Two Birds With One Stone: Counterspelling & Spellduel

[Saeviomagy]

Remember you can get a good bonus on your Spellcraft check by fueling it with spells. The one with more spells to expend (typically, a BBEG) can afford that more than an alread-depleted PC...

But even if the PC spends a 0th level spell and the badguy spends a 9th level spell, he's still one point short of beating the PC on average... And he already spent his spell in the first place to try casting it. So now he's down two 9th level spells, and slightly more than half the time he'll just be standing there looking stupid with nothing more to show for it.

 

[Gez]

What about a cumulative +2 bonus for each round where you had the upper hand (result above the opponent's by less than 10) ?

It would cut down on the length of spellduels. Burn a good slot to get an asset the first round, then another good slot, and you finish him of. The idea is that resource depletion is harder on the PC than on the NPC, so it balances out.

Then you could also imagine other people may join a spellduel, turning it into a spellbattle. They could either form a free-for-all where everyone tries to win for himself, or a match, with people using a variation on the "aid another" action to give a bonus to their champion's Spellcraft roll.