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First of all, an Alternate Class Feature / Class Exchange for Wizards specializing in Abjuration
Abjurant Counterspell
You can counterspell another spell with any prepared arcane Abjuration spell of equal or higher level, regardless of the school of spell being countered. You still need to make a Spellcraft check to identify the spell you wish to counter. To develop this feature, you must use your 1st level Feat choice to learn the Improved Counterspell feat, and you do not gain the Arcane Bond class feature, or the Scribe Scroll bonus feat (you can purchase the Scribe Scroll feat normally, although a non-Human will have to wait until 3rd level before being able to do so).
And then some feats;
Absorptive Counterspell
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspell
Benefits: When you successfully counter another spell, you have a 50% chance of drawing in sufficient energies to replenish the spell (or slot) you used to counter the spell. This percentage cannot be enhanced by any means. If you are using a higher level spell to counter a lower-level spell, the chance of replenishment is reduced by 10% per level of difference.
Example: If using a dispel magic to counterspell a casting of glitterdust, you only have a 40% chance of retaining your dispel magic spell (or slot) if successful.
Reflective Counterspell
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspell, Absorptive Counterspell, must be a Wizard specialized in Abjuration
Benefits: If you successfully counter a spell, you can choose *not* to absorb the energies to replenish your own expended spell slot, and to instead attempt to turn the spell back as if you had cast it yourself. If the spell has a single target, it must be the caster, but you can turn an area spell back as you see fit, so long as the caster is within the area affected. There is a 50% chance of this being successful, with a bonus of 10% for every level by which the spell you used to counter the incoming spell overpowered it.
Example: An Abjurer uses a dispel magic to counter an enemy Sorcerers scorching ray. He gets a 60% chance of reflecting the spell (the entire spell, he cannot divide up the rays among separate targets) back upon the Sorcerer. If he instead counterspelled a fireball, he would be able to place it as he wished, so long as the Sorcerer were within it's area of effect.
Countermagic
Prerequisites: Improved Counterspell, must be a Wizard specialized in Abjuration
Benefits: You can counterspell a spell-like ability. The Spellcraft DC to identify a spell-like ability that duplicates a pre-existing spell is +5. For a spell-like ability that does not have a spell equivalent, such as a White Dragons Freezing Fog ability, the difficulty to identify it is +10, and you cannot counter it unless you have an ability such as Abjurant Counterspell or a spell such as dispel magic or greater dispel magic (of the appropriate level!) prepared that specifically can be used to counter any spell.
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Random Wizard (Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid, whatever) feats, meant to somewhat replace (in utility, if not mechanics) the Sudden X feats that are not OGL.
Metamagician
Prerequisites: At least three metamagic feats with at least a +1 level modifier
Benefits: You gain daily bonus spell levels equal to your primary spellcasting modifier (Int for Wizards, Wisdom for Clerics and Druids, Charisma for Sorcerers) for the purposes of empowering spells you cast with Metamagic. These bonus levels refresh when you prepare spells.
Special: If you have multiple spellcasting classes, using different primary spellcasting attributes, you gain multiple pools of this feature, for each applicable attribute.
Example: A Sorcerer with Cha 17 gets 3 ‘free’ levels of metamagic per day, that she can use either singly or all at once, to offset the level adjustment for any spell(s) she casts with metamagic. Once she has used all three of these bonus levels, she must wait until she next refreshes her daily allotment of spell slots before she can use them again.
Example 2: A Mystic Theurge (Cleric / Wizard) with Wisdom 16 and Intelligence 15 gains 3 'free' levels of metamagic offset for use with Cleric spells, and 2 'free' levels of metamagic offset for use with Wizard spells. If she later gains a level of Druid or Adept, she shares the same 3 levels used for Clerical casting.
Boundless Reserves
Prerequisites: Metamagican
Benefits: You can sacrifice prepared spells (or spell slots) to recharge your reserve of bonus spell levels (from Metamagician). You can only sacrifice one spell in this manner in a process that takes a full minute, and cannot be repeated for 1 hour once performed. For each spell level of the sacrificed spell, you gain one level of ‘metamagic offset’ (as per the Metamagician feat), up to your normal maximum. Extra levels are wasted.
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This would actually be an interesting start for a prestige class: Arcane Duelist. Wizard or Sorcerer who through their amazing counterspelling ability, specializes in taking out other casters or at the least lessening their impact on the Arcane Duelist's allies.
-Weylin
True. The character is entirely reactionary, and utter deadweight in a fight against animals, vermin, oozes, constructs, many humanoids, some magical beasts, etc., etc. But put them in a fight with a spellcaster of equal level, and they've got a decent chance of keeping them locked down. The BBEG at the end of most adventure paths or 'modules' is usually a few levels above the party, meaning that they'll generally have access to a level of spells that even the most dedicated of counterspellers simply *cannot* deal with. And that's fine. It means that even when the dedicated counterspeller is in his element, there's still no chance that he's going to 'wreck the game.'
Even with the Abjurant Counterspell class feature, the Abjurer is going to have to prepare as many Abjuration spells as he logically can, to use for these counterspelling options, which is going to seriously limit his options (and probably resort to him falling back on Wands and Scrolls a lot) in non-spellcaster heavy encounters.
I've never played Magic: the Gathering, but the blue 'denial' deck, with a handful of ways to negate, stall or flat-out rebound an opponents attacks. Adding a spell reflection option gives the Abjurer some offensive utility, if only by reflecting the foes spells back at them.
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I personally love the concept of mage-duels, but have not seen it done well usually. The system in Magic of Faerun was pretty good. Ars Magica did it amazingly well I thought.
The way it's currently setup, it almost seems like the traditional mage-duel would require a separate subsystem, with the two arcanists in some sort of arena, each dedicating a specific spell for each rounds action, with the school of the spell and the level of the spell selected determining how well or poorly they interact, with each of the eight colleges having a rock -> scissors -> paper relationship, that would be modified by level (so that even a 'rock' spell wouldn't 'blunt' a 'scissors' spell that it was most effective against if it was several levels too low).
That sort of thing would reward arcanists who studied their foes, so that someone who knows darn well that his foe is a conjuror with forbidden schools of evocation and enchantment could use spells that are most vulnerable to blocking by evocation and enchantment (which his foe *probably* won't have available), and avoid spells that are weak vs. conjurations (which he would expect his Conjuror foe to have a plethora of). Of course, in Pathfinder, the Conjuror could take advantage of his reputation as a Conjuration specialist, and prepare evocation and enchantment spells, losing his Conjuration bonuses for the day, to surprise challengers who expected him to play to his strengths...
Or something much cleverer than that. Long day. Too much rum. :)