Questions tagged [magic]
For questions about the nature of magic in a game. Use [spells] for questions on specific spells, and [spellcasting] for questions specifically about the process of spellcasting.
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How do I know if an ability is magical?
Often confusion arises when the Antimagic Field spell is used, an Armor of Invulnerability is worn, or the Beholder's anti-magic ray is employed, whether a given character's ability will still ...
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What happens when you target a "magical effect" with Dispel Magic?
In D&D 5e, the spell Dispel Magic says
Choose one creature, object, or magical effect within
range.
The rest of the spell description explains that spells "on the target" of a level lower ...
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How does D&D Vancian magic make sense in-game?
One thing that bugs me about Vancian Magic in D&D as I understand it is the following: How is "fire and forget" remotely believable when I can slot and ready more than one "copy&...
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Does ki count as magic for the purpose of an antimagic field, or is it only fluff?
I was verifying whether my fighter's Sun Blade would in fact be a useless hilt in an antimagic field (AMF) and came across this question on a few other sites, and it piqued my interest.
My first ...
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What counts as a spell?
There are many things in D&D that are spells, spell-like effects, magical effects, magic-like effects, or otherwise special abilities.
There are also many things that affect such things.
What is ...
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Can the Detect Magic spell detect prepared spells or spellcasters?
Inspired by a recent question about discerning divine and arcane spellcasters, of like to hear the case for and against detecting spellcasters of either style with detect magic.
I think you can ...
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How to decide if an effect is magical for Magic Resistance? [duplicate]
Some creatures have Magic Resistance:
The [...] has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
We know from this answer that this works against Turn Undead, but does it ...
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Do attacks from creatures summoned by the Conjure Animals spell count as magical?
In our last session, the party was fighting a Ghost. A ghost has, among other characteristics, damage resistance to "Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks". The Druid ...
user37158
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Do teleportation spells conserve momentum?
To be more specific, do teleportation spells conserve momentum from before to after the obvious infinite violation of momentum conservation inherent in instantaneous magical travel? Credit to nitsua60 ...
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Do objects affected by the Animate Objects spell count as magical weapons for the purpose of overcoming resistance?
Objects animated by the Animate Objects spell deal piercing or bludgeoning damage depending on the object type.
Is this damage counted as magical against creatures with resistance to non-magical ...
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Does an Enhancement bonus on clothing become an Armor bonus?
Given this discussion I had here about combining Magic Vestment and Coat of Many Stars:
Targeting what you're wearing would get you two different, non-stacking sources of Armor bonus. – Zachiel
...
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Do spell targets know they were targeted?
Assuming a target of a Pathfinder spell did not see/hear/notice a caster casting the spell, do they know/feel they were targeted?
Is it relevant if the spell worked or not, if a save was involved (...
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Is there a distinction between magical damage and nonmagical damage?
At various times while using this site, I've seen assertions that damage cannot be magical or nonmagical, and that referring to "magical damage" or "nonmagical damage" is thus nonsense. For example, ...
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Can wizards really cast spells in armor?
I've just read the D&D 5e basic rules, and I'm not sure I'm up to speed regarding casting spells while clad in armor. The only mention I can find about this (page 79):
Because of the mental focus ...
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Which features of a wizard's familiar, if any, are considered magical?
The find familiar spell has a duration of instantaneous, which implies that the familiar itself is not an ongoing magical effect. However, the spell provides a number of ongoing features that are ...
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What creatures does Antimagic Field temporarily wink out of existence?
The antimagic field spell has the following effect on creatures:
A creature or object summoned or created by magic temporarily winks out of existence in the sphere. Such a creature instantly ...
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How do I keep spellcasters from casting while in jail?
Interesting situation came up in my session. The players captured a wizard NPC and put him in jail. Then came a long discussion about what measures needed to be taken in order to prevent said wizard ...
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What happened to the Permanency spell? [closed]
As the title asks, I'm curious about why the permanency spell isn't in 5e. It's not in the PHB, DMG, or any forum page on the interwebs. It's been incorporated into various spells like true polymorph ...
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Are illusions just mind tricks or do they produce physical images and sounds?
Do illusions exist as images and sounds in the world, like holograms, or do they exist only in the beholder's mind, like mass hallucinations? There are paragraphs in the PHB that can support both ...
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What happens when Detect Magic is used upon something that is magically invisible?
Does a simple casting of Detect Magic reveal the presence of magical invisibility?
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What is the source of a Paladin's spellcasting ability?
PHB states that:
[...] a paladin's oath is a powerful bond. lt is a source of power that turns a devout warrior into a blessed champion.
and later:
Although many paladins are devoted to gods of ...
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Are a Paladin's auras considered magical for the purpose of Anti-Magic Field? [duplicate]
I know in current editions they don't explicitly state that the auras for paladins are based on magic.
I haven't ran into this yet, but my question is, does the effect provided from an aura penetrate ...
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Do the rules for combining magical effects apply to non-spell effects?
In the chapter on Spellcasting, there is a section called "Combining Magical Effects". However, despite the seeming generality of the title, the text of this section only talks about magical effects ...
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What is the difference between an Arcane Focus and a Component Pouch?
Reading through the Player's Handbook, I've noticed that the Sorceror, Warlock and Wizard classes can all take either an arcane focus or a component pouch. My understanding is that an arcane focus ...
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How are spells made permanent in 5e?
As we all know, the golden-age era of spellcasters having access to spells like Permanency is now over with the arrival of 5E. I am now DM'ing a top-tier campaign, and several of my PCs are casters ...
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What magic extends life or grants immortality?
