My questions is about, generally speaking if a spell is considered "ongoing" or if it has "started",in D&D 3.5, even if the effect of the spell is delayed, and in particular about the Mad foam rager feat.
Situation, in order of initiative: NPC wizard , player Wizard, player Barbarian
- The NPC Wizard cast Charm on the raging Barbarian
- The Barbarian fails its Will save
- The DM describe that the barbarian feels calmer and that the bad guy looks not that threatening anymore.
- The barbarian sense that something wrong (or simply saw the wizard use a wand against him and knows something's up even if he's not sure what exactly)
- Barbarian uses the feat Mad foam rager to delay the effect of the spell as per description.
( Player's Handbook II, p. 80) As an immediate action, you can choose to delay the effect of a single attack, spell, or ability used against you. The damage or effect does not take hold until the end of your next turn.
The barbarian use a free action to shout to his ally wizard "I don't feel right, do that thing that kills magic effects that you usually do".
On his turn, the allied wizard cast succesfully Dispel Magic on the barbarian.
You can use dispel magic to end ongoing spells that have been cast on a creature or object, to temporarily suppress the magical abilities of a magic item, to end ongoing spells (or at least their effects) within an area, or to counter another spellcaster’s spell. A dispelled spell ends as if its duration had expired.
- Barbarian attacks the Npc wizard.
What happens at the end of his turn, when effect of the spell is supposed to become active, has the dispel magic been effective in suppressing the charm spell?
Where I could not find a definitive answer is about the description of what dispel magic acts on (bolding mine), particularly what "ongoing" involves. If the spell is considered ongoing, even though its effect is delayed, then the barbarian should be free of the charm at the end of it's turn, but if it's not ongoing the dispel magic does nothing asteh spell as not started yet. Another way of framing the question is, on focusing on the definition part of dispel magic
A dispelled spell ends as if its duration had expired.
and ask, has the "duration" of the spell started when its effect was delayed by the Mad foam rager feat (before the barbarian turn)?
Edit: I've searched every forum I could think of, in SE RPG, for example, there are only 2 question about Mad Foam rager in the whole site.