Hee. Fantasy Arms Race. That was my idea. Hee.
Anyway, I've seen something vaguely related to this in my home game. I wanted to promote magical dueling, so when one of the players made a wizard character, I set up a few adventures so he'd have to duel other mages one on one to get clues, or advice, or just prestige. And I realized my player is really smart, because after I set up the rules, he started thinking of all sorts of ways to use different spells to abuse them. Everything was nonlethal, but the first time he suggested his opponent surrender, I realized I needed to make things tougher.
So I decided in the future, word of his manuever would get out, and though most of the mages were evokers, they'd figure out a few ways to get around being charmed into submission. One plugged her ears so she couldn't hear what a mage suggested, and this gave the PC wizard a bit of a hard time. When he figured out what she'd done afterward, he came up with his own counter: before his next duel, he casually walked up to his opponent and said, "If you see me make
this gesture," and he mimed falling over, "that means I want you to surrender."
It would have been a great way to get around some of the other anti-charm methods, but she'd managed to steal his spell components.
After a few sessions, we'd come up with all sorts of standards and techniques for spell dueling. I'm sure if the player had stayed, we could have developed a whole mini-culture around magical duels. Certain spells that are really useful in battles like fireball fall beside mild ongoing damage that can disrupt your opponent's concentration, like acid arrow, or flaming sphere. People actually used counterspells. We made up house rules on using a Bluff check to make it seem like you're casting a different spell than you actually are, so your opponent who makes his Spellcraft check will take the wrong defense. It was great.
