SonOfLilith
First Post
How exactly do they work?
Quicke Question on Counterspells
kreynolds
First Post
The basics of it are as follows:
You, a wizard, are facing off with another wizard. You have initiative. You ready a counterspell. He casts fireball. You make a spellcraft check and launch a fireball of your own, thus canceling his fireball and nobody gets hurt.
That's the basics. For more info, check out page 134 and 152 of the PH.
You, a wizard, are facing off with another wizard. You have initiative. You ready a counterspell. He casts fireball. You make a spellcraft check and launch a fireball of your own, thus canceling his fireball and nobody gets hurt.
That's the basics. For more info, check out page 134 and 152 of the PH.
Striderman
First Post
Assuming you are referring to game mechanics, then first, you have two spellcasters, A & B.
1)Caster A wants to counterspell, so he readies an action; if caster B casts a spell, then caster A will try to counterspell it.
2)Next, assuming caster B does try to cast a spell, then caster A, having readied a counterspell, then attempts to identify the spell that B is casting. This is just a standard spellcraft check.
3)If B's spell is identified, then caster A has to see if he/she has the same spell prepared (or for sorcerers or bards, have the spell in his/her repertoire and a slot to use it in).
4)If caster A is able to cast that spell, then he/she can use that casting to counter caster B's spell and thereby use up both casters' spell slot for that spell.
Caster A has to be in range for the spell, and it doesn't matter if one or the other spell is metamagicked. It doesn't matter if both casters are different classes, as long as the spell is the same spell. Also, there are certain spells (identified in their descriptions) that counter each other as well. Furthermore, there is a feat in either Tome & Blood or Magic of Faerûn (I don't recall which) that lets you use any spell of the same school as the spell to be countered. This is all just a summary of what the Player's Handbook already says in the Magic section, btw, so if you want more info, check there, or in the SRD.
Edit: I forgot to mention using Dispel Magic. If you use Dispel Magic (or Greater Dispelling) to counterspell, then you can skip the identification part, and you can use the Dispel instead of using the same spell you are counterspelling. The only other difference is that you have to make a dispel check, as using dispel magic does not automatically work. See the description for Dispel Magic.
1)Caster A wants to counterspell, so he readies an action; if caster B casts a spell, then caster A will try to counterspell it.
2)Next, assuming caster B does try to cast a spell, then caster A, having readied a counterspell, then attempts to identify the spell that B is casting. This is just a standard spellcraft check.
3)If B's spell is identified, then caster A has to see if he/she has the same spell prepared (or for sorcerers or bards, have the spell in his/her repertoire and a slot to use it in).
4)If caster A is able to cast that spell, then he/she can use that casting to counter caster B's spell and thereby use up both casters' spell slot for that spell.
Caster A has to be in range for the spell, and it doesn't matter if one or the other spell is metamagicked. It doesn't matter if both casters are different classes, as long as the spell is the same spell. Also, there are certain spells (identified in their descriptions) that counter each other as well. Furthermore, there is a feat in either Tome & Blood or Magic of Faerûn (I don't recall which) that lets you use any spell of the same school as the spell to be countered. This is all just a summary of what the Player's Handbook already says in the Magic section, btw, so if you want more info, check there, or in the SRD.
Edit: I forgot to mention using Dispel Magic. If you use Dispel Magic (or Greater Dispelling) to counterspell, then you can skip the identification part, and you can use the Dispel instead of using the same spell you are counterspelling. The only other difference is that you have to make a dispel check, as using dispel magic does not automatically work. See the description for Dispel Magic.
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kreynolds said:
That would be the Improved Counterspell feat from the FRCS. If you want to be really nasty, grab the Reactive Counterspell feat from Magic of Faerun. It lets you counterspell without having to ready an action. How cool is that?
It's what the core rule should have been in the first place.
In a year and a half, I have not seen a single attempt at a counterspell by any player.
But, if the rule was "If you make your Spellcraft roll and you have the same spell or its counter (e.g. Haste vs. Slow) memorized, then you and your opponent roll an initiative and if you win, you can give up your next full action to counter the spell."
That would have been a cool rule.
But, as written, they had to add feats to FRCS and MoF just in order to make the counterspell semi-useful.
Pitiful.
kreynolds
First Post
KarinsDad said:
There are few circumstances when counterspelling is beneficial to you. One of the instances I can think of off the top of my head is what my players did in a game. They were outlaw hunters and the wizard in the party was trying to distract a sorcerer that had been contracted to kill the outlaw they were hunting down, but they needed the outlaw alive to find a missing person. The wizard spent most of the combat counterspelling the sorcerer so that his party could detain the outlaw alive. It was pretty tense actually, what with all the fireballs and lightning bolts flying back and forth. But neither of them even had improved counterspell or reactive counterspell.
