Topic: Elemental Spells

[Dalewarrior]

   Hi RMers,

One of my players is of the understanding that Elemental spells can't be dispelled with Cancel Essence; Dispel Essence Sphere I *; or the other spells on the Closed Essence Dispelling Ways spells.

There are spells that defend against specific elemental spells in the Elemental Shields, Open Essence spell list. If the dispel worked on elemental spells, why would they have these spells?

How do you do it in your games?

Cheers,
DW

[Peter R]

In the games I run the Cancel Essence and Sphere spell would work against elemental attacks.

The Cancel Spells are all Concentration which does limit their usefulness unless you absolutely know you are going to be attacked using a specific realm and the protection is only an additional RR.

In a situation where the party magician was low on PP a group did use the Sphere spell to protect the entire party who then tried to take down an evil mage using missile weapons. The Magician just concentrated for as long as possible.

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

First, "Elemental Shields" is an Open list whereas "Dispelling Ways" is a Closed list...

Second, whilst most elemental attack spells come from Essence spells, not all do, such as Shock Bolt in "Light's Way", which is an Open Channeling spell. A such, a Cancel Essence or Dispel Essence wouldn't work against it...

Third, cancelling or dispelling spells give the caster a chance to avoid all effects from a spell whereas an "Elemental Shields" spell gives him the certainty to be partially protected from an elemental spell. In other words, if the opposed party's spellcaster's level is way above the caster's level, he'd better off with "Elemental Shields" since he wouldn't be able to cancel/dispell most of the opposed party's spells anyway...

[Dalewarrior]

That seems sensible. Thanks for your answers, guys!

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

I forgot: there are also the cases of unclassified elemental effect, such as a dragon's fire breath. A GM may want to classify it as either Essence, Channeling or Mentalism, in which case it would be susceptible to dispelling spells, or as unclassified magical elemental effect (in my world, it's classified as "draconic magic" that only very specialised magics may cancel/dispell)... that would still be affected by "Elemental Shields" protections.
But RAW-wise, it doesn't have a realm so it's up to the GM and his world.

[Spectre771]

We could really muddy the waters by throwing Elemental Companion into the mix

[Majyk]

OMG, RM2 ECo forever!

We could really muddy the waters by throwing Elemental Companion into the mix

[Spectre771]

OMG, RM2 ECo forever!

Best... Companion.... Ever!!! 

[gog]

Is there a question here of the spell and the consequences of the spell.

That a fire spell would create natural fire in some cases. So the dispel or cancel essences spells would prevent the spell been cast and the magical support of it (making fire fly through the air).

However the elemental shields would protect against the element, rather than the spell. So it would prevent the fire, if it was natural or magically supported.

example - character A in the middle of flammable material, character B casts Fire Bolt at A. A can prevent the spell with cancel or dispel, however if the Fire Bolt hits the surroundings and sets them alight, then the Elemental Shield would protect against the fire.

This is how I'd run it.