To me, the interesting thing about DM counterspell is figuring out “what can I get away with?” If the DM runs it do that they counterspell everything, including a level 1 spell that does 1d8 damage then it’s not fun to me, but realistically an enemy shouldn’t burn a counterspell on something so small. It’s not a “this turn is interesting because of counterspell” thing, but the overall combat gains a new dynamic that is fun to me.
To join in on the counterspell conversation, I think the action economy / binary tree thing distracts from the actual ways in which counterspell is used. Yes, it raises the chance of failure from 50% to 75%, I'm pretty sure that's the point. If it's cast at the high enough level, the spell that's being countered is guaranteed to fail. It's not a bug, it's a feature. The question is, is the feature good? I think it is. In the hands of a player (as Serra pointed out), it's an active way to resist an enemy's spell. If the DM tells you to roll a saving throw, that's not a choice (I guess, you could choose to fail), but it is a choice whether you use your reaction and a spell slot to save yourself or your ally. And I wouldn't say it's too powerful, because VERY FEW adversaries can cast spells. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only three enemies Scanlan used his counterspell on so far are Delilah Briarwood, Greenbeard, and a pixy in this episode. He's a known caster, this spell takes up a space. So what about when enemies use Counterspell? Yeah, it can suck not to do anything useful with your action, but this is just what sometimes happens in D&D. If your spell misses, too bad. If your enemy uses their resource to make it miss, too bad. Same thing as casting Shield to avoid attacks. And if you know that your enemy has counterspell (which is even rarer than an enemy spellcaster), it's a puzzle to solve. You were asking if there's a way to avoid being counterspelled, here are some I could think of - Subtle Spell Metamagic - Staying out of 60 ft. range - Casting from behind a full cover - Counterspelling the Counterspell - Baiting a reaction out of the enemy before casting - Using Hex and (arguably?) Sanctuary Edit: Also, I personally don't like the way 5.24e made it so being Counterspelled doesn't waste the spell slot. Now if the BBEG casts PWK and I successfully counter it, they can try again next turn. A better way to nerf Counterspell would be more indirect. For example, adding a new action that gives disadvantage on the next ability check made by the target on the next turn (the opposite of Help, basically), or an evil twin of Guidance that makes the target subtract 1d4 from their next turn's ability check. I believe it would work great as a counterplay to Counterspell. They could also decrease its range to 30 ft.
Hearing your thoughts and reasoning on Counterspell, wondering what your thoughts are on the homebrew that when Counterspelled, you can then still choose to cast a different spell of a lower level. It still makes combat longer, but is no longer a 75% chance of losing your entire turn
About Sam coming out of Polymorph not ready for his turn, I'd say it sucked a little bit, but it would be worse if he had to wait for an entire next round before getting to act. Sam could just skip his turn, but chose not to. Yes, it was pretty hectic, but he reoriented and had his turn. Even doing something stupid is usually better than doing nothing. Cast a cantrip, poke a fairy with the Mythcarver. Sam could easily do more than nothing, he just wanted to do the best thing. And adding this extra round to Polymorph would definitely make the spell A LOT stronger. I think Polymorph (as well as other "make this enemy useless" spells like Banishment) should work similarly to Sleep and PWK. You roll over the unwilling target's HP, they are thrown out of combat. Actually, it would come pretty close to making LR unnecessary. Also, I don't think Counterspell was that big of a problem in the pixie fight. I'd even go as far as to say it's a ✨skill issue✨ on the players' part (forgive me the expression). Each pixie only had one ☝ use of Counterspell, not too hard to keep track of. But despite this combat being very unique, everyone played their characters same as usual. Counterspell me once - shame on you, Counterspell me twice - shame on me. When Keyleth was casting Greater Restoration on Grog, did Marisha expect the pixie to not counter it? This was a good encounter idea to break the players out of their molds, but they sort of refused to engage with it (and thus had a bad time).
