[RPG] Would an Antimagic Field set off a Sphere of Annihilation

antimagic-fielddnd-5emagic-itemsspells

I'm curious if a Sphere of Annihilation would survive an Antimagic Field, because at first you would assume that, based on the spell's entry,

A 10-foot-radius invisible sphere of antimagic surrounds you. This area is divorced from the magical energy that suffuses the multiverse.

Magic items: The properties and powers of magic items are suppressed in the sphere… the magic of the item ceases to be suppressed as soon as it exits. (PHB, 213-214)

then moving the Sphere into the Field would make it wink out of existence, and then once the field was moved or ended, the sphere would pop back into existence.

However, the wording in the sphere's description makes me wonder if it would still function. Specifically, it says

This 2-foot-diameter black sphere is a hole in the multiverse, hovering in space and stabilized by a magical field surrounding it. (DMG, 201)

Since the item is a magically stabilized hole in the multiverse, it would be reasonable to say that the hole itself is not affected by the "magical energy that suffuses the multiverse", as it is a hole in said multiverse.

Thus, the only "magic" in the item is the sphere of magic that stabilizes the hole. This would also be supported by the later section

If the sphere comes into contact with a planar portal… or an extradimensional space…" (DMG 201)

Then one of the three following things happens

The sphere is destroyed.

The sphere moves through the portal or into the
extradimensional space.

A spatial rift sends each creature and object with in
180 feet of the sphere, including the sphere, to a
random plane of existence. (DMG, 201)

To me, this would be explained by the inter-dimensional/planar travel possibly messing up the stabilizing field, either causing it to stop and the hole seals itself up, or destabilizing the hole just long enough to cause a spatial rift to tear open.

Going off of this, would an Antimagic Field hitting a Sphere of Annhilitation's magical field cause one of those two things to happen?

Best Answer

No.

The simplest way to approach this is to take the rules literally. The interplanar effects only happen when the sphere touches a planar portal or an extradimensional space. An antimagic field is none of these, so it will not "go off".

Given that there's no specific interaction between an antimagic field and a sphere of annihilation, we then fall back on your first interpretation, which is that the sphere winks out of existence only while the antimagic field is active, in the same way that any other magic item is deactivated.