D&D (2024) Is Counterspell less frustrating now?

[UngainlyTitan]

No.

Absolutely not.

You're proving my point, if anything. We should be going back to there being ways to interrupt casting as a NON CASTER, not tripling down on a terrible boring spell that only lets Sorcerers, Warlocks, Wizards and the nerdiest of Bards interrupt spells (oh and two of rarest Paladin Oaths, look out).

Reject Counterspell. Return to interrupting spells the real way, by hitting casters in the face.

I would like to keep Counterspell (the new version) but I would be quite happy if Mage Slayer forced a con check to cast a spell on its reaction effect.

 

[Scribe]

If one is standing by a mage, and they must correctly enunciate the spell, and you slap that out of their mouth, that should be a 'counterspell'

 

[Maxperson]

You could gate counterspell behind a successful perception check to notice the casting in time to interrupt it.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I'll also point out that grapple, shove, and prone are also saving throws now.

And thus can be blocked by legendary resistance.

Another reason why I do like saves for these things! If there is hazardous terrain, the weapon users have grapples and shoves (and some weapon masteries) that can lure out Legendary save uses. Imagine the BBEG about to get thrown around by the fighter in front of his minions. They might blow a "Legendary Save Face" usage to hold their ground.

 

[Gorck]

Maybe some of the more powerful spells should have casting times greater than 1 Action but less than 1 Minute.

For example, say a Fireball has a casting time of 2 Actions. The caster starts conjuring the flame seed in their current turn and launches it on their next turn, and in the meantime they need to maintain concentration on the casting or the spell fizzles and the slot is not expended.

 

[James Gasik]

Maybe some of the more powerful spells should have casting times greater than 1 Action but less than 1 Minute.

For example, say a Fireball has a casting time of 2 Actions. The caster starts conjuring the flame seed in their current turn and launches it on their next turn, and in the meantime they need to maintain concentration on the casting or the spell fizzles and the slot is not expended.

There are spells that function this way in Earthdawn; Earth Darts will do 5 more points of damage on average than Mind Dagger, but one spell can be cast in a single turn, and the other takes 2 turns to cast.

 

[tetrasodium]

Maybe some of the more powerful spells should have casting times greater than 1 Action but less than 1 Minute.

For example, say a Fireball has a casting time of 2 Actions. The caster starts conjuring the flame seed in their current turn and launches it on their next turn, and in the meantime they need to maintain concentration on the casting or the spell fizzles and the slot is not expended.

There used to be spells & abilities like that where some took a standard action while others took a full round action/1 round... but then we had lots of things that used specific action types rather than just action, class specific feature "bonus" action and quantum go for it null actions for the distinction to allow or block without needing to build a bunch of new things or design around edge cases

 

[Stalker0]

Maybe some of the more powerful spells should have casting times greater than 1 Action but less than 1 Minute.

For example, say a Fireball has a casting time of 2 Actions. The caster starts conjuring the flame seed in their current turn and launches it on their next turn, and in the meantime they need to maintain concentration on the casting or the spell fizzles and the slot is not expended.

3e had the "full round casting". You start it on Turn 1 (and it consumes your action and move), and it completes at the start of turn 2 (but turn 2 you have your full suite of actions).

So it still only costs a round, but if anything goes wrong in that round you would lose the spell.

Ultimately 5e uses concentration for the 2nd part, but there is no notion of a spell taking longer than an action to cast.

 

[Azzy]

Maybe some of the more powerful spells should have casting times greater than 1 Action but less than 1 Minute.

For example, say a Fireball has a casting time of 2 Actions. The caster starts conjuring the flame seed in their current turn and launches it on their next turn, and in the meantime they need to maintain concentration on the casting or the spell fizzles and the slot is not expended.

Or give spells with a casting time of 1 action had a modifier to initiative so that if the caster is attacked between the initiative they rolled and the modified initiative, the spell failed....

Sometimes AD&D had things right.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Well there is as some spells take more rhan an action, but it goes action-minute-10 minutes-etc.