[elrikthebastard]

Afternoon,

Our party has two Mages and the topic of setting aside counterspell for the party came up. If two mages set aside 4 each to guard the party. I would guess you have to stack the total to 8.

As a GM I have watched to many players stack and abuse rules. I am not a fan of stacking in general.

Is there a rule I missed or is it 8?

Thanks.
E

[8-bit]

Question: If two casters both declare spell defense to protect their team, would both of their Counterspelling skill ratings apply to each test resisting a spell?

Yes, but remember it's a resource that doesn't refresh until the end of the Combat Turn.

That is a quote from Aaron, one of the developers. While none of his answers are official, as one of the writers of the book, his rulings can generally be used.

However, if you prefer, you can always houserule that only the highest Counterspelling applies.

[elrikthebastard]

Thank you 8-bit. I did a search and did not even come close to this.

[8-bit]

Thank you 8-bit. I did a search and did not even come close to this.

No problem. It is conspicuously absent from the book. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask them here on this subforum. There's generally someone who knows something, or can give you suggestions for houserules.

[DigitalZombie]

Alternatively you can have one of them doing a teamwork test. That way it wont stack directly, buy atleast they can both contribute.

[elrikthebastard]

Thanks DigitalZombie.

I was thinking of not stacking the pool, instead I would have the highest get to act first and then if there was a second attack, the next pool would fall into place.

I am really not a fan of stacking. Now, saying that, if the mages in question had a powerful bond, then I would allow a sync of Pools.

Thanks Gents!

[Shaidar]

If more than one magician protects a target with Counterspelling,
handle it as teamwork.

[elrikthebastard]

Thanks Shaidar.

I think one of my players may have a heart attack on that one... I am going to try it. Buttons are meant to be pushed...

[Xenon]

Just because the group have 4 (or 8, as it were) dice to use for spell defense does not mean they get to add 4 (or dice to all incoming spell attacks. It is a pool of dice that does not refresh until the next combat turn. The magician(s) that supply the defense have to choose how many of the dice of the pool he/they want to protect the team with on a case to case basis.

If the group is hit by 4 different spells in a combat turn then the magician(s) can choose to give them 1 (or 2) extra dice against each attack. Or 4 ( dice against a single spell... or basically any combination inbetween.

[Herr Brackhaus]

How would teamwork even work with Counterspelling, given that you don't actually roll Counterspelling + Magic [Magic] and use the hits for anything; Counterspelling is a straight up "add X dice of your Y Counterspelling pool to a spell defense test".

Say Magician A has 6 Counterspelling and Mystic Adept B has 4 Counterspelling; they both decide to use 3 of their respective pools to defend. How would this be resolved with counterspelling?

[Top Dog]

If more than one magician protects a target with Counterspelling,
handle it as teamwork.

That's SR4 though, and enough changed between SR4 and SR5 that I wouldn't simply copy this rule. For one, in SR4 it wasn't as easily depleted as it is now.

Personally I'd say there's nothing wrong with just add it up (the way Aaron said). If there's 2 mages with 4 counterspelling each, and they both use their entire pool against a single spell, it's going to be though for the opponent. But after that the pool is depleted.

Making it into a teamwork test (add one as normal, and roll the other as a seperate pool with skill rating alone, and add hits?) would make single magicians less of a joke against multiple-caster teams, so I get where it's coming from. GM's don't like if players become nigh-invulnerable to magic because they have a counterspelling pool of 10+. But the teamwork-aspect would make it quite weird.

[elrikthebastard]

Thank you everyone for the thinking! Exactly why I love a community.

[Tarislar]

There is nothing in the 5E rule book to stop the stacking of counter-spelling pools.
Nor should there be IMHO.  That stacking enables them to stop 1 spell well, the next one that comes in gets 0 dice if they blow through it all on 1 spell.
If it lasted the entire round & wasn't depleted then sure I could see it, but as it is now its only a real advantage if you have 1 slow mage v/s 2+ mages.
If the single mage gets 2+ actions then its not an issue. 
Meanwhile if you didn't allow stacking then no one would ever double up since its rare to have 2 NPC mages engaging you at the same time.