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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 7273100" data-attributes="member: 6777737">That's a very good point.&nbsp; Frankly, &quot;What spell did they cast?&quot; isn't a particularly interesting or exciting challenge.&nbsp; So why bother stopping the game to make the players roll dice?&nbsp; If the challenge isn't interesting, don't bother rolling.That makes me less inclined to use this rule unless there's something preventing or restricting what the skilled character sees.&nbsp; I will probably retain my current rule of, &quot;Are you a Spellcaster proficient in Arcana?&nbsp; Then in most cases you can identify any spell being cast.&nbsp; Are you only one of those?&nbsp; Then it's a bit harder, but you probably can.&nbsp; Are you neither?&nbsp; Then you see a dude chanting and waving his arms around.&nbsp; And he's evil, so he's doing it menacingly.&quot;&nbsp; Still, I appreciate the DC rule of thumb, and like the idea of advantage if it's on your list.Honestly, the only reason to make this change at all is because you feel like counterspell is overpowered or you want identification of spells being cast or magical effects being encountered to be arbitrarily difficult.&nbsp; The latter issue is really quite minor; most every spell effect in the game has pretty straightforward effects that the PCs are going to figure out pretty quickly.&nbsp; If the DM really wants something kept secret, he can just have it cast beforehand or whatever.If you really, really think counterspell is overpowered, just nerf it.&nbsp; You could remove the whole &quot;At Higher Levels&quot; bit, or do something like:As others have said, dispel magic had a counterspell mode in earlier editions.&nbsp; Of course, nobody ever used it because of the failure chance and because the check was basically an opposed caster level check.&nbsp; PCs are essentially always at a disadvantage in that situation.&nbsp; Dispel magic also worked on multiple spells if it was targetted, so it was usually better to cast it later on as a targetted dispel.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 7273100, member: 6777737"] That's a very good point. Frankly, "What spell did they cast?" isn't a particularly interesting or exciting challenge. So why bother stopping the game to make the players roll dice? If the challenge isn't interesting, don't bother rolling. That makes me less inclined to use this rule unless there's something preventing or restricting what the skilled character sees. I will probably retain my current rule of, "Are you a Spellcaster proficient in Arcana? Then in most cases you can identify any spell being cast. Are you only one of those? Then it's a bit harder, but you probably can. Are you neither? Then you see a dude chanting and waving his arms around. And he's evil, so he's doing it [I]menacingly[/I]." Still, I appreciate the DC rule of thumb, and like the idea of advantage if it's on your list. Honestly, the only reason to make this change [I]at all[/I] is because you feel like [I]counterspell[/I] is overpowered or you want identification of spells being cast or magical effects being encountered to be arbitrarily difficult. The latter issue is really quite minor; most every spell effect in the game has pretty straightforward effects that the PCs are going to figure out pretty quickly. If the DM really wants something kept secret, he can just have it cast beforehand or whatever. If you really, really think [I]counterspell[/I] is overpowered, just nerf it. You could remove the whole "At Higher Levels" bit, or do something like: As others have said, [I]dispel magic[/I] had a counterspell mode in earlier editions. Of course, nobody ever used it because of the failure chance and because the check was basically an opposed caster level check. PCs are essentially always at a disadvantage in that situation. [I]Dispel magic[/I] also worked on multiple spells if it was targetted, so it was usually better to cast it later on as a targetted dispel. [/QUOTE]

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