The Dispelling Skill Prepared by D J Brattan Original Concept by Tim Steele The idea of dispelling has been changed in the 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It has changed from using the appropriately named Battle magic spell to being more of a skill that a magician has or an innate property that certain magic items are prized for. For this reason and to cover the Dwarven innate ability to resist magic, I use these rules set out below for my roleplay campaign. Any character with the ability to cast spells can also learn the skill of dispelling. A character with this skill is taught how to use his innate ability to twist the winds of magic so that a spell cast in his vicinity can be slightly misaligned and therefore disrupted. The idea is similar to an engineer building a great tower. One brick out of place can cause the whole construction to collapse. Knowing which brick is the critical one is where the skill is involved. The skill is usually made available at the same level as when Petty Magic is available ie as a wizard's apprentice or Druidic Priest etc and is acquired via the same process as other skills costing 100 xps. Dwarfs are an exception to this rule (See below). There are also magic items that have an innate ability to disrupt magic cast against them, such as shields or talismans. These items are usually wrought by mighty mages and so have a strong chance to negate enemy spells. Any spell that would otherwise affect the owner has a chance of being dispelled. Magic shields etc of this kind usually have the same chance as a level 4 wizard in attempting to dispel. How it's Done : Dispelling works by comparing the dispellers level and the spell casters level to the percentage on the table below. The casters percentage is taken away from the dispellers and the resulting percentage is the chance to dispell. Dispellers Spell Level Dispel Chance Casters Lvl Modifier Petty ( or Dwarf) 25% +10% Level 1 35% 0% Level 2 45% -5% Level 3 55% -10% Level 4 65% -15% Augmenting Spells/Dispels : The chance to dispell can be further enhanced by using extra magic points. The dispeller gains an extra 5% per magic point used to augment his chance to dispel. Similarly the caster can use magic points to ensure his spell occurs. Each extra magic point used deducts 5% from the chance to dispell. Before the spell is cast, the caster writes down how many extra points to be added to the overall magic points total (if any) to guard against dispelling. The dispelling mage then writes down secretly how many magic points (if any) is to be used in the dispelling attempt. These amounts are then revealed and the percentage chance to dispell is further modified by the result. An example : A 1st level mage has just learnt fireball. He is adventuring in the perilous vaults of Karak Varn and comes across an evil Orc Shaman. Immediately the mage whips out a ball of sulphur and shouting the approriate words casts the spell at his victim. The mage decides to bolster his attempt of casting the spell seeing that his victim is also a spell caster and adds two extra points. (This would not be neccessary if he was fighting ogres, seeing they usually have no spell ability and therefore cannot attempt to dispel a spell). He writes this amount down and waits for the orc to respond. The shaman is a wiley beast and knows that even though he is at 2nd level ability, a successful fireball against him will do more than give him an overall tan. He decides to use 3 magic points to defend himself and writes the amount down. The two amounts are revealed and to the mages initial dismay, the total spell points are against him and so the shaman's dispell attempt will be at +5%. The above table is consulted and it is found that the Shaman has a basic dispel ability of 40%. The mage is 1st level and so adds +0% to this chance. The extra +5% for spell points is added to this giving a total chance of 45%. Now the Shaman rolls the dice to score a 53% and decides that perhaps Sunblock 15+ would have been more useful. Our happy mage now has to contend with the Shaman's relatives running up the corridor behind him. About Dwarfs : Dwarfs, being naturally wary of magic, are already aware of this skill. Any dwarf of any profession can expend the required 100xps to gain the skill. However, they do not get better at it like magicians do and so stay at the level of Petty Magic when trying to dispell. This means that overall, the Dwarf will have 30% basic chance to Dispel which cannot be modified except by the level of the casting mage and any extra points that mage expends.