Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Baphogoat Feb 28, 2015 2:01:35	How do you know what spell you are about to counter?
#2 AaronOfBarbaria Feb 28, 2015 4:02:03	Presumably your DM is either letting you know what spells your opponents are casting so that you can make an informed decision about whether you feel it is worth spending your spell slot or not, or has described to you what hoops they have invented for you to jump through before being able to make an informed decision.
#3 Byakugan01 Feb 28, 2015 4:18:10	Our DM won't let us identify a spell being cast unless we use our action on our turn to make a Knowlege Arcana check....which is dumb, but not much I can do about it.
#4 EmpactWB Feb 28, 2015 5:56:45	My players announce it. ;) I'll have to figure out whether I want to telegraph or say straight out what's being cast before they reach 5th level.   @Byakugan01: How does that even work? The only person normally casting a spell on your turn would be you. Does it last to the start of your next turn?
#5 FrogReaver Feb 28, 2015 12:01:17	Isn't that like letting a player waste all his spells on scorching Ray against a fire immune creature?     Surely some telegraphing needs done.   Maybe gestures are similar to last spell he cast
#6 Baphogoat Feb 28, 2015 12:58:34	So there is no built in mechanic to determine this like there was in 3rd/3.5?  Just something left up to the gaming group?  I wil have to discuss this with my DM before I take the spell I guess.  Seems worthless if you are just guessing what they are casting... "Thought I was countering a big fireball, turns out I countered his cantrip, awesome."
#7 ppaladin123 Feb 28, 2015 13:16:24	Might not be an official rule but making an arcana check to figure out what spell a wizard is casting or a religion check to do the same for a cleric/paladin seems pretty logical.
(Reply to #7) FrogReaver	ppaladin123 wrote:
(Reply to #6) FrogReaver	Baphogoat wrote:
#10 Eggnogfool Feb 28, 2015 14:42:13	EmpactWB wrote:
#11 Yunru Feb 28, 2015 14:46:52	... Which then means you can't cast Counterspell since that takes your Reaction.   Seems like you'd be limited to flipping them the Counterbird if they try to counterspell you. Otherwise useless as your DM has it.
#12 AaronOfBarbaria Feb 28, 2015 15:13:27	Looking at the 5th edition rules - without any baggage carried in from older editions - there is no reason to believe that characters don't just know what spells are being cast against them.   I say that because there is no means described in the rules by which you learn what spell someone is casting (and yes, i realize that means equal support for the idea that you can never known what spell someone is casting), but there are spells like counterspell which either A) you always know what is being cast so you never waste a slot casting this against a spell you don't actually care about stopping, or B) no player would ever bother trying to use because the risk of it feeling wasted is too great.   In fact, I expect that anyone that thinks a roll or action must be involved in identifying a spell as it is cast cannot list a reason to believe that to be true that isn't basically "because that's how it worked in other editions."
(Reply to #12) FrogReaver	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#14 EmpactWB Feb 28, 2015 16:17:51	I think AaronOfBarbaria is right. Bare minimum, I'll be telling my players relative spell level. "He's using some pretty advanced arcane gestures. You've never seen a spell lower than 5th level using these." "He's adding some wild, expansive gestures, so while the basic spell is only second level, you can tell he's adding power by using a higher level slot." "It's a fireball spell, which you're quite familiar with." I think that's the ticket for my table.
(Reply to #14) Baphogoat	EmpactWB wrote:
(Reply to #15) FrogReaver	Baphogoat wrote:
#17 Ilse Mar 12, 2015 20:30:40	The one differentiator from this edition to the previous ones is that, to chose your counterspell in the most effective way, you need to know both the spell and the spell slot being used. Actually, the second is more important because it's what decides you to use either a spell slot of the same level (100% counterspell) or a 3rd Lvl Counterspell, because if you're not trying to match the original slot level, there is no point in boosting your counterspell (which, by the way, is for me something that was forgotten in the description, I think you should get a +1 to the roll for every spell slot above 3rd, for example).   This is why the motion above, while nice, for me does not cover the actual need to use that spell in a reasonable fashion (otherwise, as pointed above, it renders that spell fairly useless).   So, either you always know (and it does not make any difference except for counterspell). or I would put that under the "Intelligence (Arcana) check measures your ability to recall lore about spells" and leave it at that. If you succeed, you know the spell and the spell slot being used, otherwise, you don't.
#18 brettlangbdl Mar 13, 2015 1:18:59	Well.. I figure 5e has the Arcana skill, so it should be put to some use. Arcana check. Identify spell being cast (must be able to see spell being cast). Free Action DC         Condition 0             Known spell, memorised or scribed in spellbook 10           Spell is on Class spell list. Character could cast spell if he knew it. (I figure by the time you can cast a spell, a chacter should have a reasonable knowledge of the spells castable by his                         class and level. 15           Spell is not on your Class list, but is of your Character Level or less.. (eg., So if your a 5th level mage trying to ID a 3rd lvl cleric spell or less, you may have seen it cast or otherwise know                          of the spell. +5           Spell is of a level higher than you can cast.
#19 diplomancer Mar 13, 2015 3:20:17	Though if you know that the spell is higher level than you can cast it is probably a good idea to counterspell it nonetheless. If you want to do that I think the player declares he wants to make an Arcana Check and the DM rolls for him, otherwise rolling the check will most of the time give you enough information to decide whether you want to counterspell or not.
#20 Matau99 Mar 13, 2015 6:40:28	brettlangbdl wrote:
#21 Jamwes Mar 13, 2015 8:07:32	Matau99 wrote: