counterspelling item effects

[Infiniti2000]

I would probably rule "no", but I'd probably also ask "why"? If you're going to require the readied action to be set against a specific, known magic item as people have posted above, wouldn't it make more sense to just cast Dispel Magic on the item when it's your turn to supress the magic item, and forget about all this readying nonsense?

Yes. In fact, it almost makes the question moot. In all cases, dispelling the item will be easier (or no worse than) dispelling the spell as a counterspell. In some cases, i.e. dispelling a staff's spell, it will be harder because the user's CL could be higher. The only benefit in an attempt to 'counterspell the item' would be the actual loss of a charge (wand or staff) or the item (scroll). I'm sure the players, who usually view an NPC's items as theirs, will likely not like that choice anyway.

 

[Stalker0]

There are no significant diferences.

Actually there is one significant difference. In AE you do not have to choose a target for counterspelling...while in 3.5 you do (pg. 170 phb). Even with dispel magic, the clause still applies. That means in 3.5 you would have to specifically target the item for counterspelling, and noone's going to do that if they don't know the item could cast d door at will for example. But in AE, they don't have to.

 

[Halcyon]

The key you are missing here Stalker is that counterspelling, regardless of which game you are in, is a readied action. Readied actions always require some trigger condition be specified which will cause the readied action to occur. Reasonable trigger conditions are pretty much up to GM's discretion. However, the trigger of " I ready an action to counterspell an effect from a magic item he may or may not have and that I have no way of knowing has been activated until I see the effect occur" seems like a pretty ridiculous trigger. However, you are the GM, so if you want to allow triggers that are that specific and operate on knowledge there is no way the character could have (assuming they dont know the targeted character has the item, if they did they could just dispel the item) then I will be glad to take full advantage of that in game.

 

[Stalker0]

You see this sort of readied action all the time, "I ready an action to attack if any of the orcs attack the party."

That's acceptable within the rules, so "I ready an action to counterspell the next unfriendly spell" is also reasonable. You can still tell a spell is being cast when the boots cast, even if you don't know where the spell is coming from. The difference is in 3.5 you have to specify the target for counterspelling. So I would have to know the boots are casting before I counterspell. In Ae you don't.

However, I would also say that if your ally cast a stilled, silent spell (or used psionic spell in AE) you would have no way of knowing if the boots cast the spell, your ally cast that spell, or the BBEG cast it and so the condition above would trigger.

 

[Halcyon]

How do you know its hostile if you don't know what is being cast? The readied action for an orc attacking is not at all the same since the orcs attack doesn't have a resolution time of 'instantaneous.'

 

[glass]

You see this sort of readied action all the time, "I ready an action to attack if any of the orcs attack the party."

You can't do that. If the orcs haven't attacked the party (and presumably vice versa), then they are not in combat. You can only ready an action in combat.


glass.