Improved Counterspell

[Prince of Happiness]

I used counterspell for the first time a few weeks ago. I gotta say though it's a pretty narrowly useful tactic. You've to to prepare to CS, have the right spell to CS, succeed in your spellcraft check, etc. It's fun to do occasionally, but I'd rather cast lightening bolt.

So it seems like a "down-to-brass-tacks" kind of tactic, like if you run out of offensive spells, party's on their last batch of hit points, but BBEG has another fireball up his sleeve. Could be useful at higher levels to expend low level spell slots to stop an enemy from buffing though.

 

[Darklone]

I think the biggest problem with counterspelling is that it's often more effective if you simply ready an action to cast a fireball to disrupt the enemies spellcasting.

 

[Anson Caralya]

For the serious counterspeller, the Battlemagic Perception spell from Heroes of Battle is highly recommended. It permits counterspelling as a free action.

Huh, I'd never looked closely at that spell before. Counterspelling as a free action is very nice, but I have to say that the spell text leaves me confused. Under what conditions does the spell end when you successfully counter a spell? Only when you don't have line of sight to the spellcaster? If that's true, and the spell enables you to counterspell as a free action as many times as you like provided that you have line of sight to the caster, well, I think counterspelling may just become a bit more popular...

 

[Echohawk]

My understanding: No, you don't need line of sight to the spellcaster in order to counter a spell using battlemagic perception, but you can only attempt to counter a spell as a free action once -- as soon as you try to counter the first time (whether or not you are successful) the battlemagic perception ends.

 

[Raloc]

Hehe I think I'm going to take a lot of the suggestions in this thread and use it on NPCs. My party has a 6 enchanter/1 red wizard who is basically a caster killer. It will be fun to throw out some guys that can counterspell him alot.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Hehe I think I'm going to take a lot of the suggestions in this thread and use it on NPCs. My party has a 6 enchanter/1 red wizard who is basically a caster killer. It will be fun to throw out some guys that can counterspell him alot.

Let me know how it works out. I think I might hold off on getting it for my character until a higher level, so I have spells to burn for counterspelling.

 

[froggie]

great feat

My genius player who plays a genius wizard uses this feat all the time...kinda sucks for me as a DM when he does too...were I a wiz PC, I would always take this feat

 

[Presto2112]

I never made use of the opportunity to counterspell, but on a couple of occasions I did use the Dampen Spell feat, which lowers the save DC on a spell from an opposing spellcaster by X, where X = the spell level that you expend.

 

[howandwhy99]

The Counterspell option is really nice, but really under used too. We go by the book where a dispel magic, a special SRD opposed spell, or the exact same spell disrupts another casters' spell.

But we also differentiate between:
Countercasting - a readied action to disrupt another's casting before a spell is cast.
and
Counterspelling - the disruption or dispelling of a spell in effect, but after it has been cast.

Counterspelling is far easier and much more useful for players.

Countercasting is nearly useless in the current rules without additional feats. I don't think it should be too central either or all spells risk being negated from the game in combats.

Besides, the easiest way to disrupt others casting is to damage them and force a Concentration check. A readied magic missile always hits and is a 1st level spell. It is better than anything else I know short of a dispel magic wand.