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Suppose that Arianna casts Circle of Power:

Divine energy radiates from you, distorting and diffusing magical energy within 30 feet of you. Until the spell ends, the sphere moves with you, centered on you. For the duration, each friendly creature in the area (including you) has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Greg stays 10 feet from Arianna, and he benefits from the positive effect. Arianna is behind a corner, hidden, and Greg walks past the corner, still within 10 feet from Arianna. On the other side of the corner, two wizards spot Greg, who is surprised: the first one, Murd, casts Dispel Magic on Greg, aiming to remove at least one positive effect (in this case, the one from Circle of Power is the only one present), trying to increment the success of the spells of his colleague. The situation is depicted below:

enter image description here

The description of Dispel Magic is the following:

Choose one creature, object, or magical effect within range. Any spell of 3rd level or lower on the target ends. For each spell of 4th level or higher on the target, make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 + the spell's level. On a successful check, the spell ends.

Supposing that the ability check is successful, what happens to the ongoing effect of Circle of Power on Greg? I see two possibilities1:

  1. The effect is ended on Greg, but the spell is still active on Arianna (and other creatures in the AoE).
  2. The effect is ended on Greg, but since the spell has not ended it immediately resumes since Greg is still inside the AoE of Circle of Power.

Moreover, if the first case is the correct one, can Greg regain the benefit of the spell, maybe exiting the AoE and entering for a second time?

Is there any other ruling that I am missing?

1 I do not consider the case in which the whole spell ends, even on Arianna, given the SAC ruling on Dispel Magic and Bless. This case is different from the SAC one since the ongoing effects depends on the distance from the source.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Well, I guess the ruling you are missing is that the spell ends on Arianna as well. But I don't think that is the correct one. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 23 hours ago
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Kirt But the target of Dispel Magic is not Arianna, but Greg. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 22 hours ago
  • \$\begingroup\$ Perhaps you meant is there any other potentially correct ruling that you are missing? That the spell ends on Arianna is, I think, clearly wrong. I have an answer formulated but will need until this evening to have a chance to write it. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 22 hours ago
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Kirt I did not include it since it sounds completely wrong to me, given also the SAC entry about Dispel Magic and Bless. I look forward to your answer then! \$\endgroup\$ Commented 22 hours ago

1 Answer 1

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The spell is not on Greg, so it cannot be dispelled by targeting him

Similar to the situation in this answer, there is no effect that has been cast on Greg in your scenario.

In the case of Bless that is in the SAC citation you mention, you select the targets that receive the spell’s benefit when you cast the spell, so the effect is on these creatures, and can be dispelled by targeting the creature.

In the case of Circle of Power, the spell is not cast on the creatures in the spell's Area of Effect. It is cast on you, and it emanates from you. To dispel it, Murd needs to either target you as the creature the effect is on, that is you, or he needs to target the effect directly.

The latter is of course a little tricky, because the effect is not visible and Murd may be unaware of it, and might waste his dispel in targeting Greg. But there is no requirement that you need to see the target of your Dispel Magic, so you still can do it. He might even be able to perceive the spell for example if he has Detect Magic active.

Corner cases

As a side comment, note what the rules say about Areas of Effect (PHB, p. 204):

A spell's effect expands in straight lines from the point of origin. If no unblocked straight line extends from the point of origin to a location within the area of effect, that location isn't included in the spell's area. To block one of these imaginary lines, an obstruction must provide total cover, as explained in chapter 9.

If the corner allows Arianna to still reach Greg, but Murd is positioned so that she has total cover from him, as in the image you added, then Murd cannot target her with his dispel, and his only option is to target the spell effect directly (or first move until he can see Arianna; but that she is the source of the effect is of course just as invisible as the effect proper, so he also wouldn't know that.)

If Arianna instead stayed behind the corner, hidden, and Greg walks around the corner so that the corner provides total cover to Greg from Arianna, it will block the lines of effect and make it so that Greg is not included in the area of effect and in fact actually has none of the spells magic affecting him to grant him advantage. In that case there is nothing to dispel here to begin with.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Your last paragraph is wrong: if Arianna is behind a corner, it cannot be targeted by Murd, but Greg is just after the corner but still inside the AoE and Arianna can see him and the spell effect can reach him. The 2024 rules are of little use here, I am using the 2014 ones. I will provide a scheme for the situation depicted. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 20 hours ago
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Eddymage If there is a line if effect between Arianna and Greg, the you are right he can benefit, and she might at the same time be save from having the effect dispelled by Murd targetting her. I’ll reword if that is the sitation \$\endgroup\$ Commented 20 hours ago
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    \$\begingroup\$ +1. I agree with this answer. I think the only thing you can dispel in that proposed scenario is the Area of Effect itself (the "magical effect within range" described in Dispel Magic) \$\endgroup\$ Commented 18 hours ago
  • \$\begingroup\$ I have several doubts on this reasoning: per your answer, detect magic won't detect anything on Greg. The magical effect actually is visible: "Divine energy radiates from you, distorting and diffusing magical energy within 30 feet of you." And the paragraph "corner case" I don't think provide any useful information or addition. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 17 hours ago
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    \$\begingroup\$ Detect Magic may be able to detect spell effect (a part of 30' radius emanation, even if the source is around a corner). On the other hand, it is far from obvious, if "radiates" means visible effect. Your body radiates heat, but you can't see it, except with night vision googles (Detect Magic). \$\endgroup\$ Commented 16 hours ago

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