I can imagine it now Scanlan looks at vaxs the force around vecna blowing and lighting his face. Vax looks at scanlan confused Scanlan in tears mouths "I'm sorry" Looks at a teleporting vecna and sings his song with the pain of what hes doing behind it His purple arcane notes pulse towards vecna as it dissipates Scanlan falls to his knees .vax watching this happen with not a word spoken smiles and nods knowing that scanlan wanted to save him
I just imagined that scene of sticth laughing with destruction on the background from that "send me the nicest angel you have" meme, but it's Scalan on top of the burning mansion
That's why I'm not a fan of counterspell. It's just way to _boring._ And way to powerful at low levels imo. If you *always* had to roll for it I'd be happier, but even then it's so bland.
WufeiLord One game with my group we had a 3 way counterspell. Enemy cast spell. Bard counterspelled. Enemy counterspelled back. Warlock counterspelled back again.
I almost feel bad for Vecna. Imagine, you're a boss-ass wizard, on the verge of godhood, and who stops you? Another epic level wizard? A powerful cleric? Nope. Some piece-of-shit with a f*cking flute.
Oooh. Do not like this take. Scanlan/Burt Reynolds is no PoS. He is a bard that has learned to use his music to twist, weave, and warp the skein of magic. He is, at this point, epic level. All of those counterspells were earned. He has experience using his abilities to disrupt spell casters. A lich who wants to be a god, but is not one yet, needs to put more underlings between itself and epic heroes. Because you can leave when Burt Reynolds tells you you can leave.
@@FinnMcRiangabra i think you're looking to much into that guys "bad take" cause honestly... it is a good take. Scanlan may have earned his status, but against Vecna? he is a piece of shit with a flute.
Matt’s face at the 9th level counter-spell is amazing. He’s so shocked and surprised, and a little devastated because he knows this meets the end game in numerous ways
Spoilers......... Watch the matt colville on the finale and scanlan and sams counterspell, matt knew that scanlan was saving a wish spell to save liam, thats why he went oh shit
@Aidan Hall You're not wrong, but imagine a battlefield where casters would sling spells without risk of failure. The existence of counterspell helps balance spellcasting in a very important way.
@Aidan Hall I mean, I can't exactly hate on counterspell itself, or the casters that use it. It's a valid use of resources. Sure, DMs might get annoyed when their big spell gets shut down, but proper encounter planning should remedy that.
@@resdamalos I was so proud of having Shield ready to go when we went up against a mage, and when he cast magic missile at me, I was happy to cast Shield. DM: "But did you see it coming?" Me: "Uh, what?" DM: "It came from this direction, and you were looking over that way. Did you see it coming, so you even could react to it?" Me: Dang it! My DM and I have a fun time frustrating the heck out of my character with realistic stuff like that.
@@resdamalos tell that to WOTC because they are nerfing counter spell into the ground with new material. All enemies are starting to have a ton of "spell like abilities" that are just normal spells with a different name but with RAW they can't be counterspelled fireball was the first spell they gave this treatment.
@@brianhalligan9268 yep, my comment aged pretty badly I think. Five months ago this wasn't a problem, lol. That being said, it's not like every spell is going to be replaced with a spell-like ability, so there's still reason to have it in your kit
Can we talk about how at 7:17 Matt is smiling cause he thinks he's gonna get the teleport off since Scanlan already used his 8th level spell so he'd have to roll. Then his face drops when Sam says he's casting it at 9th level. Always gets me
To be fair, if he had wanted to gamble, it would have been reasonably safe. DC is 17, and Scanlan has a +6 charisma with Jack of all trades at a +3, so +9 equals a 65% success chance.
@@jonsimpson6240The question is: Do you really want to gamble the Chance of having a dark god of magic escape and come back as even more of a nightmare on a 65% roll?
That’s not why, Sam was saving that 9th level for wish to save vax and had talked to Matt about it before, Matt realizes that Scanlan gave up saving Vax to save the world, if you watch the VOD it brings Sam to tears
COUNTERSPELL 3rd.level abjuration Casting Time: I reaction, which you take when you see a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell Range: 60 feet Components: S Duration: Instantaneous Effect: Flippin' awesome!
