Ok so I joined a D&D party today, and as the players were saying the race/classes they were, I noticed, that I wasn't the only bard in the group. There was another.
We all wanted a good party composition, so having two bards just wouldn't cut it. So we decided we will each create a bard to have a bard face-off at the beginning of the next campaign. A fight to the death between two musicians.
I am pretty good at optimizing (or Min/Maxing, for those of you who haven't mastered the art), but It would appear that the player of the other bard is also just as good at optimizing as I am.
It was at that moment that I new: I needed to ask the professional bard fans for the most insane, broken, deadly, purely unfair bard build that they could find. I want a combination of a race, a class(Bard, and maybe one or two others), and carefully chosen feats and ASI's to create a bard that can kill a bard.
Some things to note:
It is a bard build. Only 1-6 levels in another class is acceptable.
And... that's really it.
So What is the best build you can find? Go get'm bard fans!
What level will the bards be in this death match? Are you then using the build you fight with in the campaign? Or is this just a fight to win the rights to play a bard?
The best thing I got was this: Lore bard 18/ Dragon Sorcerer 2.
The trick was for if he true polymorphs into an ancient gold dragon, I persuade him to kill himself.
If I have maxed out charisma and persuasion expertise, that's a +17 bonus. add a bardic inspiration die, and I get an additional 6.5 on average. All with advantage because of the dragon sorcerer abilities.
this averages a roll of 40 against his insight. Even if he picks lore bard, he won't be able to use any of his bard abilities, so he would be rolling like an ancient gold dragon would.
Well as far as I can tell it will all come down to initiative, since you will both be high enough to probably insta-kill the other. So do you want to make sure you have the highest initiative bonus?
Assuming you win the initiative roll, cast a spell that suspends their ability to act as a PC, like polymorph him into a snail or something. Cast other spells to dress the battlefield the way you want and then "kill the snail." This will bring the Bard back to life, with a few less HP than his max. Now, with the battlefield set up the way you want and with you having the initiative, you should be able to finish him off in one blow.
How will you use your Magical Secrets? If you choose Lore Bard you will get two more Magical Secrets spells. Good Luck. Hey, maybe you need the Lucky Feat?
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
yeah I prbly will get lucky, along with resilient con.
As for my magical secrets, I will most likely get fireball and counterspell at 6th level, Wall of force and banishment at 10th, disintigrate and something else at 14, and Wish and shapechange at 18th. I think shapechange will be good because I could shift into the tankiest cr 20 in existence and then cast my spells still. Of course, with bard, that may not be as effective. It also prevents me from using True polymorph any time in the fight
Instead of trying to win a spellcasting fight you could go in another direction. Yuan-Ti or Satyr with 6 levels of paladin will have you quite resilient to spells and give you more ability to simply slap them to death with your weapon.
Well as far as I can tell it will all come down to initiative, since you will both be high enough to probably insta-kill the other. So do you want to make sure you have the highest initiative bonus?
Assuming you win the initiative roll, cast a spell that suspends their ability to act as a PC, like polymorph him into a snail or something. Cast other spells to dress the battlefield the way you want and then "kill the snail." This will bring the Bard back to life, with a few less HP than his max. Now, with the battlefield set up the way you want and with you having the initiative, you should be able to finish him off in one blow.
How will you use your Magical Secrets? If you choose Lore Bard you will get two more Magical Secrets spells. Good Luck. Hey, maybe you need the Lucky Feat?
Polymorph would work really well with my interpretation of spells like disintegrate.
I'd set aside min-maxing and just make the badass punk rock bard your party wants, and then charm your way into their hearts. And maybe into the hearts of a small army of tavern goers who can break the other bard's legs for you. That is how barding is done.
But if you really just want to win this one fight though, the most OP option would be Lore Bard and picking up "Conjure Animals" at level 6. A level 6 Bard would be lucky to survive a singe round against 8 wolves or elk, let alone winning a fight against them. Race, feats, stats, etc. are all secondary to that.
(mostly tongue firmly in cheek) I'll suggest a more out of the box approach to winning with a college of whipsers bard, max out the performance skill with expertise just in case a roll is needed.
