I may be mistaken, but wouldn't the magic item be the material component in the same way a spellcasting focus counts as a material component.

I think one of the main problems I see other people have it is the pointlessness of it. The target does not lose a spell slot, but you do. You delay the casting by one round, so unless your team can do enough damage to the enemy caster in that round or the caster is about to kill a team mate and you need to give the others time to force feed them a potion or have the cleric heal them, it seems like a waste of a spell slot or a known/prepared spell.

I personally disagree with the "a 3rd level spell can cancel out a 9th level spell" discourse because that was a thing that you could do with the old counterspell anyways, but I do agree with the problem of it not losing that spell slot, because the archmage may still power word kill a party member a round later. If it is going to be a saving throw, and thus introduce a chance of failure, either allow upscaling to increase the DC that the enemy spellcaster has to clear, or a least have it waste the spell slot so it can feel like you are doing more than just staling them.

It can still be useful, don't get me wrong. If you are fighting one powerful lich for example, you completely waste the lich's turn, essentially giving your party members an extra free turn which can turn the tables in a fight, but because their is a chance for failure now, maybe have it that a spell slot is wasted on the enemey side, or if you fail, you don't expend a spell slot

Quote from ITakeNoBigL5 >>

I think one of the main problems I see other people have it is the pointlessness of it. The target does not lose a spell slot, but you do. You delay the casting by one round, so unless your team can do enough damage to the enemy caster in that round or the caster is about to kill a team mate and you need to give the others time to force feed them a potion or have the cleric heal them, it seems like a waste of a spell slot or a known/prepared spell.

It's worth pointing out, again, that in 2024 rules generally only player characters have spell slots; monsters generally do not. They have lists of spells they can cast a specific number of times per day, and unlike spell slots, those usages are expended if Counterspell is used against them.

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If they fail i'll still have them lose the spell. Its also still an instantaneous reaction so you can counter spell a counter spell. If you are casting a 9th level spell and dont also have a counter spell somewhere to then force them to make a save too then thats kinda on you. 

can a 5th level wizard cancel a 20th level caster's spell? Sure. But when the 20th level caster makes you save to even cast that counter at a much higher dc it is a lot less likely.

You will no longer be able to cast Counterspell to counter someone who is trying to Counterspell a leveled spell you are trying to cast. (Only monsters will be able to that to you!)

On a turn, you can expend only one spell slot to cast a spell.

 

 That I missed and it is damn big change too!

no, because Counterspell is a reaction which means you CAN counter a Counterspell because you are using a Reaction and not an Action.

Quote from trotdawg2k >>

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If they fail i'll still have them lose the spell. Its also still an instantaneous reaction so you can counter spell a counter spell. If you are casting a 9th level spell and dont also have a counter spell somewhere to then force them to make a save too then thats kinda on you. 

can a 5th level wizard cancel a 20th level caster's spell? Sure. But when the 20th level caster makes you save to even cast that counter at a much higher dc it is a lot less likely.

You will no longer be able to cast Counterspell to counter someone who is trying to Counterspell a leveled spell you are trying to cast. (Only monsters will be able to that to you!)

On a turn, you can expend only one spell slot to cast a spell.

 

 That I missed and it is damn big change too!

no, because Counterspell is a reaction which means you CAN counter a Counterspell because you are using a Reaction and not an Action.

No, they're correct. The fact that it's a reaction is not relevant.

The 2024 rules say that you can only cast one spell using a spell slot on a turn. Whether it's an action, bonus action, or reaction is irrelevant; you can only cast one spell with a spell slot per turn. This means that if you use a spell slot to cast a spell, and someone else Counterspells it, you can't then use your reaction to Counterspell their Counterspell, unless you have a way to cast Counterspell without using a spell slot.

You are over interpreting the spell. No where in the wording does it imply it only works if only one of those triggering effects are present but no additional effects. Not sure where you got that from. The implication of "Verbal, Somatic, or Material components." implies if any or all are present. 

