Question about reactive counterspell feat

[Vacon]

DM's View

Here is my concern on this matter and maybe you can help me out.

The spell will allow the caster to get off two spells in one round. Now I fell I'm open minded so let's go with this description of a battle.

Adventurers crash through the door in a room with 2 midlevel fighters and a high level mage.

1st to go Party Mage casts confusion on fighters eliminating one outright.

Party works it's way into the doorway area.

NPC Mage goes for spell cast area effect to do the most damage to the party.

PC Mage uses reactive counter spell to stop spell caster.

So, in the 1st 3 sec of the fight PC mage has stopped or damaged enemies and will now continue to keep the NPC mage out of the battle with counter spells.

There are many ways to alter this problem but I would like to find the one that didn't weaken the feat because hey..it's a feat. But I also don't want to see the problem down the line with quickened spells and improved reactive where not only are the spells being countered but being reflected back.

All comments appreciated...

Vacon

 

[FrankTrollman]

The spell will allow the caster to get off two spells in one round.

No it won't. It allows the character to cast one spell and counter another and then get boned next round.

Alternately, you could just ready an action to cast an offensive spell when your opponent casts a spell. Your opponent will then have to make a concentration check with a DC of 10 + damage + spell level or lose their spell. Since the DC for being hit by a Meteor Swarm is about 80 something - and 20s don't automatically succeed - the spell is essentially countered.

So Reactive Counterspell lets you do the thing that you would be able to do anyway - namely cast an offensive spell and suppress an enemy spellcaster in the same round. However, instead of requiring a modestly good grasp of timing, tactics, and the battlefield situation - it requires a feat and your ability to cast magic next round.

It's useful for when you totally forgot about an enemy spellcaster - but it's pathetic compared to what you could be doing if you had simply paid attention to your suroundings in the first place instead.

-Frank

 

[KarinsDad]

So Reactive Counterspell lets you do the thing that you would be able to do anyway - namely cast an offensive spell and suppress an enemy spellcaster in the same round.

Reactive Counterspell does not allow this.

"This counterspell action takes the place of your regular action for the round."

If you have used your regular action for the round, Reactive Counterspell will not help you unless your DM house rules it.

What Reactive Counterspell really allows you to do is either counterspell before your action in the round, or delay in the round and still either counterspell or perform a normal action in the round.

But, it does not allow you to both cast an offensive spell and counterspell in the same round.

 

[Mephistopheles]

"This counterspell action takes the place of your regular action for the round."

If you have used your regular action for the round, Reactive Counterspell will not help you unless your DM house rules it.

From the FRCS FAQ:

If you have the Reactive Counterspell feat, you can use a counterspell almost anytime. You cannot use Reactive Counterspell when flat-footed. You can use the feat before your turn in the initiative order (when you have not yet acted for the turn) or after your turn (when you have already acted during the turn). In either case, you lose your next action.

Going by this it seems that the Reactive Counterspell description is supposed to be referring to rounds going by the individual's place in initative order rather than absolute rounds.

 

[KarinsDad]

Going by this it seems that the Reactive Counterspell description is supposed to be referring to rounds going by the individual's place in initative order rather than absolute rounds.

My God! WotC actually improved a rule with a FAQ.

Thanks for pointing this out.

 

[ruleslawyer]

As I have said before, I consider RC so weak that I give it out as a free feat to any arcane caster. Effectively, all it does is allow you to counterspell without having to ready an action. The benefits?

1) You can both counterspell and take an MEA or move;

2) You don't have to take the risk of losing your actions for the round if your opponent doesn't cast or casts something you can't counter;

3) You can, at the serious risk of losing your action for the next round, both counter and cast a spell in the same round.

If counterspelling were actually a potent combat action, I'd think this were a pretty good feat. Since it isn't, I'm happy to allow this for free. At the cost of a feat slot? I'd say it's definitely balanced.

 

[welby]

From the FRCS FAQ:

If you have the Reactive Counterspell feat, you can use a counterspell almost anytime. You cannot use Reactive Counterspell when flat-footed. You can use the feat before your turn in the initiative order (when you have not yet acted for the turn) or after your turn (when you have already acted during the turn). In either case, you lose your next action.

OMG, they actually made a FAQ for this? Amazing, simply amazing. 2 points for Mephistopheles for finding that.