Now picture, if you would be so kind, a wind swept stage, the audiance wait with baited breath. Your opponent stands ready and waiting with song in heart and spell and sword ready. You....go on holiday. In your place a troupe of actors enter and perform a scathing comedy that you have written about your rival which trivalises their entire family line, ridicules their bardic ability and poses several questions about their prowess in other areas (notably the bedroom). At the end of the play the leader of the actors hands your opponent a scroll which, when opened, activates a magic mouth spell that blows a loud and continous raspberry. In the mean time your bard also publishes the comedy in book/scroll format and distributes it where ever they travel ensuring that no matter where the other bard travels, word of their lack of ability in the bardic arts has preceeded them ensuring that you win as sometimes the pen..or quill...is indeed mightier than the sword or spell.
This does however mean you have to take the high road and play something else but it will take the other player by surprise.
Make sure you pick metamagic adept for subtle spell so you will be able to cast 2 spells that can't be counterspelled. Unless your opponent does the same, i think it will be hard to come back from that.
I'd set aside min-maxing and just make the badass punk rock bard your party wants, and then charm your way into their hearts. And maybe into the hearts of a small army of tavern goers who can break the other bard's legs for you. That is how barding is done.
But if you really just want to win this one fight though, the most OP option would be Lore Bard and picking up "Conjure Animals" at level 6. A level 6 Bard would be lucky to survive a singe round against 8 wolves or elk, let alone winning a fight against them. Race, feats, stats, etc. are all secondary to that.
Here's the problem with that. When you cast conjure animals, not only does the DM pick the animals (and you may end up with something less useful than wolves) but they have to roll initiative. If the other bard gets to go before your animals, they can just hit you with magic missiles.
TLDR: Do everything you can to go first in combat. On your turn, do whatever you can to hit your opponent with Feeblemind. At that point, it's game over.
On a failed save, the creature's Intelligence and Charisma scores become 1. The creature can't cast spells, activate magic items, understand language, or communicate in any intelligible way. The creature can, however, identify its friends, follow them, and even protect them.
At the end of every 30 days, the creature can repeat its saving throw against this spell. If it succeeds on its saving throw, the spell ends.
So yea, they are basically a sitting duck if they fail this save. There is no way for them to get out of it.
You have to go 2 levels of divination wizard. Portent is too good to pass up. If you roll low, you can make that your opponent's saving throw. If you roll high, you can use that for initiative which will almost assuredly be the biggest factor. In fact, you should probably make dex your highest stat and take the alert feat.
2 levels of fighter for action surge. Take the metamagic adept feat with distant spell and careful spell.
If you get a low enough roll on your portent to make your opponent fail their save against feeblemind, the following is a fool-proof way to win (short of them countering your portent with their own portent, but they will likely have used their highest one for initiative). If the DM doesn't let you do any pre-fight casting/true polymorph/simulacrum shenanigans then some of this is unnecessary.
1) Win initiative.
2) Make sure you know the positions of everything that can possibly counterspell you.
3) Use unsettling words on the target if you can get within 60 ft.
4) Cast dimension door with careful spell (puts you beyond distant spell counterspell range) and teleport to a spot 300 feet away from your target.
5) Action surge. Cast feeblemind on your target. Apply low portent. Win.
Edit: one thing that could get around this strategy is having legendary resistance if the other bard is allowed to shape change into a creature with LR before initiative.
Yeah, I don’t really buy that the GM gets to pick, since the spell provides examples for the spellcaster to peruse. And even if your GM rules it that way, they’d have to be a total jerk to give you 8 cr 0 creatures. And if you think they would do that, 4 cr 1/2 creatures would still crush a rival bard through sheer action economy.
if you are worried about magic missile, make con your top stat and take war caster or resilient con. Or take the shield spell through magic initiate.
I have read through the intervening posts and also recalled that we need to recognize the other bard will certainly Counterspell whenever they can, and of course you need to select that as a Magical Secrets spell for the same reason.
So if I may return to my initial scenario ...
I hope we all agree that obtaining the initiative is one of the requirements for this build.
Zoltar99 - I don't understand this remark ... "You have to go 2 levels of divination wizard. Portent is too good to pass up." Since a level 20 Bard gets all his Magical Secrets, why do they need to multi-class for this to work? I also don't know if multi-classing is allowed under the rules of this dual.
Second, you need a Charisma as high as possible, at least Charisma of 20.
If you don't win initiative, use Counterspell and good luck.
If you do win initiative, I think your best bet is to cast a spell that will effectively turn the other bard into a lump of clay that can't act as a PC and cast spells, which is why I thought turning him into a snail or something works best, but this can be Counterspelled, so you need a plan B or C.