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

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I think one of the main problems I see other people have it is the pointlessness of it. The target does not lose a spell slot, but you do. You delay the casting by one round, so unless your team can do enough damage to the enemy caster in that round or the caster is about to kill a team mate and you need to give the others time to force feed them a potion or have the cleric heal them, it seems like a waste of a spell slot or a known/prepared spell.

It's worth pointing out, again, that in 2024 rules generally only player characters have spell slots; monsters generally do not. They have lists of spells they can cast a specific number of times per day, and unlike spell slots, those usages are expended if Counterspell is used against them.

Is there confirmation that monsters still lose their per-day use if they are counterspelled?  I feel like that is a potentially MASSIVE gimp for them and can really ruin what should be a great BBG encounter if they happen to fail one or two saves.  Would like to see Sage Advice or MM reference about this specific thing if there is one.

or implies that any or all takes effect.

Quote from sethtucker1 >>

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Quote from ITakeNoBigL5 >>

I think one of the main problems I see other people have it is the pointlessness of it. The target does not lose a spell slot, but you do. You delay the casting by one round, so unless your team can do enough damage to the enemy caster in that round or the caster is about to kill a team mate and you need to give the others time to force feed them a potion or have the cleric heal them, it seems like a waste of a spell slot or a known/prepared spell.

It's worth pointing out, again, that in 2024 rules generally only player characters have spell slots; monsters generally do not. They have lists of spells they can cast a specific number of times per day, and unlike spell slots, those usages are expended if Counterspell is used against them.

Is there confirmation that monsters still lose their per-day use if they are counterspelled?  I feel like that is a potentially MASSIVE gimp for them and can really ruin what should be a great BBG encounter if they happen to fail one or two saves.  Would like to see Sage Advice or MM reference about this specific thing if there is one.

I don't think so, but it's implied by the fact that this spell explicitly refers to spell slots not being consumed, in contrast to other effects saying things like "resources used to cast the spell". This is not a new thing; it's the spell slots not being consumed that's new in the 2024 version.

This new version is awful. It removes agency from the person using counterspell to decide to burn a higher spell slot or trust the dice. More often than not, it doesn't work at all. 

Except it’s not up to you. Your stats don’t matter, just the saving throw of the monster. And it’s con, so he’s probably gonna make it.

My homebrew idea which takes a bit of the new and a bit of the old let me know what you think:

You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell which involves either V,S or M components. make an ability check using your spellcasting ability (DC is 10 plus the level of the spell at which it was cast) if you succeed the spell dissipates with no effect, and the action, Bonus Action, or Reaction used to cast it is wasted. If that spell was cast with a spell slot, the slot isn’t expended.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. you add a +1 to the ability check for every level you cast it above level 3 

My thought process was that i like the idea that there are no more auto cancels so that stays. but the idea of making a CON saving throw is BS bc. most enemies have really high CON Score, CON save proficiency, advantage on CON save or even better legendary resistances so the chance of pulling of a successful Counterspell are pretty slim. and even then the payoff isn't even that great bc. the spell slot isn't lost, so your enemy can just try again until they succeed or you burned all your spell slots Counterspelling. but in general i like the idea of not losing the spell slot so all your 1st,2nd and 3rd level spell slots don't go down the drain bc. they get auto cancelled. next thing i don't like is that there is no reason to upcast this but to be fair the old version imo wasn't perfect either bc. if you didn't meet or exceed  the level of the spell you were trying to counter that upcasting was for nothing and you could have just cast it at 3rd level and saved your 5th level slot bc. that particular Fireball was cast at 6th level. so in this version you still get something out of upcasting even if you didn't meet the spell level. also if a particular spell is cast at a level you don't have access to there is still reason for you to upcast it to improve your chances of countering it E.g BBEG casts Meteor Swarm (9th) so the DC is 19. you for some reason don't have 9th level spell slots in the old version you would just cast it at 3rd and hope for good roll. with this version you can decide to cast it at 8th to to get plus 5(bc. 8th is 5 levels above 3rd) to your ability check on top of your spell modifier.