Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 wizardmon Jul 06, 2009 16:39:09	Okay, so in my campaign I am working on, there is a desert where magic does not function properly. The campaign I expect will take place in this desert. For better or worse, do any of you guys have any reasonable 4e antimagic mechanics? The only thing I can come up with is this: House Rule wrote:
#2 pluisjen Jul 06, 2009 17:17:12	How about... Weak Magic Field When a character uses a magic item, ritual, or uses a power with the Arcane, Divine, Primal, or Psionic keyword, they must make the relevant skill check (Arcane -> Arcana, Divine -> Religion, Primal -> Nature, Psionic -> ? ) with a DC equal to the strength of the field. If they fail the saving throw, the effect fails, but is still expended. Makes it dependant on the character, more powerful mages can more easily overcome the field, the chance can be set partly by you, etc. etc. Something with less rolling of the dice is hard; there's little between 0 and 1, at best you could roll once at the start of the encounter and on a fail, nothing functions at all. Maybe a raw 25% or 50% chance that powers with the Arcane, Divine, Primal or Psionic keyword don't work. Also, tell the players about this. And expect a full martial party. It's not fun to have a class whose powers don't work half the time
#3 bone_naga Jul 06, 2009 17:36:59	Powers with the arcane power source (or whatever power sources you feel qualify as magic) suffer a -2 penalty to attack in this area, and targets gain a +1 bonus to saves to end these effects. Then give arcane characters a bonus later (+2 to attack for being at an intersection of ley lines or whatever), possibly during the boss fight, to make up for being gimped.
#4 ff6shadow Jul 06, 2009 23:03:00	The one time I used an anti-magic effect, I made it a blanket effect that limits all characters to at-wills, with a few exceptions (Class Features). It created the intended effect on the party, which was to scare them, and make them realize that this place actively hampered their capabilities. They became cautios, and fled from several encounters they could have handled (they assumed enemies would ignore it, which wasn't true).
#5 pyromancer2k Jul 06, 2009 23:24:49	MM2 Antimagic Field A beholder ultimate tyrant takes no damage from zone effects.
#6 efinley Jul 07, 2009 19:47:42	Another suggestion: Rather than targeting power sources, target the Implement keyword. And I, for one, would strongly recommend that "doesn't function properly" not mean "doesn't function at all." And that you do something to counterbalance that for Weapon keywords as well (or simply have a lot of higher-AC and harder-to-physically-hurt monsters, because that's all they're evolved/created/etc for).
#7 gregt_314 Jul 07, 2009 20:16:01	Can I go back a step and recommend you don't do this at all? There's nothing fun about finding out that your character can't do the only thing they're good at for upwards of an entire session. The concept of antimagic in D&D is largely a response to the overpowered nature of wizards in previous editions; it was fine to nerf spellcasters like this from time to time because a susceptibility to suddenly losing their powers balanced out their godlike unstoppability the rest of the time. In 4E wizards (and other arcane classes) are pretty well balanced. Antimagic fields that involve more than a single one-off encounter aren't fun.
#8 pyromancer2k Jul 07, 2009 20:17:47	Another suggestion: Rather than targeting power sources, target the Implement keyword. I like this idea. Have it say something like this, "Creatures inside the Anti-Magic field can't use powers or be targeted with powers that have the Implement Keyword." The only problem which both setups have is that it only works on players. I don't know if that's the intent which it might be since you probably aren't giving them the ability to put down an anti-magic field.
#9 countesskathleen Jul 07, 2009 20:23:45	You could settle with Magic Item Daily Powers not working and perhaps rituals automatically failing but I wouldn't touch Attack Powers either way.
#10 mellored Jul 08, 2009 17:56:26	I would only do this if you had an anti-martial/anti-primal/anti-phycic/anti-divine field somewhere as well. I would also limit it to something small, like -2 to attacks.
#11 fey_feline Jul 09, 2009 20:02:52	How about... Weak Magic Field When a character uses a magic item, ritual, or uses a power with the Arcane, Divine, Primal, or Psionic keyword, they must make the relevant skill check (Arcane -> Arcana, Divine -> Religion, Primal -> Nature, Psionic -> ? ) with a DC equal to the strength of the field. If they fail the saving throw, the effect fails, but is still expended. Makes it dependant on the character, more powerful mages can more easily overcome the field, the chance can be set partly by you, etc. etc. Something with less rolling of the dice is hard; there's little between 0 and 1, at best you could roll once at the start of the encounter and on a fail, nothing functions at all. Maybe a raw 25% or 50% chance that powers with the Arcane, Divine, Primal or Psionic keyword don't work. Also, tell the players about this. And expect a full martial party. It's not fun to have a class whose powers don't work half the time Seems good. Psionic might be Insight? For Stromg Fields, it should be a simple coin toss.