Counterspelling?

[billd91]

I wouldn't be surprised if most people tend to discount the usefulness of counterspelling until they see it used effectively. And it can be effective, as the DM in one game I play proved.

We were facing a wizard of a level a bit higher than our own. He was armed with a few low-level spells that were quickened. He also had some muscle to fend off the party fighter. He basically sat back and counterspelled our sorcerer while tossing off some quickened attacks. It was fairly difficult to prevent the neutralization of our sorcerer.
This DM has also given us trouble with counterspelling from a small army of kobolds, well-sprinkled with sorcerers. Because their own spell power was relatively low, they weren't counted on as artillery, they mostly held back and countered enemy attempts to magic missile their own leaders. It was also very effective.


Anyway, I think counterspelling is one of those things that is hard to coordinate unless you get a lot of cooperation from your fellow players. It helps to have a wizard/sorcerer with a high initiative modifier, muscle to keep people from getting to him, and the patience to use the tactic. I think it could work pretty well in a party with > 4 PCs. A redundant spell-caster, depending on expected opposition, could concentrate on countering enemy spells and get some good mileage out of it.

 

[fafhrd]

I had a BBEG who had a pair of chained Babau's, prepped for counterspell in order to offset the advantage the party had in 4 casters. Other than that it's been very sporadic(1x/2 modules).

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

... had the reactive counterspell feat, which let them counter a spell even if they had not readied an action to do so. By doing so, however, they gave up a standard action in their next round.

Is this a custom feat or where can I find it?

 

[RangerWickett]

I just sorta yoinked the idea from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. That version of the feat required Improved Initiative and Improved Counterspell, but my version just was restricted to people who knew the secret of that style of magic, which I felt was a better restriction.

 

[Zappo]

PCs never use it. NPCs seldom use it. The reason is that a spellcaster can almost always find something better to do in his turn than *maybe* making another spellcaster waste a spell at the cost of wasting one yourself. Usually, it is used by relatively low-level spellcasting mooks who wouldn't know how to hamper the party otherwise, or by some outsiders that get dispel magic at will and are numerous enough that one or two of them can counterspell while the others fight.

 

[Brain]

Uncommon

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I've never used it or seen it used. The only time I could conceive of it being used is by henchmen/minions who have nothing better to do.

 

[Celebrim]

The concept is really cool, but in practice it just doesn't happen. But, I'm aiming at creating a feat tree that will hopefully make an Abjurer spell duelist a legitimate option in hoping to fix that, so maybe I'll get a chance to add one to my game as an NPC and see if it takes off from there.

 

[Victim]

We see it once in a blue moon. You can usually "counter" spells more effectively by using a readied attack spell instead of countering. At high levels, you might be looking at +30 Concentration, but even a 25 point hit (saved 15d6 attack, Maximized magic missile) has nearly a 50/50 shot of taking a 5th level spell and a better chance against a higher level spell. That's pretty good odds for a method that's far less draining on high level slots than conventional counterspelling.

 

[Aethelstan]

Once only. The circumstances where counterspelling can be used effectively come up so rarely
as to many the rules all but useless. Great concept but the RAW don't make it useful.