Antimagic

Are antimagic fields/dead magic zones a good idea in 3.X/Pathfinder?

Unless you put up concrete barriers the orcs are just going to drive a truck into it anyway.

No. Antimagic is cancer that sucks the immersion straight out of a setting. Instead of magic bring a strange, innate, mystical thing it's just another force of nature that can be manipulated like a magnetic field. It makes magic more "scientific" and not in a good way.

That doesn't mean you can't have methods to stop magic, but you stop magic with symbolic and ritual law. You tie a knot in your hair to keep a wizard from controlling your mind. You throw a handful of dirt from a grave over an undead creature to make it fall asleep for a few minutes, as though it was buried. That's good magic.

>t. assblasted retard who got told he can't bypass some encounter for free with spells

Don't overuse them but it is a good idea to have situations where players are forced to adopt new tactics.

Personally I hate it, especially "anti-magic zones" Shenanigans.

What I would prefer is a 7th ability[Lets call it Od, change per flavor], that primarily deals with magic power, and then having spell resistance be a skill that said Od score would provide bonuses.


Spells that give SR normally, would just provide a bonus. In this you could have that skill require a feat to purchase, and magical classes get it on their skill lists.

Eliminate anti magic completely, and focus on magic defense. That way you can have mundane classes that have a way to non-magically resist magic without items.

A secondary benefit is you can make spells require high scores with both Od, and whatever ability they require to integrate with their magic [cha,wis,int]
Reduces SAD a little bit.

kill yourself porkeye

>turns off magic items
>in a game where magic items are key to every noncaster's success
>also leaves wizards untouched if they cast instant conjurations in from outside
>and druid animal companions
No. No they are not.

>waaah
>waaah
>waaah
>waaah
Hear that? It's you crying like a little baby.

In my setting, wizards can be a big fucking deal, so I really like clerics being canonically a solid foil to a wizard via antimagic fields. The fun police showing up to put a kibosh on your arcane shenanigans is pretty good aesthetic imho

>not realizing that there are other ways around these issues
A sword so sharp it gained bonuses to hit and damage was an actual item in AD&D;with rare material rules this remains quite viable. Giving martials and rogues early access to inherent bonuses rather than enhancement bonuses avoids loss of attack and defense in antimagic situations. Animal companions are seriously overhyped in PF and far less powerful than the average martial, because they only become really dangerous with magical enhancements of their own. Standing outside an antimagic field does not necessarily protect you from retaliation, and assuming it does is your mistake.

>my brain is stuck in a box
Congrats, go play 4e and 5e.

So is it one guy who's just extremely butthurt about people not liking anti magic zones responding to everyone or are there more of you? I think it's a lazy way of the gm making players solve things how he wants and it's almost never well explained. Go ahead and tell me to return to 4e and 5e (never played either)

Having to houserule the problem is a confirmation that the problem exists.

>wow dude how dare you look at the direct results of using an AMF and the game's mathematical assumptions instead of uncritically agreeing with me
I didn't even bring up how pointless it is against casters who know they can break its effect with a shrunken cone of metal worn on their head.

Not really, casters still have ways around them and martials are pretty much sitting ducks while they're active.

Aren't they a good way to force the party to use new and different tactics?

Magic has always been sciency you retard, take alchemy for example.

The only time it's treated as mystical is ehen the setting is written by a lazy fuck who can't be assed writing rules and limits to the magic system.

>science magic is the only good magic
user confirmed for shit taste and no imagination, more at 11

It takes more imagination to create a rule system than to have it all be symbolic and open to asspull solutions like a bad shounen manga.

3e/PF magic is scientific though.
The very nature of the Wizard is literally anyone who studies hard enough can learn magic, as opposed to having to be born to it like a Sorc, or gifted it by a witch's familiar.

Noncasters without magic items still retain all their class abilities, feats, base attack bonus, stats, and nonmagical properties of their equipment. They might not be /as good/, but they'll still be definitely potent. A caster without magic is going to be much weaker since he doesn't get the majority of his class abilities. A fighter is better with a +3 spear, yes, but if he's a good fighter he can still fight with a nonmagical spear, and do it a lot better than a wizard or even a cleric could.

