Counterspelling Build 3.5

[Darcand]

I am thinking about making a sorcerer designed around shutting down other casters and battlefield control. Any character building recommendations would be helpful

[Frosty]

Eh...to be honest, a Barbarian with an appropriate Composite Longbow and the Manyshot feat using readied actions is better and less resource intensive. Most spellcasters have problems making DC 50 + Spell Level concentration checks, especially NPCs.

[quick_comment]

Improved counterspell, reactive counterspell, battlemagic perception, ring of spellbattle, epic counterspelling.

[Moriato]

You may find this helpful

[ericgrau]

Readied action to fire a scorching ray or fireball or other nice damage spell will often disrupt them at least as well. That'll usually force a concentration check that's impossible to make and your attack is likely if not certain to hit. That's often your best option by far. There's also improved counterspell to make it more likely that you have the right spell, or dispel magic (with a check) if you don't have the right spell. A high spellcraft is necessary to recognize the spell you wish to counter. So get at least an okay int. Remember that the enemy caster isn't the only one losing an action; so are you. So make sure his action is worth more than yours. Like a BBEG. Which means his strongest spells are probably higher level than yours, so you'll need a backup like dispel magic. Or, again, damage is often your best option. Dispel magic (or greater dispel) is also handy just to take down a caster's many buffs. Another option is shatter on the enemy spell component pouch or holy symbol. But that allows a will save, which might be harder to beat on a caster (but doable). At higher levels you can always grab antimagic field and walk near the enemy caster, again assuming his casting is stronger than yours so it's worth it. Finally Mordenkain's Disjunction is the ultimate "screw you" to ready-action against any spell an enemy caster might cast, while killing his buffs and some of his magic items at the same.

[tonberrian]

If you're dead set on counterspelling, be a Dwarf and take the racial substitution level that adds your Con bonus to Cha to determine your bonus spell slots. You give up a spell snown for it (I think its 4th, but check that), but you can use Runestaffs to make up for it, especially if you can get custom ones. In fact, get a lot of Runestaffs to cover any holes in your spells known and be versatile regardless of what the final build is.

[Eldariel]

I strongly suggest against being a Sorc if wanting counters; Wizards and Clerics do it much better. Most importantly, Cleric removes the need for an action to counter things ever with Divine Defiance; generally all Wizard-based builds dip 1 level of Cleric for that too. Then Wizard gets bonuses to Dispel from Master Specialist and has great combos with the level 10 Master Specialist-ability and Archmage (and easy entry to Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil).

If you're deadset on Sorcerer, take that Cleric-dip (pick up Inquisition-domain) and be Illumian or Human (and pick Practiced Spellcaster: Cleric) to qualify for Divine Defiance. Other than that, pick up decent entry PrCs and probably head into Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil, picking some levels of Archmage for Mastery of Counterspelling and so on. Or be Epic for Epic Counterspelling. Either works.