The party wizard has cast a hemispherical wall of force to trap the evil sorcerer and isolate him from the battle. The sorcerer however knows dimension door, and tries to cast it to escape. Can the wizard counter his casting of dimension door with counterspell?
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
7
asked Jun 20 at 7:42
-
\$\begingroup\$ Whoever closed this as a dupe, I posted this question because of this answer, which claims were it not for the need to see, you could counter through full cover: it seems not obvious if counterspell needs a clear path to the target, so I wanted to present a question that cleanly resolves this, and wall of force is the best way I think to ignore the "cannot see" issues. I can instead use a clear crystal wall. \$\endgroup\$– Nobody the HobgoblinCommented Jun 20 at 8:00
-
1\$\begingroup\$ I’ve closed this as a duplicate since the linked question covers this one just fine. There are no peculiarities with counterspell that the more general question does not address. \$\endgroup\$– Thomas MarkovCommented Jun 20 at 8:01
-
1\$\begingroup\$ In other words, change counterspell here to any other spell and the question seems to be the same, hence the general question asking about spells broadly. \$\endgroup\$– Thomas MarkovCommented Jun 20 at 8:02
-
\$\begingroup\$ @ThomasMarkov Do you think if I change wall of force to any other obstacle that allows sight this would help? I mean, then you maybe could close it as a dupe if you can cast through a window with glass panes :-)? \$\endgroup\$– Nobody the HobgoblinCommented Jun 20 at 8:05
-
\$\begingroup\$ I think that’s also been asked before. \$\endgroup\$– Thomas MarkovCommented Jun 20 at 8:11
|
Show 2 more comments
1 Answer
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
5
You cannot counter a spell through wall of force
Counterspell has a casting time of
Casting time: 1 Reaction, which you take when you see a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell
That means you can only cast it when you see the creature. Wall of force is invisible, so you can see the sorcerer casting the spell, so assuming the wizard is within 60 feet, all conditions for casting counterspell are fulfilled.
However, there is a general rule that A Clear Path to the Target (p. 204, PHB) is needed for spells. It that says:
To target something, you must have a clear path to it, so it can’t be behind total cover.
Because of this, you normally cannot cast spells through wall of force, as it provides total cover and we lack a clear path to the target. Teleportation is an exception, so the sorcerer could teleport out.
So what are you targeting, when you cast counterspell? The spell? The caster? Something else? Targeting of spells is not that well defined, but the Targets rule (again, p. 204, PHB) tells us
A typical spell requires you to pick one or more targets to be affected by the spell’s magic. A spell's description tells you whether the spell targets creatures, objects, or a point of origin for an area of effect [...] Typically, a point of origin is a point in space, but some spells have an area whose origin is a creature or an object.
Your available types of targets are creatures, objects of points in space. The casting of the spell is neither of those. Counterspell's description says
You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell.
The only possible target therefore is the creature that is in the process of casting the spell. That creature however is behind total cover, so you cannot target it with counterpell. Because of that you cannot counter dimension door in this scenario, and the sorcerer will escape.
This is confirmed by the Sage Advice Compendium (thanks to @Eddymage for pointing this out) which has an explicit question on it:
Does counterspell target the caster or the spell you’re trying to counter? Counterspell targets the other spellcaster.
answered Jun 20 at 7:42
-
\$\begingroup\$ The accepted answer on the question you link has a comment below, that clarifies that the quote the answer is based on continues to add "would block physical effect of spell but not mess with targeting that needs sight". It is not the highest upvoted answer on that Q, though. It doesn't seem to be as clear cut as you present it here. \$\endgroup\$– J.ECommented Jun 20 at 7:54
-
\$\begingroup\$ @J.E The accepted answer is not the most upvoted answer, nor the bountied answer, nor the answer that resolves this from the rules. Please check the second answer in the linked question, which does all of these. Accepting is a weak indication of correctness, it is a single persons preference. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 20 at 8:08
-
\$\begingroup\$ From the SAC: "Does counterspell target the caster or the spell you’re trying to counter? Counterspell targets the other spellcaster." \$\endgroup\$– EddymageCommented Jun 20 at 8:08
-
\$\begingroup\$ @Eddymage That one is perfect, thank you! \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 20 at 8:08
-
\$\begingroup\$ @NobodytheHobgoblin I know, I even mentioned it. My point is that you just use this as a fact, while it is actually quite unclear and the answer to this question hinges on it. For example, the higher-upvoted, bountied (which just means one random person liked it, just like accepting) answer is built on the same foundation of unofficial tweets, just Crawford instead of Mearls. \$\endgroup\$– J.ECommented Jun 20 at 13:32