All the ways I'm aware of for casters to get around antimagic fields (like the lead cone with Shrink Item on their hat) also work for noncasters just as well, so I fail to see the point.

>more imagination to create rules
>instead of open to asspulls
Confirmed for having a shit GM, too. The power of mysterious magic is that it is the perfect infinite plot device. As a wizard PC, you have spells that you can use which you have learned, but there is an infinite expanse of magic in the world that you can discover. Not the 500-odd spells in the rulebook. Having magic effects open to mundane interaction, like throwing dirt on an undead's grave, give more player interaction. Having 'asspull magic' lets you create both more threatening and less threatening enemies, as their spells an abilities can be things that the players would never expect, even after reading the rule book 100 times over.

>Noncasters without magic items still retain all their class abilities, feats, base attack bonus, stats, and nonmagical properties of their equipment.
Too bad that means literally nothing once you realize the power level of the creatures that are capable of casting AMF. You might as well be naked with a pool noodle for all the good it'll do.
>A caster without magic is going to be much weaker since he doesn't get the majority of his class abilities.
The caster becoming weaker doesn't automatically mean that the martial becomes stronger, it just means that the caster is 1.5x as strong as opposed to being 4x as strong.
>All the ways I'm aware of for casters to get around antimagic fields (like the lead cone with Shrink Item on their hat) also work for noncasters just as well, so I fail to see the point.
That's because you've never been in a game with casters who actually knew what they were doing.

show me on the charsheet where the wizard touched you, user.

I don't know what's worse, the fact that this was the most clever response you could come up with in ten minutes, or the fact that you thought it was clever enough to post at all.

Whatever, don't believe me if you want, thankfully plenty of people have moved on from the mistakes of 3.PF so it's largely a non-issue nowadays.

>cunt cunty cunt cunt
>cunt cunt cunt cunt
>tit cunt slut cunt cunt
>cunt cunty cunt cunt cunt
You know anitmagic zones shut down most threatening monsters as well, right?

>You know anitmagic zones shut down most threatening monsters as well, right?
Not really, to quote OotS
>In an anti-magic field, you're a squishy little elf. Meanwhile, I'm still a dragon!

Only in small doses. Don't make an entire castle an anti-magic zone. Make a single room one. Don't take away a player's entire character for an entire campaign

You talkin smack about Tolkien esse?

Congratulations dragon, you have a nice physical attack but your plethora of spells and your breath weapon are completely useless.

Oh, and say goodbye to your damage reduction as well.

>Congratulations dragon, you have a nice physical attack
Don't forget, dragons also can make multiple attacks for assloads of damage as well, which is a huge problem when you're a martial who no longer has access to the perks of their magical armor/shields/etc. anymore.
>Oh, and say goodbye to your damage reduction as well.
Why would DR be negated by an AMF?

Because DR/Magic is a supernatural ability and is nullified in an antimagic field, like DR/alignment, /silver, and /cold iron.

It's not listed as a Su ability according to the SRD.

...

Fine, just curious because I didn't see it listed as Su on the SRD. In either case, still nothing stopping the dragon from ripping the party a new one anyways.

A dragons basic physical abilities will still overwhelm ANY and EVERY character in the party without magical assistance.

What I do in my setting is that anti-magic fields are not absolute and have clear limits, they just negate methodical and sciencey magic like the one used by spell slots, more abstract or chaotic magic is unaffected by them.

For example a wizard wont be able to cast normal "fireball" when inside one it but he can use spellcraft to attempt to deconstruct the spell and use it in a different less "reliable" context that wont be disrupted by the field.

Anti-magic, wild magic, the fey, etc are all cancer.

Too bad that the game is built around that net +8 to hit and damage you get from magic items and the penalty for not having them is a lot more severe than you think because you're intended to Power Attack off the excess to match monster HP inflation.