Spell Duels with More Counterspelling

[Khorod]

I want to make spellduels in my game more interesting. As it stands, a spell duel is about each wizard absorbing fireballs and resisting enchantments. If the spell-lists in the game are pretty much restricted to the PHB, it might even be possible to fire off a counterspell.

I want more counterspelling. All the non-ritual spell duels I ever read about were fireball-counterspell-counterspell-cunning feint-counterspell fizzle-boom.

I want that stuff between fireball and boom.

What would be the practical effect on my game if I made any spell of equal or greater level able to counter any other spell?
Or any spell of the same descriptor & of equal/greater level?

 

[Geoff Watson]

Have a look at Reactive Counterspell and Improved Counterspell for Forgotten Realms.
I was thinking of giving these feats to all spellcasters (when I get around to working on a new campaign setting), so that they have a real chance to counterspell, as the current rules make it not worth bothering with.

Geoff.

 

[Khorod]

Anyone have any thought on how looser counterspelling rules would impact the game? Wizard feat selection? Etc?

 

[MadScientist]

I was just about to ask a very similar question. What are some counterspelling house rules out there? I personally have never seen a counterspell used in play... it just seems too difficult.

One idea I had was you could burn any spell slot of the level or higher of the spell you want to counterspell. Heighten would increase the spells level for this purpose but other metamagic feats would not. This seemed almost too easy. What have other groups tried?

 

[Chacal]

You might find this thread useful :
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33141

Chacal