Many magical schools have a version of the Dispel spell. Elemental magic has what can be defined as a weak Dispel. It isn’t learned until later, meaning that younger students don’t even have access to it. It’s expensive and slow to cast. As a result, elementalists rarely use their Dispels offensively. They may blanket themselves with a few Dispels for protection, but it’s inefficient for them to engage in countermagic battles with other casters.
Dispels can be used in a variety of ways. Casters can blanket themselves with Dispel for lasting protection versus opposing magic. In the book, this is described as drawing a golden sigil, which collapses into an invisible star that circles the caster.
Dispels can also be used to cancel or remove magic that is already in operation. For instance, if an elementalist saw an opponent protected by a wizardry Shield, she could cast a Dispel to try to cancel it. In all cases, Dispels operate on the skill of the caster, not the amount of energy involved in the opposing spell.
Finally, Dispels can be used to ‘blanket’ an opposing caster. This is done as an attempt to block the next spell that is cast. For instance, an elementalist sees a rival drawing a Portal. She can send a Dispel at her rival. The Portal spell will have to fight through the Dispel before taking effect.
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