Where do they even get 30 people who can cast 3rd-level spells? That’s like an entire region’s supply of 5th-level characters. Are they in Eberron and using mass-produced wands of counterspell? Maybe they’re the entire high-threat response team of a major empire or planar metropolis.
I’m trying to game out how many of my characters it would take to rescue the player if that’s really 30 5th+ level antimages, and with that many counterspells on the field I think the answer is that they could probably shut down every spellcaster I’ve ever played, at least for long enough to take out the primary target. The only D&D character I’ve played who really has a hope of accomplishing anything is a very high level 4th edition fighter, and even at near-epic levels things still look dicey because I bet those guys are all packing a bunch of other spells like hold person and only one of them has to hit to really mess up his day. Maybe if he teamed up with the high level half-celestial paladin of freedom from 3.5…
Actually I just remembered you have to see your target to counterspell them, so actually some people like the 3.x Sublime Chord would be in the clear as long as they cast improved invisibility while out of sight, but I’m betting the anti-mages are prepared for that too, somehow. It might even things up though!
Listen man, just be happy they didn’t bring anti-magic field grenades.
For real though, even in settings that aren’t high magic, it would be reasonable that law enforcement would have something to neutralize magic. You think you’re the first spell-slinging murder hobo to come through here?
I wish anti-magic (in D&D specifically) felt less binary, and that there were more mechanics around encountering anti-magic of varying strengths. In a busy marketplace there might be weak anti-magic just to prevent basic illusory tricks, Distort Value, Incite Greed, etc. You could still cast such spells, but it might require a higher level slot to overcome the field, and/or maybe some effect would be triggered to make your use of magic obvious to whatever enforcers are around. Making sleight of hand more relevant to magic users for casting spells subtley enough to avoid triggering such effects would be super cool. Not hard to brew, but still would be nice to have that fleshed out in the base game.
Yeah, I think the somatic and verbal components were supposed to give away casters (making the sorcerer’s Subtle Spell incredibly valuable socially), but it seems like a lot of DMs ignore or minimize it. But yeah, things like a simple persistent Detect Magic field, especially in critical areas, would make perfect sense. In a high magic setting, every vendor having a trinket that grants them Detect Magic continuously wouldn’t be out of the question.
This is the kind of solution that makes me feel dumb. I am so stealing this
Kinda depends on the game they’re running, but DM has a point…
In shadowrun land (where everything is a lot more rock-paper-scissors-y) the opposition being prepared to counter a known team is basically a staple. If you’l control-thoughts’ed a bank teller, prepare for your apartment to be swarmed by 12 different types of drones.
“I guess I’m confused. Are we having fun, or it are we playing Unwinnable Logic Simulator against an adversarial DM?”
Because a true BBEG would conquer an area, then overwhelm us with 100% of its conscripted fighters…
The DM wasn’t happy with the player’s choices, and instead of talking to them about it, punished them with an unwinnable fight.