What I am trying to figure out is how can we deal damage as a bonus action in case our Action fails. We would be using our Action to cast spells, and keeping our reaction to cast Counterspell. So we only have a Bonus Action left. Now several spells allow you to attack as a Bonus Action. One of the ones that comes to mind is Spiritual Weapon, a Cleric Spell that we can pick up with our magical secrets. Would the other Bard allow us to cast Spiritual Weapon without casting Counterspell on us? There is a good chance they might. However, once they see what we are up to, they might use their action on a subsequent turn to cast Dispell Magic.
Another angle to look at is the fact that Counterspell requires the opponent can see you and has a maximum range of 60 feet. Can we come up with a plan that defeats Dispell Magic and Counterspell using the limitations of those spells? Well, if the enemy can't see the magical effect of Spiritual Weapon, or whatever similar spell we choose to use our Bonus Action for, then we can get at least one round of attack against them at some point.
Another thought of mine is to goad him into using his reaction. If you were to run to him and try to stick him with your rapier, he could take a few points of damage. But on the next turn run away from him and see if he uses his reaction to try to attack you as you leave combat range. If he uses his reaction to do this, Bam! you got him. You can take the damage of one round of his rapier or longsword or whatever. But now that he has lost his reaction, we're back to Polymorph. Now you got him. Once he is a snail he has lost his own power to cast spells. You can build a big fire, pick him up and throw him in or something.
In this build, are you able to name magic items, weapons and stuff, to set yourself up for the final battle? If so, you need to think about the possibility that your own spell slots might be used up. How can you extend your spell casting abilities? Well a wand, staff, ring, rod or anything else that has spell like powers might do the trick. So ask about that.
Next, I found Find Greater Steed to be a great spell. I wouldn't take it for a "Real" Bard build, but for this it might be a good spell. You can summon a steed that has real combat powers, like a griffon. If so, the Griffon might get it's own turn and be able to attack the enemy bard for you, leaving your actions, bonus actions and reactions open for you.
I've never tried to seriously build a Bard for PvP action, and I hope I never have to. But there should be some good thoughts here for you to fight a Bard with a Bard. Good luck.
Divination wizard just for portent. It has nothing to do with getting certain spells. The two most important things for you are winning initiative and making sure that your target fails the saving throw against Feeblemind. Portent gives you two d20's that allow you to bypass RNG. I would count on the enemy having some sort of magic resistance if they know what they're doing (gnome or yuan-ti).
The only spells you really need are counterspell and Feeblemind.
You can't count on being able to counterspell your opponent because of subtle spell. They can take the feat and have two uses of subtle spell.
Getting a charisma of 20 is far less important that winning initiative (alert feat) and being able to cast without being counterspelled (metamagic adept- subtle spell).
If you do win initiative, I think your best bet is to cast a spell that will effectively turn the other bard into a lump of clay that can't act as a PC and cast spells, which is why I thought turning him into a snail or something works best, but this can be Counterspelled, so you need a plan B or C.
What I am trying to figure out is how can we deal damage as a bonus action in case our Action fails. We would be using our Action to cast spells, and keeping our reaction to cast Counterspell. So we only have a Bonus Action left. Now several spells allow you to attack as a Bonus Action. One of the ones that comes to mind is Spiritual Weapon, a Cleric Spell that we can pick up with our magical secrets. Would the other Bard allow us to cast Spiritual Weapon without casting Counterspell on us? There is a good chance they might. However, once they see what we are up to, they might use their action on a subsequent turn to cast Dispell Magic.
Another angle to look at is the fact that Counterspell requires the opponent can see you and has a maximum range of 60 feet. Can we come up with a plan that defeats Dispell Magic and Counterspell using the limitations of those spells? Well, if the enemy can't see the magical effect of Spiritual Weapon, or whatever similar spell we choose to use our Bonus Action for, then we can get at least one round of attack against them at some point.
Another thought of mine is to goad him into using his reaction. If you were to run to him and try to stick him with your rapier, he could take a few points of damage. But on the next turn run away from him and see if he uses his reaction to try to attack you as you leave combat range. If he uses his reaction to do this, Bam! you got him. You can take the damage of one round of his rapier or longsword or whatever. But now that he has lost his reaction, we're back to Polymorph. Now you got him. Once he is a snail he has lost his own power to cast spells. You can build a big fire, pick him up and throw him in or something.
