Counteracting

Can someone explain how the counteract check for a 6th level Shadow Siphon would work against a level 16 frost dragon. What would I need to roll for the counteract check in order to mitigate half the breath weapon dmg.

Noting that I am using pre-Remaster rules for this. So if Counteract has changed...

Level 6 Shadow Siphon would have a counteract level of 8 because of its specific ability to be 2 higher than normal.

Level 16 frost dragon would have a counteract level of 8 because of the half-rounded-up conversion between creature level and counteract level.

Character using Shadow Siphon will roll a check with their counteract bonus. Their counteract bonus is most likely going to be equal to their spell attack bonus. Unless something is specifically modifying spell attack rolls (which wouldn't apply to counteract checks) or counteract checks (which wouldn't be accounted for in spell attack roll value).

The DC of the counteract check will be the DC of the ability - the breath weapon in this case.

Because the counteract levels are equal, the character will need to succeed or better in order to successfully counteract.

If the character somehow got a level 7 Shadow Siphon, then the counteract level would be 9, which is higher than the counteract level 8 breath weapon. Which means that the character could successfully counteract by rolling a fail or better on the check.

Shadow siphon counts as two spell levels higher for counteract. It has a counteract level of 8.

The dragon breath is not a spell. You use half the creature's level. The counteract level is also 8.

The degrees of success for counteract are as follows:

Critical Success Counteract the target if its counteract level is no more than 3 levels higher than your effect’s counteract level.
Success Counteract the target if its counteract level is no more than 1 level higher than your effect’s counteract level.
Failure Counteract the target if its counteract level is lower than your effect’s counteract level.
Critical Failure You fail to counteract the target.

So either a success or a critical success will counteract the breath, but a fail or a crit fail will not. So you need to roll the DC of the breath or higher.

Noting that I am using pre-Remaster rules for this. So if Counteract has changed...

Level 6 Shadow Siphon would have a counteract level of 8 because of its specific ability to be 2 higher than normal.

Level 16 frost dragon would have a counteract level of 8 because of the half-rounded-up conversion between creature level and counteract level.

Character using Shadow Siphon will roll a check with their counteract bonus. Their counteract bonus is most likely going to be equal to their spell attack bonus. Unless something is specifically modifying spell attack rolls (which wouldn't apply to counteract checks) or counteract checks (which wouldn't be accounted for in spell attack roll value).

The DC of the counteract check will be the DC of the ability - the breath weapon in this case.

Because the counteract levels are equal, the character will need to succeed or better in order to successfully counteract.

If the character somehow got a level 7 Shadow Siphon, then the counteract level would be 9, which is higher than the counteract level 8 breath weapon. Which means that the character could successfully counteract by rolling a fail or better on the check.

It looks like the only thing that's changed is they added a table that shows what degree of success would counteract what rank for each rank, and the associated level range. If that makes sense.