Deflecting Spells with Swords

[sonofzeal]

I remember, years ago, seeing a character build that was able to negate spells with attack rolls. I know part of the equation was Diamond Mind maneuvers to use Concentration instead of Fort, Ref, and Will saves. I can't for the life of me remember how they substituted attack rolls for Concentration checks. Does anyone recall this build, or know of another way of using physical weapons to deflect spells like a Jedi with blaster fire?

[Particle_Man]

I am not sure if the Wall of Blades maneuver works against touch attacks but maybe that is it?

Not a sword but there is the ray shield feat from pathfinder 1e.

[Thurbane]

The Spell Reflection ACF for Rogues, Monks, Scouts and Rangers kind of works like this, but not at all like what OP is asking. If a ranged spell or SLAs that requires an attack roll missed you, you can reflect it back at the caster.

I mean, there are ToB manoeuvres that replace Fort, Ref and Will saves with Concentration checks, so that could be fluffed as defelcting it with a weapon, maybe?

There's a counter in ToB that replaces your AC with an attack roll, so that could definitely be seen as reflecting a spell that required an attack roll with your sword. Combined with the Spell Reflection ACF, could be fun.

[tyckspoon]

I remember, years ago, seeing a character build that was able to negate spells with attack rolls. I know part of the equation was Diamond Mind maneuvers to use Concentration instead of Fort, Ref, and Will saves. I can't for the life of me remember how they substituted attack rolls for Concentration checks. Does anyone recall this build, or know of another way of using physical weapons to deflect spells like a Jedi with blaster fire?


Wall of Blades allows you to replace your AC with an attack roll, and will work against anything that needs to try to hit your AC. Manticore Parry lets you block specifically a melee attack with a countering melee attack, and if you succeed you can re-target the initial attack. Setting Sun has Baffling Defense that lets you replace your AC with a Sense Motive check. There is not, AFAIK, any way to use Concentration in place of normal AC.

[Biggus]

Epic characters can do this with the Armed Deflection, Exceptional Deflection and Infinite Deflection epic feats, but again I don't think that's what the OP is looking for.

[Prime32]

The undersong spell lets you make Perform checks in place of Concentration checks. The Perform (weapon drill) skill from Complete Warrior can't be used for bardic music, but you gain an additional bonus on your check equal to half your BAB, +2 for every feat you have from a short list.

This means that when someone lobs a fireball at you, you can deflect it by flourishing your sword at it.

[ShurikVch]

Armed Deflection (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ei/20030215a) + Exceptional Deflection (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#exceptionalDeflection) + Reflect Arrows (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#reflectArrows) ?

[sonofzeal]

The undersong spell lets you make Perform checks in place of Concentration checks. The Perform (weapon drill) skill from Complete Warrior can't be used for bardic music, but you gain an additional bonus on your check equal to half your BAB, +2 for every feat you have from a short list.

This means that when someone lobs a fireball at you, you can deflect it by flourishing your sword at it.

Aha! I think this was it!

Continuous Magic Item of Undersong... and Perform:Weapon Drill is an especially easy skill to minmax, with a very broad wording. Thanks!

[Emberlily]

I was reading the thread about old 3.0 sourcebooks and Quintessential Barbarian (in this post (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25061494&postcount=137)) has a prestige class with the ability summarized in there as:

The capstone, which thankfully happens in 5 levels rather than 10, is that if you (sigh) make a readied action, and roll an attack roll against the DC of an incoming spell, you can deflect it harmlessly away (critical hit deflects the spell back on the caster).
This isn't what you were looking for but it is an option and I just read it yesterday!

[Psyren]

Pathfinder has Smash From The Air (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/weapon-mastery-feats/smash-from-the-air-weapon-mastery/) that will let you do this for spell attacks (e.g. rays, orbs and the like.) You can also use Shatterspell (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/shatterspell-combat-dwarf/) or Spell Sunder (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/rage-powers/paizo-rage-powers/spell-sunder-su/) to dispel ongoing spell effects like walls or emanations.

[liquidformat]

The following will work against ranged touch attacks but requires being epic:
Combat Expertise, Deflect Arrows, Exceptional Deflection, Improved Unarmed Strike, Spinning Defense

[Kitsuneymg]

Pathfinder has Smash From The Air (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/weapon-mastery-feats/smash-from-the-air-weapon-mastery/) that will let you do this for spell attacks (e.g. rays, orbs and the like.) You can also use Shatterspell (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/shatterspell-combat-dwarf/) or Spell Sunder (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/rage-powers/paizo-rage-powers/spell-sunder-su/) to dispel ongoing spell effects like walls or emanations.

There’s also spellcut ( https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/weapon-mastery-feats/spellcut-weapon-mastery/). Though I think most people are better off with armed bravery and standard save boosters.

[daremetoidareyo]

Residual rebound?

[Thurbane]

Now I'm thinking of building a character around this. Pre-epic, maybe Rogue 2 for Spell Reflection ACF, Residual Rebound feat, maybe some luck feats to increase the chance of rolling a 20, and Warblade to pick up all the relevant manoeuvres and counters.

For my purposes, I wouldn't worry about having it be deflecting with a sword, could always just fluff it that way if I wanted.

May not be a practical build, but might be fun. If I threw Able Learner in there, could be a semi-skillmonkey build.

[daremetoidareyo]

Now I'm thinking of building a character around this. Pre-epic, maybe Rogue 2 for Spell Reflection ACF, Residual Rebound feat, maybe some luck feats to increase the chance of rolling a 20, and Warblade to pick up all the relevant manoeuvres and counters.

For my purposes, I wouldn't worry about having it be deflecting with a sword, could always just fluff it that way if I wanted.

May not be a practical build, but might be fun. If I threw Able Learner in there, could be a semi-skillmonkey build.

As soon as you build it, you’ll be in a campaign without mages