I am a bit confused by the mechanics of the spell. On a failed wisdom save the spell forces a creature to use its reaction to move, if available. I assume it can be counterspelled, though in this case it would seem to be a suboptimal choice for use against casters. However, I guess burning a first level spell and an action to force a counterspell would be better than casting disintegrate and doing the same.
Counterspell requires the counter-caster to be able to see the caster of the original spell, meanwhile dissonant whispers only requires the target to hear you, so if you can get into a situation where you can see the target and it can't see (but can hear) you then it can't counter-spell.
But in general yeah, they could counter-spell this using their reaction, because the spell hasn't taken effect yet; but unless you upcast dissonant whispers they'd be burning a 3rd-level spell slot to stop a 1st-level spell, so it's a costly thing to do.
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The trigger for Counterspell is seeing a creature casting a spell within 60'.
If you see a creature casting Dissonant Whispers within 60' of you then you can counterspell it.
Dissonant Whispers only requires that the target be able to hear you. It does not require you to be able to see your target. However, the general spell casting rules require a clear path to the target.
"To target something, you must have a clear path to it, so it can’t be behind total cover."
This means that you can't cast Dissonant Whispers from around a corner or behind total cover since there is no clear path to the target.
On the other hand, if the casters were standing in the dark and could not see each other then one could cast Dissonant Whispers (since it only requires the target to hear it), there is a clear path to the target since they aren't behind total cover, but the other caster could not counterspell it because they can't see the caster who is casting Dissonant Whispers.
I am a bit confused by the mechanics of the spell. On a failed wisdom save the spell forces a creature to use its reaction to move, if available. I assume it can be counterspelled, though in this case it would seem to be a suboptimal choice for use against casters. However, I guess burning a first level spell and an action to force a counterspell would be better than casting disintegrate and doing the same.
Counterspell requires the counter-caster to be able to see the caster of the original spell, meanwhile dissonant whispers only requires the target to hear you, so if you can get into a situation where you can see the target and it can't see (but can hear) you then it can't counter-spell.
But in general yeah, they could counter-spell this using their reaction, because the spell hasn't taken effect yet; but unless you upcast dissonant whispers they'd be burning a 3rd-level spell slot to stop a 1st-level spell, so it's a costly thing to do.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I agree with Haravikk dissonant whispers can be Counterspell
The trigger for Counterspell is seeing a creature casting a spell within 60'.
If you see a creature casting Dissonant Whispers within 60' of you then you can counterspell it.
Dissonant Whispers only requires that the target be able to hear you. It does not require you to be able to see your target. However, the general spell casting rules require a clear path to the target.
"To target something, you must have a clear path to it, so it can’t be behind total cover."
This means that you can't cast Dissonant Whispers from around a corner or behind total cover since there is no clear path to the target.
On the other hand, if the casters were standing in the dark and could not see each other then one could cast Dissonant Whispers (since it only requires the target to hear it), there is a clear path to the target since they aren't behind total cover, but the other caster could not counterspell it because they can't see the caster who is casting Dissonant Whispers.
Thanks for the responses and confirming my suspicion.