[RPG] Does Antimagic Field suppress or prevent petrification from Flesh to Stone

antimagic-fieldconditionsdnd-5espells

Inspired by this question and in particular, this answer. I'm focusing on a specific effect; petrification.

For the flesh to stone spell, the process of becoming petrified goes through this sequence: first, you become restrained if you fail a CON save, and must make additional CON saves until you succeed three or fail three, similar to how death saves work. If you fail three before you succeed three, you become petrified.

The flesh to stone spell is a concentration spell, which says (PHB, p. 243):

If you maintain your concentration on this spell for the entire possible duration [1 minute], the creature is turned to stone until the effect is removed.

From this, I have a few closely related questions with regards to how flesh to stone interacts with antimagic field (I decided to split this question up into two sets, since otherwise all 5 questions together made this post too broad; the other set of questions is here):

  • If a creature has been petrified by flesh to stone and the caster has concentrated for a full minute on the spell, does antimagic field have any effect on their petrified condition?
  • If a creature has been petrified by flesh to stone but the caster has not yet concentrated for a full minute on the spell, does antimagic field have any effect on their petrified condition?
  • If a creature has failed their initial save against flesh to stone but they are yet to make their three-of-a-kind saving throws, does antimagic field allow them to auto-succeed the saves and no longer be restrained/turning to stone?

Best Answer

An antimagic field suppresses Flesh to Stone during its duration and prevents the final petrification (but doesn't reverse it after the fact)

During the 1-minute duration of the Flesh to Stone, all of the spell's ongoing effects are magical and would be suppressed if the target were put inside an antimagic field. This means that the target would not be restrained or petrified and will not have to make any saving throws against the spell while inside an antimagic field. Among other things, this means that the target will not accumulate any successes or failures on saving throws.

The more interesting question is what happens at the end of the 1-minute duration:

If you maintain your concentration on this spell for the entire possible duration, the creature is turned to stone until the effect is removed.

Normally, the petrification becomes permanent if the spell's full duration elapses; since the spell has ended and nothing about petrification is inherently magical on its own, at this point the petrification becomes non-magical. Notably, the permanent petrification still occurs even if the creature has not yet failed 3 saving throws and becomes (temporarily) petrified by the time the spell ends, a situation that is normally impossible without an antimagic field.

However, even though the petrification becomes permanent and non-magical after the end of the spell's duration, the transformation itself is magical. Hence, if the creature is inside an antimagic field at the time the spell's duration elapses, the permanent transformation never occurs in the first place, and the petrified condition is never inflicted. So, as long as the target is inside the antimagic field when the spell ends, they walk away without any lasting effects from the spell.

Finally, if the target has already been permanently petrified by a Flesh to Stone spell, there is no remaining magical effect to suppress, so putting the petrified creature in an antimagic field has no effect - the creature remains petrified.