D&D Spell Focus: Counterspell

At Level 3 in the School of Abjuration, we find one of the most controversial entries in the Wizard / Sorcerer / Warlock spellbook – Counterspell. This arcane aspect has caused DMs and Players alike no end of grief and heartache in the 2014 rules, but in 2024, the designers flipped the script in a significant way, resulting in numerous gameplay flow-on effects. Make sure you’ve brought the snack bag folks, this one has more corner cases than The Dungeon of the Mad Mage himself.

As almost everything about this spell has changed, let’s begin with what stayed the same. It is still an instantaneous effect that you cast as a Reaction in response to seeing someone, within 60 feet, cast a spell. It has always been the case that this was meant to cover spellcasting in the regular sense, being the manipulation of the weave that uses Verbal, Somatic and/or Material components to create a magical effect. This is as opposed to certain psionic and creature abilities which replicate spell effects, for example, a Dragon’s breath weapon or Mind Flayers' Dominate Monster ability. But in 2024, the new spell explicitly highlights this VSM component target condition to help reduce confusion, which is great… but still leaves some interpretation arguments we’ll get into later.

Before we head down that painfully narrow lore-hole let’s step back and observe the wider picture and the pack of mechanics elephants huddling over in the corner. First pachyderm – No more automatic success. The 2014 version of counterspell, when cast at its base 3^rd level, nullified any Level 3 spell or below, regardless of the skill difference between the original caster and counter-speller. In 2024, even countering a cantrip now requires a roll we’ll explain later on, giving the counterspell a chance of failing. This one change alone should signal what to expect with the new design. It was WAY overpowered, and inconsistent with almost every other oppositional spell mechanic in the game that has a chance of failure. If Vecna casts a fireball at your level 5 ass, you better believe it should take you more effort than burning a level 3 spell slot to stop that from incinerating you.

This is very quickly followed by the second massive and obvious change… no more upcasting. Previously, if you knew the level of spell you were trying to counter, and you could upcast to the same level, say a Level 6 Counterspell for Disintegrate, again, you automatically nuked it. The new version of the spell can not be upcast to improve your chances.

I like my Adventurers extra crispy.

So, how does the 2024 Counterspell work then if it can’t auto-nerf an attack? Well, it is now more similar to what happened in 2014 if you tried to use it on a spell cast above the level of the counter. In that scenario in 2014, if you used your Level 3 counterspell to take on a Level 6 disintegrate, YOU as the counterer needed to make an ability check using your spellcasting ability modifier at DC10 plus the spell's levels. For example, you’re a level 5 sorcerer with 16 charisma, trying to counter a mage’s Cone of Cold, cast at Level 5. You’d get +3 to a d20 roll to meet or beat the Difficulty class of 15 for a level 5 spell. Meaning, you need 12 on the die, which is a 45% chance of the counter working.  Right? The power of the enemy caster doesn’t play a factor, only the level of the spell. I mean, yes, more powerful enemies get more powerful spells, but again, a CR6 Mage casting Cone of Cold vs a CR12 Archmage casting the same spell would have equal chances of failure... until now.

Instead of an ability check by the counterer, now, your counterspell forces a CONSTITUTION save by the caster, regardless of spell level, and vs your Spell Save DC. Meaning, your ability to thwart them is now not based on the level of the spell they cast, but directly linked to their stat block AND to your spellcasting prowess. In other words, success only comes if their physical ability allows them to resist the “Interruption” skill of the caster… a term that exists in BOTH versions of the Spell “You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell.” Logically and thematically, this makes a lot more sense to me. A stronger, beefier opponent is now harder to interrupt, and the more powerful you get, the easier it is for you to interrupt them.

Let’s re-run our examples. Obviously, countering a Level 3 spell or lower is nerfed. Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Hold Person, and Suggestion all used to be auto-wiped, whereas now the caster gets a save. Our Level 5 Cone of Cold spell from the Mage vs your spell save DC… which includes both your +3 ability modifier AND your proficiency bonus, which is another +3 at level 5, gives a of DC14, one point lower than before. But the mage's CON stat is only 11… or +0. So, to withstand your counterspell, the mage needs to roll a 14 on the save, giving you a 65% chance of successfully causing their spell to fizzle. Compared to the old rules, you are up 20% my magically inclined friend! The archmage was perhaps a poor example, as with a CON of 12, they only do slightly better at resisting, as you have a 55% chance of success to nerf their spells, but you get my point…. Taking it to extremes, Vecna laughs at your paltry attempts to annoy him with a +12 CON save, giving you a measly 5% chance to counterspell the Archlich. The mechanic just makes more sense now.

On average, you are going to find you now generally have a higher chance of successfully using a Level 3 counter spell slot vs higher-level spells. The big trade-off is that you have lost the ability to guarantee success by upcasting.  But wait! If you thought we were done, oh boy, hold onto your Pointy Hats and grab another Ginny Drink, we just started. But I am a gracious DM, take a short rest and I’ll see you in a moment….

