[actions in combat] swift & immediate spellcasting

[delabarre]

A minor nitpick -- the wording of table 9-2 suggests that using Quicken Spell is the only possible swift action, and casting feather fall is the only possible immediate action. Can this be extended/modified to include "cast a spell (1 [swift/immediate] action casting time)"? There is no reason why there can't be new spells beyond the base rules that have fast casting times.

Edit: fixified poor grammarity.

[The Wraith]

I, for one, would let Counterspelling be an Immediate Action.
In my group we are currently playtesting this house-rule (in order to actually USE Counterspelling - never seen in use in 8+ years of 3.x, RAW...), and since now has worked nice.
Most people complain about the power of spellcasters (and they are right, IMHO)... well, the most obvious way to hamper them is to give Counterspelling a nice boost (enemy's hampered spell = group safe) without making totally useless the a caster.

"Go, cast your FIREBALL!"
"Nope, I'm readying an action to stop the enemy!"
- enemy's spell was not memorized -
"...Duh!!!..."

Of course, would a spellcaster burn his swift/immediate action to Counterspell OR to Quicken his Grease along with a Cloud Kill ?
Hard choices...

[delabarre]

The Wraith wrote:

I, for one, would let Counterspelling be an Immediate Action.

In my group we are currently playtesting this house-rule (in order to actually USE Counterspelling - never seen in use in 8+ years of 3.x, RAW...), and since now has worked nice.
Most people complain about the power of spellcasters (and they are right, IMHO)... well, the most obvious way to hamper them is to give Counterspelling a nice boost (enemy's hampered spell = group safe) without making totally useless the a caster.

Agreed...never seen Counterspell used either.

Seems like this whole mechanic could be replaced by the addition of sudden dispel magic spell (or feat, I guess)...but that may be for another game.

[brock]

delabarre wrote:

Agreed...never seen Counterspell used either.

Yet more agreement. The only character I've seen counterspell has feats that allow him to do so as a free action (AFAICR).

A simple tweak to counterspelling that allowed wizards to 'duel' while warriors clashed would go a long way to explaining why there are still armies in a world with wizards.

[delabarre]

brock wrote:

Yet more agreement. The only character I've seen counterspell has feats that allow him to do so as a free action (AFAICR).

E.g., the only way to make the existing mechanic work is with a munchkiny antimagic custom build? ;-)

[delabarre]

delabarre wrote:

E.g., the only way to make the existing mechanic work is with a munchkiny antimagic custom build? ;-)

We're a bit off-topic for Combat here, let's table Counterspell here, and be sure to bring this up again during the "Magic & Spells" rules focus after the holidays.