Cap on Mundane Dispel CL

[Bunnysmack]

Having run with the mundane dispel resistance effect in Arelith for some time now, I think it might be time to discuss a slight ceiling on how powerful this effect can become.

At present, PCs with no class levels in a class that has a spellbook (or only a tiny amount of class levels in one of those classes) have their caster level for the purposes of resisting dispel magic set to their full character level on any item they use to create wards on themselves.

What this means, practically speaking, is that a non-caster, at level 30, is just as resistant to dispel magic effects as a Caster with a full 30 levels in their spellcasting profession. The two strongest forms of dispel magic (Mordekainen's Disjunction, and Greater dispel Magic) only have a 5% chance of removing any given ward, unless the dispelling caster has a heavy investment in Abjuration Spell Focus feats.

While I do think a fair amount of dispel resistance should scale into mundane classes, because it's entirely unfair if any caster can easily strip every defensive spell their target is wearing, having this boon scale up to max level really pigeon holes a lot of characters. At present, if the target as 20 wards on them, a Greater Dispel is liable to remove a single ward from the target. There is no reason at all to prepare uses of Greater Dispel unless the caster has Abjuration, and even then...It's rather unreliable.

The solution: Cap mundane dispel CL at either 26 or 27 (which is the endgame CL for the vast majority of spellcaster focused builds; specifically because it strikes a balance of being able to adequately hold out against dispel magic). This would make it so non-specialized casters have a 15%-20% chance of removing any given ward when they throw Greater Dispel/Mords, and abjurors would have a 35%-40% chance (which seems like a more balanced result for the amount of investment put in on two feats plus an epic feat).

While many things are on the breach list nowadays, as a workaround to having weak dispel magic, I don't think removing a DnD staple spell from effectiveness is the right answer. Rather, having both Breach and Dispel be useful in different situations makes more sense. Additionally, some major warding effects still are not on the breach list (like Clarity), and when a mundane shotgun build is leaning on this fact, someone focused heavily around mind effects, death effects, etc. is just helpless to fight back.

Edit:
I am, however, curious to hear what the other players of the community think is appropriate for addressing this question. Players of Mundane PCs and Spellcasting PCs, do you think the mechanics need a change? If not, I'd like to hear the counter-arguments; if so, are there any other ideas that you think might serve better than the change I proposed above?

Sorry, this is my first time in a long while that I started a thread in the feedback section, I just repurposed the post to be more conducive to community discussion

[Vuoqadis]

Dispels can be cast more than once, and abjuration focuses do exist and are common focuses to have. It's a very narrow path to tread, because dispels can easily become oppressive.

Something like a 15% chance to dispel with focuses might seem low at first glance, but it really isn't, when you consider 1) you can also breach (sometimes with the same spell) 2) dispels can be spammed 3) some wards are more or less essential and losing them mid-fight, especially in a group fight, can be a death sentence – and losing those wards screws up your action economy big time.

There are a ton of builds out there with less than 30 CL, so your non-abj focused dispels are still going to be extremely useful in many cases.

[garrbear758]

This isn't ever going to change. Period. Feel free to read all of the threads about this if you wish, as this topic has been covered many times. Here are two from this year to get you started:

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=29727&hilit=dispel
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=28305&hilit=dispel