Are there any magic items or spells that extend the natural life of a creature (meaning the age of the creature, and not preventing death from a wound or injury) or that grants immortality in the 5e ...
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Does an Evocation shield have a reactive utility to it?
Say that Player X is 2nd in the initiative. 1st is the Black Court vampire that is in a rage and taking a swing at Player X. Player X gets a built in defense [Athletics/Fists + 4dF] but can Player X ...
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Are the natural weapon attacks of a druid in Wild Shape magical?
The description for the druid's Wild Shape feature declares that the transformation is magical:
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have ...
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If someone has Reduce/Enlarge Person cast on them, does equipment picked up later (after the initial casting) resize?
The rules for enlarge person and reduce person say "All equipment worn or carried by a creature is similarly [reduced or enlarged] by the spell." Does that happen once at the beginning of the spell ...
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Does Detect Magic detect supernatural creatures like demons, or items connected with them?
One of my PCs, a Wizard, found an item of demonic origins. Basically, the carrier develops a sort of connection with a dark entity that affects his personality over time and possibly provides demonic ...
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Can creatures tell if they've been blessed or cursed by Prayer?
When casting Prayer, you give your allies a bonus and your foes a penalty on most rolls. Now, assuming you get to choose who your allies and foes are, can a creature tell which one you've designated ...
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What ways are there to magically enforce an agreement?
Assume a PC (or the whole party) wants to make a deal with another PC or NPC. What magical ways are there to make this "contract" binding and enforceable, or at least somewhat so?
Examples where this ...
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Can a portal to the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Radiance be used to do damage?
I want to open a portal to the Quasi-elemental Plane of Radiance that'll unleash a big ol' laser that'll probably ruin some monster's day. (Currently I'm considering using dimension door to do it.) Is ...
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Do Caster Levels from different sources stack?
This seems like a glaring oversight, but what are caster levels? Do characters only have one score called caster level just like sneak attack? Why do most classes not state what their caster level ...
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Magic Jar without a receptacle
In the magic jar spell effects, you can possess a body, which sends the 'life force' or 'soul' to the receptacle/magic jar.
You possess the body and force the creature's soul into the magic jar ...
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Can a creature take turns as normal if they are inside an Antimagic Field while another creature casts Time Stop?
Time stop is a spell that stops time for other creatures, allowing one creature to take multiple turns in a row. It says:
You briefly stop the flow of time for everyone but yourself. No time passes ...
user62688
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Why aren't magocracies and theocracies dominant in D&D settings?
Anyone has (or has links to) well thought-out, logical explanations for why magocracies and theocracies are not the dominant forms of government of D&D worlds? I'd also be really interested in ...
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Does Force damage count as magical if the feature causing it doesn't?
A recent question asked whether it's possible to cause non-magical damage of every damage type, to which the answer was apparently yes. However, a point was raised a couple of times, such as this ...
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What happens if 2 wizards cast Secret Chest on the same chest?
In my game, in which I play a wizard, I have met an NPC wizard who is willing to let me learn Leomund's Secret Chest from her spellbook. This got me wondering what would happen if I learned the spell ...
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Can detect magic reveal illusions?
In 5th edition, would detect magic reveal illusions such as invisibility, disguise self, etc. by the rules as written? While it would not reveal the nature of the illusion, it would reveal that one is ...
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Are magic weapons and weapons considered magic for the purpose of overcoming resistances different?
After reading an interesting comment in another question, I realized there are some rare cases when the difference between a magic weapon and a weapon considered magical for the purposes of overcoming ...
user27327
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Can the Nystul's Magic Aura spell make you immune to/unable to be targeted by the Dominate Person spell?
Nystul's Magic Aura can make it so that magic and spells treat a creature as though it were another creature type. However the extent of this effect is ambiguous.
At first, it says the following, ...
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How does concentration interact with spells cast via the Wild Magic Surge table?
I can't find any official ruling about this.
I'll use the example of Fog Cloud on the Wild Magic Surge Table (PHB pg. 104) as an example.
The Wild Magic entry reads:
You cast fog cloud centered ...
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Creatively targeting summoning spells
Me and my party have a plan in our upcoming session, that will need some clarifications on how summoning spells can be used.
It's all about creative targeting with the Summon Monster I spell. Let me ...
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Can a Cleric leave spell slots open to prepare later?
In another question, it's explained that Wizards can leave spell slots blank to be prepared later. I want to know if a Cleric can do the same thing: can a Cleric leave spell slots open when they first ...
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What happens to lasers entering an area of magical darkness?
This question is inspired by: Is future technology that is indistinguishable from magic considered a "Magical Effect"?.
Darkness spells and magical effects block all (non-magical) light. A ...
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Can a Warlock cast a spell at a lower level than their spell slot?
Can a Warlock cast a spell using a lower level slot than the slots they have available?
For example, if a 9th level Warlock (who has 5th slots) comes into a possession of a Shield Guardian (who can ...
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Does the Shapechanger trait work in an Antimagic Field? [duplicate]
Certain monsters have the Shapechanger trait. For instance, here it is on the Werewolf:
Shapechanger. The werewolf can use its action to polymorph into a wolf-humanoid hybrid or into a wolf, or ...
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Does Grim Harvest trigger when my minions kill something?
The Necromancy School's Grim Harvest ability restores HP when you kill an enemy with a spell of 1st-level or higher. Does this apply when minions created by a spell, such as Animate Dead, or Conjure ...
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Would an anti-magic zone affect a dragon's breath weapon? [duplicate]
One of my players has a special crystal that emits an anti-magic zone 5-feet around them. It was just picked up so they're trying to figure out what to do with the crystal. Suddenly they are ...
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