Counterspelling and Arcane Spell Failure?

[Murdock Mudeater]

Just double checking, if my wizard is wearing armor, does the arcane spell failure chance apply to the casting of spells for the purposes of countering my opponent's magic?

[SlimGauge]

Short answer: Yes

Longer answer: from Counterspells

Counterspelling wrote:

It is possible to cast any spell as a counterspell.

Counterspelling wrote:

To complete the action, you must then cast an appropriate spell.

It's clear that you are actually casting the spell, but as a counterspell.

From Arcane Spell Failure

Casting an Arcane Spell in Armor wrote:

A character who casts an arcane spell while wearing armor must usually make an arcane spell failure check. The number in the Arcane Spell Failure Chance column on Table: Armor and Shields is the percentage chance that the spell fails and is ruined. If the spell lacks a somatic component, however, it can be cast with no chance of arcane spell failure.

So if the spell has no somatic component, then No, otherwise, Yes.

[Murdock Mudeater]

Ah, right, I always forget the somatic clause of the armor check and just recall it as applying to all arcane magic.

So I suppose I could counter with a prepared still spell (but not a spontaneous one, since those are full round actions) while in armor, without risk of spell failure.

Oh! I could also take that psychic bloodline sorcerer that just casts as psychic powers (which are not affected by armor check). But then I'm very limited in counterspells due to the limited sorcerer spell selection.

Hmmm...very tempted to put together a dwarf wizard that only counterspells with magic. Dunno if I could get it to work, but it's very tempting. Neat bit on counterspells is that they don't require high caster stats, just a duplicate spell (though high caster stats still affects the number of bonus spells, so they do affect eachother).

Anyway, thanks for the doublecheck.