In this build, are you able to name magic items, weapons and stuff, to set yourself up for the final battle? If so, you need to think about the possibility that your own spell slots might be used up. How can you extend your spell casting abilities? Well a wand, staff, ring, rod or anything else that has spell like powers might do the trick. So ask about that.
Next, I found Find Greater Steed to be a great spell. I wouldn't take it for a "Real" Bard build, but for this it might be a good spell. You can summon a steed that has real combat powers, like a griffon. If so, the Griffon might get it's own turn and be able to attack the enemy bard for you, leaving your actions, bonus actions and reactions open for you.
I've never tried to seriously build a Bard for PvP action, and I hope I never have to. But there should be some good thoughts here for you to fight a Bard with a Bard. Good luck.
As I said in my first post, Feeblemind is what you need. It prevents the target from casting any spells and sets their INT and CHA to 1. It's not concentration and they don't get a save to get out of it for 30 days, so there is no realistic way for them to get out of it unless a third party casts greater restoration/heal/wish on them (or if they somehow took Contingency as a magical secret and used one of those as their contingency spell). It's also an INT save, which they probably won't be great at. They will be completely helpless unless they have already cast something like Shapechange to turn into a dragon (which is also a problem because of legendary saves).
If you are able to Feeblemind them, then killing them is a simple matter. You could cast greater invisibility and viscous mockery them to death. In fact, that would probably be my solution lol.
Counterspell has a 60 ft range, but distant spell exists. With the metamagic feat, they could use both sorcery points to double the range then double again, getting up to 240 ft range. Or up to 120 ft and while preventing you from counterspelling their counterspell by doing distant spell and subtle spell.
If your target has somehow used shapechange to turn into a dragon, I would suggest using dispel magic as a 9th level cast. The 3 legendary resistances are going to be too much of a problem. 9th level dispel wipes it out.
Ok so I joined a D&D party today, and as the players were saying the race/classes they were, I noticed, that I wasn't the only bard in the group. There was another.
We all wanted a good party composition, so having two bards just wouldn't cut it. So we decided we will each create a bard to have a bard face-off at the beginning of the next campaign. A fight to the death between two musicians.
I am pretty good at optimizing (or Min/Maxing, for those of you who haven't mastered the art), but It would appear that the player of the other bard is also just as good at optimizing as I am.
It was at that moment that I new: I needed to ask the professional bard fans for the most insane, broken, deadly, purely unfair bard build that they could find. I want a combination of a race, a class(Bard, and maybe one or two others), and carefully chosen feats and ASI's to create a bard that can kill a bard.
Some things to note:
So What is the best build you can find? Go get'm bard fans!
(Thanks in advance :-)
Swords bard is probably good, maybe a few levels in battle master?
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
What level will the bards be in this death match? Are you then using the build you fight with in the campaign? Or is this just a fight to win the rights to play a bard?
... and is this a real fight, or just a "contest" so that performance might be important?
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
lv 20. I should have said that , sry.
An actual fight, we're going out of our way to do before the session starts. The DM is setting up the scene, however.
The best thing I got was this: Lore bard 18/ Dragon Sorcerer 2.
The trick was for if he true polymorphs into an ancient gold dragon, I persuade him to kill himself.
If I have maxed out charisma and persuasion expertise, that's a +17 bonus. add a bardic inspiration die, and I get an additional 6.5 on average. All with advantage because of the dragon sorcerer abilities.
this averages a roll of 40 against his insight. Even if he picks lore bard, he won't be able to use any of his bard abilities, so he would be rolling like an ancient gold dragon would.
Well as far as I can tell it will all come down to initiative, since you will both be high enough to probably insta-kill the other. So do you want to make sure you have the highest initiative bonus?
Assuming you win the initiative roll, cast a spell that suspends their ability to act as a PC, like polymorph him into a snail or something. Cast other spells to dress the battlefield the way you want and then "kill the snail." This will bring the Bard back to life, with a few less HP than his max. Now, with the battlefield set up the way you want and with you having the initiative, you should be able to finish him off in one blow.
How will you use your Magical Secrets? If you choose Lore Bard you will get two more Magical Secrets spells. Good Luck. Hey, maybe you need the Lucky Feat?
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
yeah I prbly will get lucky, along with resilient con.
