How does Anti-magic fields work?

[Frosty]

Do they work by blocking line of effect for magic? I'm reading "Rules of the Game" articles from the WoTC website. Specifically, Magical Oddities (Part Three). But I specifically remember something about AMFs not blocking LoE because you can shoot spells through it. For example, you can aim a Polar Ray at someone in the middle of a sculpted AMF. So what's the deal here?

[Reel On, Love]

Do they work by blocking line of effect for magic? I'm reading "Rules of the Game" articles from the WoTC website. Specifically, Magical Oddities (Part Three). But I specifically remember something about AMFs not blocking LoE because you can shoot spells through it. For example, you can aim a Polar Ray at someone in the middle of a sculpted AMF. So what's the deal here?

They don't block LoE as of the Rules Compendium. Before that, the were considered to do so.

[Frosty]

So RC is considered errata?

[Collin152]

Yes, errata you have to pay for.
What a brilliant idea, no?

[Jack_Simth]

So RC is considered errata?

According to the Rules Compendium, yes. According to the Primary Source Rule, no.

[Frosty]

According to the Rules Compendium, yes. According to the Primary Source Rule, no.

Why does this make me want to stab someone in the eye?

[Jack_Simth]

Why does this make me want to stab someone in the eye?

Mayhap because you've got an advanced case of sanity?

[Frosty]

Well which would you think is a better ruling for AMFs?

[Emperor Tippy]

AMF is throughly ****ed up as currently written, no matter how AMF interacts with LoE.

It needs to be completely rewritten. So rule however you like, it doesn't change much.

[Jack_Simth]

Well which would you think is a better ruling for AMFs?

I'd prefer it block line of effect, but that's just how I envision it working - voraciously devouring magical energies; magical energies don't propagate past where they're being devoured.

Honestly, though, it doesn't really matter all that much, unless your players are routinely playing around with sculpted antimagic fields to force the melee types into a bad situation.

[Frosty]

AMFs don't eat up the energies of Orbs of Force, for some odd reason.

[Admiral Squish]

AMF really needs to be reworked. It doesn't stop a freakin' fireball? I say, it has to null magic entering it. Nothing goes in, and nothing goes out. Magically speaking, that is. Sculpted shouldn't help a caster, since he's still surrounded on all sides by this magic-negating field. Of course, it'd have to be a higher-level spell.

[Chronos]

I think that the idea behind the ruling that AMFs don't block line of effect is to prevent the tactic of using Mastery of Shaping (or Sculpt Spell, or other similar effects) to put a hole in the middle of the field, so you could still use magic but be protected from the magic of others. What they didn't realize when they made that ruling is that now you can do much the same thing but without the Mastery of Shaping: By the rules as written, there's actually nothing to stop you from standing inside an AMF and casting spells at folks outside. Which is almost certainly not how it was intended to work, but that just says that WotC needs better proofreaders and playtesters.

[Frosty]

AMF really needs to be reworked. It doesn't stop a freakin' fireball? I say, it has to null magic entering it. Nothing goes in, and nothing goes out. Magically speaking, that is. Sculpted shouldn't help a caster, since he's still surrounded on all sides by this magic-negating field. Of course, it'd have to be a higher-level spell.

The stop fireballs just fine if you're inside the AMF (not sculpted. Actually in it). It just doesn't stop Orbs.