Arelith

Not sure if this can be done even with Haks, but I'll toss it onto the pile while Irongron is rolling through.

Make dispel resistance based on total character level, with an incremental bonus for caster levels, and possibly an extra small bonus for pure casters at L28.

Adjust Dispel Magic (etc...) numbers to make it moderately effective against characters of equal level, so that it's useful but not not too powerful, with Abjuration focus bringing it up to somewhere around a 50% chance.

Numbers should hopefully allow a pure caster with Arcane Defense to be highly resistant to equal level dispelling, requiring Abjuration focus to reliably penetrate their defenses.

Sample numbers to illustrate the resistance scheme: (these are not balanced)
A level 20 Fighter has 20 dispel resistance. (1 per level)
A level 20 Wizard has 23 dispel resistance. (1 per level + 1 per 6 caster levels)
A level 28 Sorcerer with AD: Abju has 35 dispel resistance. (1 per level + 1 per 6 caster levels + 1 L28 bonus + 2 Arcane Defense)


Untying dispel resistance from caster levels would open up a lot of currently unfeasible builds. Right now, you end up very dispellable if you aren't either a nearly pure caster or entirely mundane. (or at least never casting spells from a caster class you dipped)

I think there's a tendency among players on the forums to consider balance (and utiliy) from the perspective of PvP, rather than PvE, whereas, as a developer, I consider the latter far more important.

The question of dispel resisistance is one of those where the situation is very different depending on which we look at. Last year (or maybe the year before) we heavily curtailed the use of Dispel Magic by spawns, but, especially at higher levels, it remains a crucial component of a limited arsenal, and monsters will generally be far adept at breaching wards.

To give an example, many years ago I played a noteworthy Palemaster, who at the time was considered awesomely powerful in PvP. The thing is...dispel was his achilles heel, and he could be pretty much entirely hobbled by it (despite his svirfneblin SR). Back then players were perhaps a little lessy savvy than they are now, and as such it was deployed against him far less than it should have been. Still, it was a weakness I appreciated, and I shudder to think how powerful he would have been without it.

In PvE dispel is a killer, and can quickly turn the tide of a battle, and I like that also.

Another point is that it can make a difference when a group of lower level characters are faced with a stronger foe, and I'd worry that following this suggestion to the letter would make these conflicts even more one-sided.

If it is possible (which as you stated it may not be), I'll nevertheless approve this, but only if the numbers were very kept very low, as I think a modest increase would be worthwhile.

Approved.

This suggestion is no longer valid, given changes to dispel. Moved to completed due to the change in dispel order.