automatic success.

Area Dispel

When dispel magic is used in this way, the spell affects everything within a 20-foot radius.

For each creature within the area that is the subject of one or more spells, you make a dispel check against the spell with the highest caster level. If that check fails, you make dispel checks against progressively weaker spells until you dispel one spell (which discharges the dispel magic spell so far as that target is concerned) or until you fail all your checks. The creature’s magic items are not affected.

For each object within the area that is the target of one or more spells, you make dispel checks as with creatures. Magic items are not affected by an area dispel.

For each ongoing area or effect spell whose point of origin is within the area of the dispel magic spell, you can make a dispel check to dispel the spell.

For each ongoing spell whose area overlaps that of the dispel magic spell, you can make a dispel check to end the effect, but only within the overlapping area.

If an object or creature that is the effect of an ongoing spell (such as a monster summoned by monster summoning) is in the area, you can make a dispel check to end the spell that conjured that object or creature (returning it whence it came) in addition to attempting to dispel spells targeting the creature or object.

You may choose to automatically succeed on dispel checks against any spell that you have cast.