Counterspell is a Warlock's Best Friend

Now you are feeling refreshed and hopefully mollified that the changes are not all that bad, I am here to tell you that there is, in fact, more bad news. In 2014, when counterspell is successfully cast, the target’s spell failed, they lost the action and the spell slot they used to cast it. Effectively using counterspell, you could trade a Level 3 Reaction for a Level 6,7, 8, whatever Full Action. Meaning you won both the action economy and the resource economy. In 2024, counterspell does not, I repeat does NOT, burn up the target's spell slots, meaning the Action Economy is the only win for the DM, and the player is free to cast the same spell, with the same slot, again next turn. No, I did not misspeak, I said player… because the bad news is for the DM, not the PCs. A quick peek at the 2025 Monster Manual and turning to any spell caster you will notice that creatures no longer have Spell Slots, they have Uses Per Day… which rules as written in the wording of counter spell ARE wasted. Your mage opponent, who can only cast Cone of Cold 1/day, if countered, now can’t hit you with it this encounter. If you, as a player on the other hand, cop the same treatment, yes, you lose the turn effectively (but still can move and Bonus Action), but can re-cast next turn using the same spell slot. So again, this is a big WIN for the players, not a nerf as it may first appear, but a deliberate and clever play on the revised 2025 Monster Manual stat blocks.

Unfortunately, if we follow that logic further, there has been a bit of an oversight that doesn’t work as nicely and certainly is not in the player's favour. What happens now if you want to counter… a counterspell? Well, THAT has become tougher for players and …controversial for DMs. Changes to the wording of the Reaction and Spellcasting rules tried to help avoid this annoying game of cancellation ping-pong, which I support, but they messed up. In 2014, a player could cast fireball, be counter-spelled by the Mage with its reaction, but then the player could counterspell the counterspell with their reaction, as there were no restrictions on casting levelled spells with a Reaction, they simply relied on the trigger being seen. Now this has been fixed RAW as creatures can now only cast one spell that burns a spell slot per turn. So, the player has used a slot to cast Fireball; they can not use a slot, even with a reaction, to cast Counterspell, as it is still the same turn. That seems fair, you’ve just been interrupted by the enemy in the middle of casting, you shouldn’t be able to switch gears to interrupt them interrupting you. Fixed right?! …except as we said earlier, Creatures like the Mage DON’T use spell slots, they have uses per day, so if we hold the  RAW logic above where creatures having “Uses per day”  being a clever way of benefiting the players by not burning their spell slots, but punishing the enemy spellcasting creatures… technically, the mage COULD counter a players counterspell. But not at my table. Game mechanic design is hard. Corner cases inevitably exist, and that is why D&D has always encouraged you to use the RAW as a starting point and ‘follow your bliss’. To me, countering counter spells is stupid, and I wouldn’t allow it… by the same caster. If your warlock buddy standing next to you has a reaction available, and THEY try to counterspell a creature trying to counterspell YOU… no problems, gg every day of the week and maybe even inspiration for having such table awareness. I like to run a pretty rules-heavy table, but even I am happy to smooth over things that just don’t sit right logically.

Counter THIS puny Wizard!

If that wasn’t a heated enough debate, there is yet another topic that plagues this seemingly innocent and simple spell… Scrolls. To be fair, this one isn’t Counterspells' fault. It is the lack of people reading the Spell Scroll usage rules. Can you counterspell a Spell Scroll? My answer is yes. Because the wording of using a Spell Scroll is roughly the same in both new and old 5e, and says “If the spell is on your class list, you can read the scroll AND cast it without material components”. This would imply you still need to use the Verbal and Somatic components… which means Counterspell CAN interrupt them. There is also a specific mention in the rule that “If the casting is interrupted, (remember the wording of Counterspell?) The scroll is not lost. I call that one pretty conclusive. Yes, you can counter-spell a scroll, but it does not consume the scroll, so it can be used next turn. This, of course, only applies to scrolls; other magic items like wands do not require you to “cast” their spells, they just happen using charges. Simples. NEXT!

…and last, I promise. How does Counterspell now work with Legendary Resistance? Now, hear me out. Either by design or coincidence, by changing the test mechanic from an ability check by the caster, to a Saving Throw for the target… this now means Legendary Creatures CAN use their Legendary Resistance to ignore counterspells… and this… is a GOOD thing. Nuking this most annoying of abilities in powerful creatures is usually top of the To Do List for a party of adventurers facing up against them. They usually have big modifiers to their saving throws and need to fail 3 before you start making inroads with your spells. So you want to spam them with saving throws early using as low-level spells as possible… that they CARE about failing. An adult green dragon fails its DEX save vs your Level 3 lightning bolt… burn a resistance to save 18HP… yeah, nah. You counterspell its ONLY use of Geas for the day, and it fails the check… You better believe it will use up one of these precious resources… and it only costs you a Reaction. That’s about as good of an economy swap as you could hope for, and avoids the fairly anti-climactic trope where the BBEG uses a signature spell ability that makes up a big part of their CR, and that dramatic moment fizzles because of the success of a Level 3 counter spell.

Let me know how you like to use this spell in the comments. My personal evil DM favs, countering healing spells, feather fall… or even better, Revivify. Muhahahahaha! Counterspell can be found in ZG Wizard, Warlock, Sorcerer and Paladin Subclass printable spell card sets at the ZG Store if you’d like a visual reminder for your table that this super annoying reaction is an option that you have chosen to have on hand.