PDA

View Full Version : Counterspelling



Vericrat
2009-12-03, 11:34 AM
(Note: This is a homebrew for D&D 3.5)

So as the Giant pointed out in comic 166, counterspelling is something that rarely comes up. People don't want to waste their turn on the off chance that they could negate someone else's spell instead of their own. I've designed a few feats to make the option more palatable for players, and I thought I'd share them:

Counter-Spell [Metamagic]
Prerequisites: 8 ranks in Spellcraft
Benefit: A spell modified by this feat can be cast as a counter as an immediate action. Whenever you succeed on a Spellcraft check to determine that another spellcaster is casting a spell that you can counter with the counter-spell, you may use your counter-spell immediately. You may cast a counter-spell normally on your own turn. Spontaneous casters casting a spell modified by this feat may not act on their next turn except to take a free action.
You may still counterspell as normal. A counter-spell takes up a slot two levels higher than the original spell.

Epic Counter-Spell [Metamagic] [Epic]
Prerequisites: Counter-spell, 27 ranks in Spellcraft, ability to prepare arcane spells
Benefit: A spell prepared as a counter-spell is not expended when cast as a counter-spell; instead it loses the metamagic effect and is treated as a lower-level spell prepared in a higher level spell slot.

Epic Counterspelling [Epic]
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspelling, Greater Counterspelling, 24 ranks in spellcraft
Benefit: When you successfully counterspell an opponent’s spell, as an immediate action you may cast a spell of the same school that is at least four levels lower than the spell you countered.

Greater Counterspelling [General]
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspelling, 9 ranks in Spellcraft
Benefit: When you ready an action to counterspell, you may opt to select a specific spell with which to counterspell. If a spell is cast before your next turn that you can counter with that spell, you must counterspell it (so long as it is within two levels of the spell you have prepared). If this does not occur, you cast the spell as normal on the initiative count before your next turn.

Master Counterspeller [General]
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspelling, Counter-Spell, 12 ranks in Spellcraft
Benefit: When you ready an action to counterspell, you need not select a specific target to counterspell; you may counterspell any target within range.

Repeat Counterspelling [Epic]
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspelling, Greater Counterspelling, Epic Counterspelling, Quicken Spell, Multispell, 27 ranks in Spellcraft
Benefit: Once per round, if you have a spell prepared that you may cast as a free action, you may counterspell with it as a free action when it is not your turn even if you have not readied the counterspell action.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you take it, you may use this feat an additional time per round.

Talyn
2009-12-03, 05:31 PM
I can't really comment on the Epic feats, having never played an epic-level game, but the Metamagic counterspell seems very fair and balanced. If I ever play a mage in a 3.x game, I'd probably ask my DM for something like this.

Harperfan7
2009-12-03, 06:15 PM
Do the feats that require counterspell refer to yours or the PHB one?

Anyways, these are good. Kudos.

Arbitrarious
2009-12-04, 02:03 AM
I like what you are doing. Casting, d&d combat in general, should be more dynamic then waiting to see if you live to go again.

I do have some concerns though. How would your feats work with the Improved Counterspell feat? Have you considered lowering the metamagic cost down since it is a more situational tool? If this did work with Imp Counterspell it would take a spell 3 levels higher then the target spell; if not you could only counter the exact same spell and +2 metamagic just seems high for such a narrow option. All said this is still far more reasonable then the auto counterspell from PgtF. Good work and I look forward to updates.

Welknair
2009-12-04, 05:35 AM
Yeah, I never really use counterspelling much. I may try some of these feats though. Gj.

Vericrat
2009-12-04, 12:08 PM
I like what you are doing. Casting, d&d combat in general, should be more dynamic then waiting to see if you live to go again.

I do have some concerns though. How would your feats work with the Improved Counterspell feat? Have you considered lowering the metamagic cost down since it is a more situational tool? If this did work with Imp Counterspell it would take a spell 3 levels higher then the target spell; if not you could only counter the exact same spell and +2 metamagic just seems high for such a narrow option. All said this is still far more reasonable then the auto counterspell from PgtF. Good work and I look forward to updates.

I'm looking at the feat Improved Counterspell in PHB 3.5 right now, and it says that you can use a spell of the same school of magic that is at least one level higher than the spell you're trying to counterspell. So I'm not sure where you're getting the 3 level requirement.

And to the earlier question as to whether I was referring to my own feats - when the prereqs say "Improved Counterspelling" they refer to the "Improved Counterspell" feat in PHB 3.5 (p. 95).

Arbitrarious
2009-12-04, 01:55 PM
I'm looking at the feat Improved Counterspell in PHB 3.5 right now, and it says that you can use a spell of the same school of magic that is at least one level higher than the spell you're trying to counterspell. So I'm not sure where you're getting the 3 level requirement.

And to the earlier question as to whether I was referring to my own feats - when the prereqs say "Improved Counterspelling" they refer to the "Improved Counterspell" feat in PHB 3.5 (p. 95).

Unless I misread, isnt it a 2 level adjustment to use the feat? So you need a spell 1 level higher base then you add a 2 level metamagic adjustment. I am fairly certain that for effects relating to a spell's level you don't factor metamagic costs except for heighten. So to counter a fireball I'd need either a 5th level fireball or any other evocation spell 6th level or better.

Vericrat
2009-12-04, 03:19 PM
Unless I misread, isnt it a 2 level adjustment to use the feat? So you need a spell 1 level higher base then you add a 2 level metamagic adjustment. I am fairly certain that for effects relating to a spell's level you don't factor metamagic costs except for heighten. So to counter a fireball I'd need either a 5th level fireball or any other evocation spell 6th level or better.

Oh okay, I see what you're saying now. That's an interesting point, and probably one worth dropping the level increase down to +1 for. I'll think about making that change for use in my own game.