Counteract Query

[orphias]

I am a little confused on the Counteract action. Please let me know if this is right or wrong?

Example 1) Caster 1 casts magic missile at caster 2. Caster 2 has the Counterspell feat but does NOT have magic missile prepared. They can use dispel magic to counterspell as a reaction? The DC is Caster 1's Spell DC, and the counteract roll is caster 2's spell attack roll?

Example 2) A Caster is fighting a big mean barbarian with a glowy magic sword. They can use dispel magic with a counteract check to suppress the swords magic for 10 minutes. The sword is level 12. The counteract rank is 6, the table lists a success 7 (13 to 14) - what does that mean? LOL

Counteract Critical
Rank Failure Success Success
0 — 1 (1 to 2) 3 (5 to 6)
1 0 (–1 to 0) 2 (3 to 4) 4 (7 to 8)
2 1 (1 to 2) 3 (5 to 6) 5 (9 to 10)
3 2 (3 to 4) 4 (7 to 8) 6 (11 to 12)
4 3 (5 to 6) 5 (9 to 10) 7 (13 to 14)
5 4 (7 to 8) 6 (11 to 12) 8 (15 to 16)
6 5 (9 to 10) 7 (13 to 14) 9 (17 to 18)
7 6 (11 to 12) 8 (15 to 16) 10 (19 to 20)
8 7 (13 to 14) 9 (17 to 18) 11 (21 to 22)
9 8 (15 to 16) 10 (19 to 20) 12 (23 to 24)
10 9 (17 to 18) 11 (21 to 22) 13 (25 to 26)

[Errenor]

orphias wrote:

1) Caster 1 casts magic missile at caster 2. Caster 2 has the Counterspell feat but does NOT have magic missile prepared. They can use dispel magic to counterspell as a reaction?

No. See Counterspell, it's very clear.

orphias wrote:

Example 2) A Caster is fighting a big mean barbarian with a glowy magic sword. They can use dispel magic with a counteract check to suppress the swords magic for 10 minutes.

No, they can't at all. The sword is attended. Dispel magic doesn't work on attended items.

orphias wrote:

The sword is level 12. The counteract rank is 6, the table lists a success 7 (13 to 14) - what does that mean? LOL

Well, let's read the table's description: "This table provides a reference for what an effect can counteract based on its rank and the check result. The first number in each column is the counteract rank at which you can counteract an effect based on your degree of success. The numbers in parentheses are the typical level range corresponding to that rank."

So 7 is the (maximum) counteract rank at which you can counteract an effect if you've got a success. 12 is less than 13, so this works too. You still won't counteract on failure, because the table gives 5th rank which is less than 12 lvl (12th lvl is 6 rank).
This is just for clarity. You still can't do that at all because Dispel doesn't work on attended items.

[Finoan]

1) If the defending caster did have Magic Missile prepared, they could use that to Counterspell.

The counteract stats at that point would be:
Effect Rank ?? (Rank of the Magic Missile spell being cast by the attacking spellcaster),
counteract Rank ?? (Rank of the Magic Missile spell being used to Counterspell with),
Counteract DC ?? (Spell DC of the attacking spellcaster),
counteract check bonus ?? (Base Spellcasting bonus of the defending character + any bonuses specifically to counteract checks).

2) For a level 10 unattended item that you want to cast Dispel Magic on, these would be the stats.

Effect rank 5 (Half rounded up of the item level),
Counteract Rank ?? (Spell Rank of the Dispel Magic spell being used),
Counteract DC ?? (Picked by the GM, probably using the Level-based DC table - a level 10 item should have a DC around 27),
Counteract Bonus ?? (Base spellcasting bonus of the caster + any bonuses specifically to counteract checks).

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The table is just a summary of the results of reversing the information of the counteract check's degree of success results.

If you know the counteract Rank, and the roll's degree of success result, then you can figure out what Rank of effect you can counteract. But that isn't the normal order of knowing the information.

Normally you know the effect Rank and then want to know what counteract Rank you need (What spell slot do I need to cast from?).

So looking at the table for dispelling that level 10 item, the effect Rank is 5.

If I pick a Rank 2 Dispel Magic then I would look at the Counteract Rank: 2 row. I see that Rank 5 is in the critical success column - so I need to crit the roll in order to accomplish the counteract.

If I pick a Rank 4 Dispel Magic, then I see that Rank 5 is in the success column - a much easier roll to attempt.

And if I pick a Rank 6 Dispel Magic, then Rank 5 is in the failure column - I could counteract that with a roll of 2 on the d20 dice.

The numbers in parenthesis are just converting the counteract Rank number in those columns into a level number (for item level or creature level). Note how all those columns we were looking at for the Rank 5 item we are dispelling have (9 - 10) as their level values.