To me, the interesting thing about DM counterspell is figuring out “what can I get away with?” If the DM runs it do that they counterspell everything, including a level 1 spell that does 1d8 damage then it’s not fun to me, but realistically an enemy shouldn’t burn a counterspell on something so small. It’s not a “this turn is interesting because of counterspell” thing, but the overall combat gains a new dynamic that is fun to me.
To join in on the counterspell conversation, I think the action economy / binary tree thing distracts from the actual ways in which counterspell is used. Yes, it raises the chance of failure from 50% to 75%, I'm pretty sure that's the point. If it's cast at the high enough level, the spell that's being countered is guaranteed to fail. It's not a bug, it's a feature. The question is, is the feature good?
I think it is. In the hands of a player (as Serra pointed out), it's an active way to resist an enemy's spell. If the DM tells you to roll a saving throw, that's not a choice (I guess, you could choose to fail), but it is a choice whether you use your reaction and a spell slot to save yourself or your ally. And I wouldn't say it's too powerful, because VERY FEW adversaries can cast spells. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only three enemies Scanlan used his counterspell on so far are Delilah Briarwood, Greenbeard, and a pixy in this episode. He's a known caster, this spell takes up a space.
So what about when enemies use Counterspell? Yeah, it can suck not to do anything useful with your action, but this is just what sometimes happens in D&D. If your spell misses, too bad. If your enemy uses their resource to make it miss, too bad. Same thing as casting Shield to avoid attacks. And if you know that your enemy has counterspell (which is even rarer than an enemy spellcaster), it's a puzzle to solve. You were asking if there's a way to avoid being counterspelled, here are some I could think of
- Subtle Spell Metamagic
- Staying out of 60 ft. range
- Casting from behind a full cover
- Counterspelling the Counterspell
- Baiting a reaction out of the enemy before casting
- Using Hex and (arguably?) Sanctuary
Edit: Also, I personally don't like the way 5.24e made it so being Counterspelled doesn't waste the spell slot. Now if the BBEG casts PWK and I successfully counter it, they can try again next turn. A better way to nerf Counterspell would be more indirect. For example, adding a new action that gives disadvantage on the next ability check made by the target on the next turn (the opposite of Help, basically), or an evil twin of Guidance that makes the target subtract 1d4 from their next turn's ability check. I believe it would work great as a counterplay to Counterspell.
They could also decrease its range to 30 ft.
Hearing your thoughts and reasoning on Counterspell, wondering what your thoughts are on the homebrew that when Counterspelled, you can then still choose to cast a different spell of a lower level. It still makes combat longer, but is no longer a 75% chance of losing your entire turn
About Sam coming out of Polymorph not ready for his turn, I'd say it sucked a little bit, but it would be worse if he had to wait for an entire next round before getting to act. Sam could just skip his turn, but chose not to. Yes, it was pretty hectic, but he reoriented and had his turn. Even doing something stupid is usually better than doing nothing. Cast a cantrip, poke a fairy with the Mythcarver. Sam could easily do more than nothing, he just wanted to do the best thing.
And adding this extra round to Polymorph would definitely make the spell A LOT stronger. I think Polymorph (as well as other "make this enemy useless" spells like Banishment) should work similarly to Sleep and PWK. You roll over the unwilling target's HP, they are thrown out of combat.
Actually, it would come pretty close to making LR unnecessary.
Also, I don't think Counterspell was that big of a problem in the pixie fight. I'd even go as far as to say it's a ✨skill issue✨ on the players' part (forgive me the expression). Each pixie only had one ☝ use of Counterspell, not too hard to keep track of. But despite this combat being very unique, everyone played their characters same as usual. Counterspell me once - shame on you, Counterspell me twice - shame on me. When Keyleth was casting Greater Restoration on Grog, did Marisha expect the pixie to not counter it?
This was a good encounter idea to break the players out of their molds, but they sort of refused to engage with it (and thus had a bad time).
Mega dropping the Counterspell hot take ☕️