Disrupting casters: how?

[Jimlock]

I DM'ed a convention game where a woman player had her character cast mage hand to squeeze the nuts of a spellcaster. Right. And her 9-year-old kid was playing at the table with us.

It certainly disrupted my concentration.

8) .... or should I say................... O'o" ....*ouch*

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I DM'ed a convention game where a woman player had her character cast mage hand to squeeze the nuts of a spellcaster. Right. And her 9-year-old kid was playing at the table with us.

It certainly disrupted my concentration.

Serves you right for allowing called shots.

That way leads to madness. Madness!

 

[Greenfield]

I DM'ed a convention game where a woman player had her character cast mage hand to squeeze the nuts of a spellcaster. Right. And her 9-year-old kid was playing at the table with us.

It certainly disrupted my concentration.

So his nuts were considered unattended?

At least you didn't try to claim they were magical, and thus immune to the Cantrip.

 

[Empirate]

Personal favorite: casting Silence on a Tanglefoot Bag.

Also nice: Reach weapons. Move right up next to them. 5' steps won't get them out.

Other things to consider: if a Wizard or Sorcerer starts their turn next to you... why aren't they already dead? I mean, you obviously charged them / move-attacked them on your last turn. At the very least, you could have tripped or grappled them!

 

[Jack Simth]

I know all of this has been discussed a million times, but I'd like some informed opinions on the following: how do you counter the nasty "take-five-foot-step-then-cast" strategy? I also know that this point is moot after level 5 or so, when defensive casting nearly always succeeds, but I'd like an answer to this anyway.

The usual answer is to Ready an Action:

Readying an Action

You can ready a standard action, a move action, or a free action. To do so, specify the action you will take and the conditions under which you will take it. Then, any time before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character’s activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action. Your initiative result changes. For the rest of the encounter, your initiative result is the count on which you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.

You can take a 5-foot step as part of your readied action, but only if you don’t otherwise move any distance during the round.

(Emphasis added)

So you ready an action to hit the spellcaster when the spellcaster starts casting, and take a five-foot step to keep up anyway.

If you can't go to the action expense of a readied action, and wish to rely merely on AoO's (not recommended), then you need a way to threaten both adjacent targets and targets five feet away. A potion of Enlarge Person will do it, as will Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Spiked Chain), a reach weapon + Improved Unarmed Strike, or a reach weapon + Armor Spikes.

If you want to specifically disrupt the spellcaster, and don't want to worry about readied actions or AoO's, then try grappling on for size. The Grappling Restrictions are a little painful for spellcasters (full-round action to retrieve spell components, standard action spells only, no somatic components allowed, concentration check DC 20+Spell Level). Works OK until Freedom of Movement becomes common.

Many other tactics are possible - Tanglefoot bags, nets, the silence spell, combinations of the above.

 

[Elf Witch]

Have an NPC spellcaster ready an action to cast when the PC casts. The PC gets hits with a spell and has to roll concentration to get their spell off.

Or have an NPC mage specializing in counterspelling.

I have had both used against me to great advantage.