D&D 5E Counterspell what do people think?

Krachek said:

If you play it by the rules it work fine and is challenging to use.
your reaction is made blindly triggered by a casting.
You don’t know the spell nor the level. Total wild guess.
of course if your are counterspelled you can easily guess the spell, by what level he use?
the is not so easy to manage you feel like a poker game.

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Since a reaction can be used to analyse a spell (just read this) and a reaction can be used to counter what if two mages were working in tandem... ie they could know what nature/level it was what resources to spend on countering it and similar benefits. Team dueling for the win?

Garthanos said:

Since a reaction can be used to analyse a spell (just read this) and a reaction can be used to counter what if two mages were working in tandem... ie they could know what nature/level it was what resources to spend on countering it and similar benefits. Team dueling for the win?

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You are stretching a lot the rules intention, but why not? Some seem to not tolerate blind counterspelling.

Revision: There is no counterspell or dispel. Instead, you can counter/dispel a spell by casting a thematically appropriate and opposite spell of equal or higher level. A Wall of Ice can be countered by a 6th level Fireball, Slow can be countered by Haste, etc.

This makes it harder to counter spells as a reaction, because trying to cast a spell and simply failing without a roll is pretty miserable for players. But it makes dispelling dramatically more interesting and resemble actual Wizard Duels.

Seramus said:

Revision: There is no counterspell or dispel. Instead, you can counter/dispel a spell by casting a thematically appropriate and opposite spell of equal or higher level. A Wall of Ice can be countered by a 6th level Fireball, Slow can be countered by Haste, etc.

This makes it harder to counter spells as a reaction, because trying to cast a spell and simply failing without a roll is pretty miserable for players. But it makes dispelling dramatically more interesting and resemble actual Wizard Duels.

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This was the system used if 3rd edition.

And I found that no-one ever couterspelled anything, because no one ever had the right spell prepared.

Paul Farquhar said:

And I found that no-one ever couterspelled anything, because no one ever had the right spell prepared.

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Now that the big casters can memorize a huge number of things without choosing a specific spell for each slot, it should be much easier for the 3E system to actually function. 5E does a great job of increased spell versatility.

Seramus said:

Revision: There is no counterspell or dispel. Instead, you can counter/dispel a spell by casting a thematically appropriate and opposite spell of equal or higher level. A Wall of Ice can be countered by a 6th level Fireball, Slow can be countered by Haste, etc.

This makes it harder to counter spells as a reaction, because trying to cast a spell and simply failing without a roll is pretty miserable for players. But it makes dispelling dramatically more interesting and resemble actual Wizard Duels.

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So you let them know what the spell is which is being cast?

I have counter spelling as a skill that can be used to counter the types of spells you know how to cast.

Maxperson said:

I don't care for it. I personally dislike spells that people feel that they have to have, as that limits creativity and diversity in spells. When it comes to encounters, any caster than can have it generally does have it, on both sides. Combat becomes counter-counter-counter until one side is out and then spells start happening. And if only one side has it, the other side is screwed if it has spellcasters.

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If those spell-casters are within 60', visible to the countering caster, and the caster has a reaction and a 3rd level slot to spare.

Garthanos said:

I agree it intuits as being slot cost heavy and I am wanting it to feel fun instead of poof, technically if you are fairly certain the counter spell will work with my suggestions it is slightly more powerful doing low but potentially flavorful whiplash damage on the controller of the countered spell.

Even changes some are suggesting like making it opposed checks I think is flavorful mechanics not really attempts to weaken it.

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My concern with many of the suggestions offered in this thread is complexity. The more rolls you add to a rule, the longer that rule takes to resolve. Since CS is a reaction, it really needs to be quick. Even the roll for for higher level spells is stretching the time taken to resolve this, so making it an opposed check is making things worse, not better IMO.

A whiplash/feedback mechanic seems like it could be a good, flavourful and fun idea but I am not sure it will be worth it. Especially if passing the CS check hits the original caster and failing hits the counterspeller. It's a net 0 effect (not mathematically I know).

As it stands casting CS runs the risk of using a 3rd level slot for no effect, which strikes me as a good risk/reward mechanism. When it comes to outright countering spells 3rd level and below I think that skipping the roll for a faster resolution is a simple way to keep things going when the effect of the countered spell will likely be minimal.

To me things look like this:

PC level 5/6: You're using your top level slots to lock down an enemy is a HUGE cost so should have big rewards - guaranteed success:
PC level 6 to 10: Using 3rd level spells is still quite a big cost so countering low levels spells seems fair while countering higher level spells comes at the risk of failure (a spell slot for absolutely nothing). Using higher level spells to guarantee success is trading power (high level spell slot cost) for certainty.
As you increase in level lower level spells become more trivial so I like seeing a quick resolution , while keeping some risk or cost when throwing out big guns.

The only change I would really think to be good would be to require the CS to be of a higher level that the countered spell. ie Casting CS at 3rd level would auto counter 1st and 2nd level spells. That way casting a 9th level spell always has a chance for success.

Flamestrike said:

If those spell-casters are within 60', visible to the countering caster, and the caster has a reaction and a 3rd level slot to spare.

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So most of the time. A whole lot of combats are close quarters and without invisible casters. That and a smart caster keeps a 3rd level slot open most times just in case they need to counterspell.