As for my magical secrets, I will most likely get fireball and counterspell at 6th level, Wall of force and banishment at 10th, disintigrate and something else at 14, and Wish and shapechange at 18th. I think shapechange will be good because I could shift into the tankiest cr 20 in existence and then cast my spells still. Of course, with bard, that may not be as effective. It also prevents me from using True polymorph any time in the fight
Instead of trying to win a spellcasting fight you could go in another direction. Yuan-Ti or Satyr with 6 levels of paladin will have you quite resilient to spells and give you more ability to simply slap them to death with your weapon.
Polymorph would work really well with my interpretation of spells like disintegrate.
I have a weird sense of humor.
I also make maps.(That's a link)
I'd set aside min-maxing and just make the badass punk rock bard your party wants, and then charm your way into their hearts. And maybe into the hearts of a small army of tavern goers who can break the other bard's legs for you. That is how barding is done.
But if you really just want to win this one fight though, the most OP option would be Lore Bard and picking up "Conjure Animals" at level 6. A level 6 Bard would be lucky to survive a singe round against 8 wolves or elk, let alone winning a fight against them. Race, feats, stats, etc. are all secondary to that.
(mostly tongue firmly in cheek) I'll suggest a more out of the box approach to winning with a college of whipsers bard, max out the performance skill with expertise just in case a roll is needed.
Now picture, if you would be so kind, a wind swept stage, the audiance wait with baited breath. Your opponent stands ready and waiting with song in heart and spell and sword ready. You....go on holiday. In your place a troupe of actors enter and perform a scathing comedy that you have written about your rival which trivalises their entire family line, ridicules their bardic ability and poses several questions about their prowess in other areas (notably the bedroom). At the end of the play the leader of the actors hands your opponent a scroll which, when opened, activates a magic mouth spell that blows a loud and continous raspberry. In the mean time your bard also publishes the comedy in book/scroll format and distributes it where ever they travel ensuring that no matter where the other bard travels, word of their lack of ability in the bardic arts has preceeded them ensuring that you win as sometimes the pen..or quill...is indeed mightier than the sword or spell.
This does however mean you have to take the high road and play something else but it will take the other player by surprise.
Make sure you pick metamagic adept for subtle spell so you will be able to cast 2 spells that can't be counterspelled. Unless your opponent does the same, i think it will be hard to come back from that.
Here's the problem with that. When you cast conjure animals, not only does the DM pick the animals (and you may end up with something less useful than wolves) but they have to roll initiative. If the other bard gets to go before your animals, they can just hit you with magic missiles.
Ok here is mine.
TLDR: Do everything you can to go first in combat. On your turn, do whatever you can to hit your opponent with Feeblemind. At that point, it's game over.
So yea, they are basically a sitting duck if they fail this save. There is no way for them to get out of it.
You have to go 2 levels of divination wizard. Portent is too good to pass up. If you roll low, you can make that your opponent's saving throw. If you roll high, you can use that for initiative which will almost assuredly be the biggest factor. In fact, you should probably make dex your highest stat and take the alert feat.
2 levels of fighter for action surge. Take the metamagic adept feat with distant spell and careful spell.
If you get a low enough roll on your portent to make your opponent fail their save against feeblemind, the following is a fool-proof way to win (short of them countering your portent with their own portent, but they will likely have used their highest one for initiative). If the DM doesn't let you do any pre-fight casting/true polymorph/simulacrum shenanigans then some of this is unnecessary.
1) Win initiative.
2) Make sure you know the positions of everything that can possibly counterspell you.
3) Use unsettling words on the target if you can get within 60 ft.
4) Cast dimension door with careful spell (puts you beyond distant spell counterspell range) and teleport to a spot 300 feet away from your target.
5) Action surge. Cast feeblemind on your target. Apply low portent. Win.
Edit: one thing that could get around this strategy is having legendary resistance if the other bard is allowed to shape change into a creature with LR before initiative.
Yeah, I don’t really buy that the GM gets to pick, since the spell provides examples for the spellcaster to peruse. And even if your GM rules it that way, they’d have to be a total jerk to give you 8 cr 0 creatures. And if you think they would do that, 4 cr 1/2 creatures would still crush a rival bard through sheer action economy.
if you are worried about magic missile, make con your top stat and take war caster or resilient con. Or take the shield spell through magic initiate.
I have read through the intervening posts and also recalled that we need to recognize the other bard will certainly Counterspell whenever they can, and of course you need to select that as a Magical Secrets spell for the same reason.
So if I may return to my initial scenario ...
I hope we all agree that obtaining the initiative is one of the requirements for this build.
