Who decides which spell gets dispelled first?

Question

When you cast a dispel magic on a creature with multiple spell effects on them, you first automatically dispel any spells that are of low enough level, then make an ability check against any that are higher level than your dispel to attempt to destroy them.

When this happens, who decides which effect ends first? Does the caster, the target, or the DM decide in what order to end the spells?

For example: Suppose I am a wizard. In a desperate fight, I've cast stoneskin on myself, and but then my enemy manages to land a hit with contagion and inflict Mindfire. I'm in trouble, so I cast dispel magic on myself.

The DM wants me to roll against contagion first. If I succeed, the disease will go away, and I won't have disadvantage when I subsequently roll to dispel my own stoneskin. Of course, I'd rather try my roll against stoneskin first, while I have disadvantage on Intelligence checks, and then roll against contagion second.

Who gets to pick the order?

Answer 1

If it's your turn, you decide the order

Xanathar's Guide to Everything includes an (optional) rule for exactly this situation. On page 77, it contains a section titled "Simultaneous Effects":

In rare cases, effects can happen at the same time, especially at the start or end of a creature's turn. If two or more things happen at the same time on a character or monster's turn, the person at the game table — whether player or DM — who controls that creature decides the order in which those things happen.

So if you cast the dispel magic spell on your own turn, you will decide the order in which the spells are removed.

---

_{NOTE:According to Jeremy Crawford, you are also able to target a single "magical effect" that you're aware of with dispel magic. Any spell on that effect (e.g. causing it) will be dispelled. So in your example, your character could target the Mindfire effect (which they are aware of, since it is afflicting them), and only remove the contagion spell. Since this came up in the comments, I thought it would be worth mentioning here.}

Answer 2

As an alternative to the already given answer (the player decides), I'd like to offer an alternative. It's not based on any rules, but rather on what I consider common sense and “realistic“.

Suppose you cast dispel magic and it dispels mindfire. Then what? Your concentration rises, the spell gets more powerful and then you dispel your own spell? That doesn't seem sensible to me.

I'd role against both spells whatever order “at the same time“. The effect of dispel magic would then only apply after the rolls.

That isn't against the rules as written. The rule cited doesn't forbid that. It says if two effects happen at the same time, you can choose the order.

But the order can be

• cast dispel magic

• determine which spells it hits

• remove the spells (choose in which order, it doesn't make any difference though, because you already rolled).

I just don't see any reason why dispel magic shouldn't remove all magic at the same time instead of one by one.

I don't have any rule to cite, but from a role-playing point of view, it doesn't seem to make sense that a mage would dispel the negative effect, increase their concentration and then keep the spell going to dispel the positive effect. But as only dispelling parts of the magic isn't possible, it has to be simultaneous. Dispel magic hits all spells at the same time, it is decided which are removed based on the stats while casting and after that they are removed.