Qwertystop
2014-05-25, 04:21 PM
Counterspell Momentum
You have learned to harness some of the energy in a countered spell to empower an immediate response.
Prerequisite: Improved Counterspell, Heighten Spell
Benefit: After successfully countering a spell, as part of the same readied action, you may cast any spell with a casting time of a standard action or less. This spell is automatically Heightened (without adjusting its spell slot) to the level of spell countered, if it is lower level.
So, I was thinking on how counterspelling is usually so inefficient - at best you're trading actions and spell slots with an opponent for no net gain. I was thinking on a few examples from fiction that have powerful magician's duels as a battle of wills - lots of magic, yes, but nothing actually impacts, just an escalating counter-and-return-fire. (Not actually sure what things I was thinking of - the idea has, at this point, been separated from any examples)
So I decided to make that in D&D. My goal here was to make it so that you counter a spell and then your return spell is guaranteed to be stronger (the Heighten boosts saves, the capbreaker boosts quantity) than what was cast at you. Two casters with this feat can thus test their wills back and forth until the magic gets too Heightened for one of them to successfully counterspell.
The bit about the nonlethal damage was to mildly discourage using the feat to, for example, overcharge Shocking Grasp or Burning Hands to do quite a lot with a low-level spell. It should still be an option, but not without risk of flooring yourself in combat if you're not sure that the opponent can't dispel.
Thoughts?
You have learned to harness some of the energy in a countered spell to empower an immediate response.
Prerequisite: Improved Counterspell, Heighten Spell
Benefit: After successfully countering a spell, as part of the same readied action, you may cast any spell with a casting time of a standard action or less. This spell is automatically Heightened (without adjusting its spell slot) to the level of spell countered, if it is lower level.
So, I was thinking on how counterspelling is usually so inefficient - at best you're trading actions and spell slots with an opponent for no net gain. I was thinking on a few examples from fiction that have powerful magician's duels as a battle of wills - lots of magic, yes, but nothing actually impacts, just an escalating counter-and-return-fire. (Not actually sure what things I was thinking of - the idea has, at this point, been separated from any examples)
So I decided to make that in D&D. My goal here was to make it so that you counter a spell and then your return spell is guaranteed to be stronger (the Heighten boosts saves, the capbreaker boosts quantity) than what was cast at you. Two casters with this feat can thus test their wills back and forth until the magic gets too Heightened for one of them to successfully counterspell.
The bit about the nonlethal damage was to mildly discourage using the feat to, for example, overcharge Shocking Grasp or Burning Hands to do quite a lot with a low-level spell. It should still be an option, but not without risk of flooring yourself in combat if you're not sure that the opponent can't dispel.
Thoughts?