Zoltar99 - I don't understand this remark ... "You have to go 2 levels of divination wizard. Portent is too good to pass up." Since a level 20 Bard gets all his Magical Secrets, why do they need to multi-class for this to work? I also don't know if multi-classing is allowed under the rules of this dual.
Second, you need a Charisma as high as possible, at least Charisma of 20.
If you don't win initiative, use Counterspell and good luck.
If you do win initiative, I think your best bet is to cast a spell that will effectively turn the other bard into a lump of clay that can't act as a PC and cast spells, which is why I thought turning him into a snail or something works best, but this can be Counterspelled, so you need a plan B or C.
What I am trying to figure out is how can we deal damage as a bonus action in case our Action fails. We would be using our Action to cast spells, and keeping our reaction to cast Counterspell. So we only have a Bonus Action left. Now several spells allow you to attack as a Bonus Action. One of the ones that comes to mind is Spiritual Weapon, a Cleric Spell that we can pick up with our magical secrets. Would the other Bard allow us to cast Spiritual Weapon without casting Counterspell on us? There is a good chance they might. However, once they see what we are up to, they might use their action on a subsequent turn to cast Dispell Magic.
Another angle to look at is the fact that Counterspell requires the opponent can see you and has a maximum range of 60 feet. Can we come up with a plan that defeats Dispell Magic and Counterspell using the limitations of those spells? Well, if the enemy can't see the magical effect of Spiritual Weapon, or whatever similar spell we choose to use our Bonus Action for, then we can get at least one round of attack against them at some point.
Another thought of mine is to goad him into using his reaction. If you were to run to him and try to stick him with your rapier, he could take a few points of damage. But on the next turn run away from him and see if he uses his reaction to try to attack you as you leave combat range. If he uses his reaction to do this, Bam! you got him. You can take the damage of one round of his rapier or longsword or whatever. But now that he has lost his reaction, we're back to Polymorph. Now you got him. Once he is a snail he has lost his own power to cast spells. You can build a big fire, pick him up and throw him in or something.
In this build, are you able to name magic items, weapons and stuff, to set yourself up for the final battle? If so, you need to think about the possibility that your own spell slots might be used up. How can you extend your spell casting abilities? Well a wand, staff, ring, rod or anything else that has spell like powers might do the trick. So ask about that.
Next, I found Find Greater Steed to be a great spell. I wouldn't take it for a "Real" Bard build, but for this it might be a good spell. You can summon a steed that has real combat powers, like a griffon. If so, the Griffon might get it's own turn and be able to attack the enemy bard for you, leaving your actions, bonus actions and reactions open for you.
I've never tried to seriously build a Bard for PvP action, and I hope I never have to. But there should be some good thoughts here for you to fight a Bard with a Bard. Good luck.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Divination wizard just for portent. It has nothing to do with getting certain spells. The two most important things for you are winning initiative and making sure that your target fails the saving throw against Feeblemind. Portent gives you two d20's that allow you to bypass RNG. I would count on the enemy having some sort of magic resistance if they know what they're doing (gnome or yuan-ti).
The only spells you really need are counterspell and Feeblemind.
You can't count on being able to counterspell your opponent because of subtle spell. They can take the feat and have two uses of subtle spell.
Getting a charisma of 20 is far less important that winning initiative (alert feat) and being able to cast without being counterspelled (metamagic adept- subtle spell).
As I said in my first post, Feeblemind is what you need. It prevents the target from casting any spells and sets their INT and CHA to 1. It's not concentration and they don't get a save to get out of it for 30 days, so there is no realistic way for them to get out of it unless a third party casts greater restoration/heal/wish on them (or if they somehow took Contingency as a magical secret and used one of those as their contingency spell). It's also an INT save, which they probably won't be great at. They will be completely helpless unless they have already cast something like Shapechange to turn into a dragon (which is also a problem because of legendary saves).
If you are able to Feeblemind them, then killing them is a simple matter. You could cast greater invisibility and viscous mockery them to death. In fact, that would probably be my solution lol.
Counterspell has a 60 ft range, but distant spell exists. With the metamagic feat, they could use both sorcery points to double the range then double again, getting up to 240 ft range. Or up to 120 ft and while preventing you from counterspelling their counterspell by doing distant spell and subtle spell.
If your target has somehow used shapechange to turn into a dragon, I would suggest using dispel magic as a 9th level cast. The 3 legendary resistances are going to be too much of a problem. 9th level dispel wipes it out.