Readied "Spiritual Weapon" spell to disrupt other spellcaster?

[Hurtoc]

Hey, a player in my game wants to ready his Spiritual Weapon spell and unleash it when an enemy spellcaster is going to cast his spell. Can this be pulled off, so that the spirtual weapon that is created tries to disrupt to spell? Presumably the enemy spellcaster wouldn't be casting defensive because he's not yet threatened when be begins the spell. What do you think?

 

[Greatwyrm]

I don't think the spiritual weapon actually threatens a square. Could be wrong. You'd probably still get a regular single attack, as the first round of the spell. Then he'd only have to manage a Concentration check of 10 or 15 + the damage dealt. For spiritual weapon's low damage, it's not likely to produce a spell failure, unless the enemy has really neglected Concentration.

 

[drunkmoogle]

Spiritual weapon does not technically threaten any squares, so no AoO. Combat Casting does not matter against the spiritual weapon.

You cleric could still disrupt the spellcaster; the spell strikes as the caster is casting the spell. One shot though; the spiritual weapon only gets to disrupt the caster for that round and acts before the caster, after you. By the RAW, I think you can ready a move action to redirect the weapon to a spellcaster when they cast a spell, but you only get one attack/round with this.

Neat trick, though.

 

[Hurtoc]

Ok

Thanks for your help. Makes sense, now I wonder what the player will do! It's PBEM so we had a bit of time to investigate this one.

His initiative is lower than the opponent, so he can't cast the spell this round and interrupt the spell casting, but he could ready his move action.

 

[Greatwyrm]

He's probably better off just casting the spell normally and starting to whittle down the spellcaster. The slim chance of disrupting a spell wouldn't really appeal to me compared to probably dealing more damage faster.