dispel?

[MordorMan]

Brothers, sisters and others,

Does anyone know the exact way the 'dispel' spell works? I was recently hit by numerous bad spell effects from a mystical imp. I tried getting rid of them by drinking a dispel potion, but nothing happened. I think it was a 'dispel 30 points' potion. Some questions:
* What type of spells can be dispelled?
* What does the number of points mean?
* Does it affect good and bad effects in the same way?
* Is there a luck factor involved?
* Is there a random factor involved?
* How useful is it to carry around dispel potions?

Thanks in advance,
M

[badboyd22]

Brothers, sisters and others,

Does anyone know the exact way the 'dispel' spell works? I was recently hit by numerous bad spell effects from a mystical imp. I tried getting rid of them by drinking a dispel potion, but nothing happened. I think it was a 'dispel 30 points' potion. Some questions:
* What type of spells can be dispelled?
* What does the number of points mean?
* Does it affect good and bad effects in the same way?
* Is there a luck factor involved?
* Is there a random factor involved?
* How useful is it to carry around dispel potions?

Thanks in advance,
M

I think it might have been a dissease the Imp gave you.. i dont know if imps can do that.. but you cant disspell a dissease.. right?

And as far as i know you can disspell dmg that takes time *like when your burning* and boosts like 4 to acrobatis for 30 sec, and that dissappearse to when you disspell...

Im quite a noob lol.. but this is what i think to know

[MordorMan]

Thanks.

I am sure I did not get a disease from the imp. If you contract a disease, a message reporting this will appear in the screen. Up till now, I have only contracted diseases from rats, zombies and vampires.

The assumption that the 'dispel' spell dispels temporary spell effects seems valid. But it does not always work, like 'cure disease'. It must depend on something, like the level of the 'dispel' spell. It would be nice to know beforehand if your 'dispel' spell is going to have a chance of being succesfull..

[MordorMan]

Info from the UESP

I have been looking further for information on 'dispel' and I stumbled upon some interesting information on the [url="http://www.uesp.net"]Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP)[/url]. The site is having technical difficulties at the moment, so it is either slow or unresponsive. For that reason I will now quote the articel on dispel:

"Dispel: Remove Magicka-based spell effects from the target. Dispel does not affect abilities, diseases, curses, or constant-effect magic items. Dispel also does not appear remove effects from potions or scrolls, only effects from cast spells.

The points are related to the maximum strength spell that can be removed by the Dispel spell. This strength appears to be described by the magicka cost (Magic Overview) of casting the spell, taking into account the caster's skill level (i.e., not the base magicka cost that are listed on the Spells page). The actual formula has not been worked out yet, but in one set of tests a 15 point Dispel spell removed spells that cost up to 70 magicka to cast; a 25 point Dispel removed spells that cost up to 100 magicka to cast. For multi-effect spells, Dispel acts on all of the effects simultaneously, i.e. either all are removed, or none are removed. Also, Dispel can remove effects from multiple spells at the same time.

In practice, it may be very difficult to predict what strength Dispel effect is necessary to cancel a given spell, because it is necessary to know your opponent's skill level. The skill levels of NPCs are generated semi-randomly. Although you can expect that a Bandit Hedge Wizard you encounter at high levels will have better magical skills than one you encounter at low levels, the method used to determine the actual values are unknown.

Notes

* Dispel can be useful both on yourself and on enemies; it has been classified as a defensive spell because it is a non-hostile spell.
* As a potion, Dispel can only be used on yourself.
* From Sigil Stones, Dispel can only be used against enemies.
* Dispel is one of the enchantments available for making a custom mage's staff (it is also found on random generic staves). "

Although this sheds some light on the matter, it is still not entirely clear how 'dispel' works. Let's say dispel removes up to four times the number of dispel points. And let's say I have been hit with 3 spells, a 10 (magicka) points spell, a 40 points spell and a 100 points spell. The limit for dispel to work could be the average (50) or the maximum (100), or something else.

It is problably up to me to try dispelling a lot and to get a feeling for it that way...

By the way, the UESP seems to have a lot of useful information, not just text copied from the manual. A recommended site, I hope it it becomes responsive soon.