Does the Dispel Magic spell affect "Living Spells" in any meaningful way?

Question

I recently came to a point where I was trying to find a source that talks about the dispel magic spell in relation to Living Spells. Living Spells are very similar in a lot of ways to spells; they have a few notable differences, obviously, but they are still at their core magical spells, from what I can ascertain.

Dispel magic can currently dispel spells, sometimes requiring a spellcasting ability check, if the spell is of a certain level or higher. However, it doesn't address whether a Living Spell would be affected by dispel magic.

How would dispel magic work when cast on a Living Spell?

Answer 1

No official effect has been listed for casting dispel magic on a living spell.

Neither Eberron: Rising from the Last War, nor the original Eberron Campaign Setting for D&D 3.5e (which was the original debut of the living spell), mentions any special effect from dispel magic cast on a living spell. In fact, originally, the “Spell Mimicry” ability¹ was “supernatural,” which (in that ruleset) meant its effects were immune to dispel magic et al.² So that may be evidence that dispel magic really isn’t supposed to do anything to living spells? You could make an argument that they’re in a similar state as constructs and the undead, which are clearly animated by magic but you can’t just dispel them.

On the other hand, personally, I find it kind of disappointing. I could see houseruling it. Hasn’t actually come up for me, though, and I haven’t thought through precisely what I’d do with it. Probably just 1d6 damage times the caster’s level, maybe with a Constitution save for half?

1. _{Which wasn’t called that, it was just called “spell effect.”}

2. _{Mordenkainen’s disjunction could apply to supernatural effects, but no rule in 3.5e gives any indication what actually happens when you apply a disjunction to a supernatural ability or effect. See the end of this answer for details.}

Answer 2

It appears that dispel magic has no effect

Living spells are not affected by dispel magic. Whatever magical effect is sustaining the sentience and energy of the living spells, it must not be a spell. Remember that dispel magic typically only works on spells, unless a specific effect is listed as being affected (emphasis mine):

Any spell of 3rd level or lower on the target ends.

That being said, non-spell effects can still be affected by dispel magic in specific cases such as the Animated Objects in the Monster Manual:

Antimagic Susceptibility. The object is incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field. If targeted by dispel magic, the sword must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against the caster’s spell save DC or fall unconscious for 1 minute.

While the magical effect (the animation of the object) is clearly not entirely ended like a spell effect would be when hit by dispel magic, the antimagic does have some effect.

However, no such effect exists for living spells. This may be connected to whatever is causing "its magical energy [to endure] indefinitely."

Antimagic field

Antimagic field, however, will have an effect on the living spells.

Creatures and Objects. A creature or object summoned or created by magic temporarily winks out of existence in the sphere. Such a creature instantly reappears once the space the creature occupied is no longer within the sphere.

Living spells are creatures, so since they were created by magic, they would be affected by the above portion of the antimagic field spell.