@@_Nekonaut he rolled with disadvantage because he had 1 level of exhaustion from working through the whole night. And the "see a creature cast" part is likely RAI as " _percieve_ the creature cast" because otherwise spells that only have verbal components are not able to be countered at all Edit: in addition to that, Matt had Liam roll a perception check to discern if he was able to locate Avantika, which was enough. If she had been actually Invisible then he wouldn't have been able to counter her.
5:00 Can I just remind everyone of how brutal feeblemind is, assuming you don’t have the time or ability for someone to cast greater restoration on you? Let’s go over it’s effects again. It’s an intelligence save spell, where if you fail the save your intelligence and charisma become 1 (-5). You can repeat the save every 30 days. However, you’re repeating the save now with a -5 to the save, and the caster of feeblemind more than likely has a spell save above 15. You can’t crit on a saving throw. You are stuck like that PERMANENTLY assuming you don’t have proficiency in intelligence saves.
Well there's also bardic inspiration, but it's doubtful they would inspire you within 10 minutes (which is the duration) of you making the save unless they noted the time you were feebleminded. Although I see no such problems with a 5 charisma paladin with aura of protection.
@@thefiresworddragon927 I assume if they didn't switch from pathfinder he would have been way worse than seen on cr. 5e races don't really mean a lot and bards are a really good class.
@@Aloysius_OHare The biggest difference between a bard and wizard. Wizards are smart and rely on knowledge. Bards rely on their own creativity. That's what makes them dangerous
3:02 this sums up sam's usage of counterspell the entire vecna fight. the amount of PATIENCE you have to have to hold onto that counterspell, after the DM puts you through so much in an encounter, desperately trying to drain your spell slots and other resources. In mtg, an equivalent of holding onto a force of will until the last second
2:23 Sam is waiting the entire time KNOWING the counterspell is coming, you can see in his eyes he's just waiting for Matt to try it so he can shut it down with his own.
you can see taliesin realize it too. the moment he tries to get him to counterspell the attempt against pike, but he doesn't budge, and then they start to attempt to planeshift and that's when everything clicks into place
Counterspell is such a clutch spell that even Warlocks, with their limited spells known and spell slots, should take it. You may not always need it, but when you need it you NEED it.
You know I forgot Fjord had counterspell until just seeing this video. I wonder why he didn’t use it in the latest episode to help prevent some damage, but good thing Caleb remembered at a critical moment. Maybe Fjord didn’t want to use it just to stop a cantrip, or maybe forgot with all the craziness going on.
Every time they cast counterspell is amazing but why is no one talking about their reactions after 12:27 ? I love how Liam and Marisha hug Travis like that, it's so wholesome!
I love how they learned their lessons with VM and now more people have counterspell I mean If they can do crazy stuff with cupcakes, imagine what they'll do with this kinda thing
I can tell you have no no memory of anything from eps 1-18 and anything Orion related. Mainly cause I wasn’t note taking I was working on something while listening and I skipped Orion parts cause I felt second hand embarrassment.
Scanlan is the best at being sneaky about getting into spell range for Counterspell, he learned his lesson in the first fight against Vecna, this time he owns him. Vecna has to ask if his spells Resolve. 😉
I love at the moment where Scanlan chooses to cast the 9th level Counterspell instead of saving Vax, ever so quietly over everyone's cheers you can hear him say to Liam. "I was going to save Vax.." Defeated, he knows what comes next. Liam's reaction to that comment comes later in the episode, and I believe it makes it all the more painful for Vax to leave.
12:28 this is so funny. "do you have counterspell?" After scanlan shows the might of counterspell in campaign 1, we now have 2 people with counterspell
man its been two years and I watched the fight with Vecna live and i still found myself holding my breath and hanging off the edge of my seat re-watching those counter spells.
Imagine if Scanlan had cast Glibness on himself before the Vecna fight. Every Counterspell check he rolled would have been a minimum of 23, counterspelling any spell no matter the level. He could have saved his 9th level slot for that Wish he wanted for Vax. Oh well, it created a great story.
That's a slick idea, but I think he was limited to 6+ level spells against Vecna anyways, so spending an 8th level slot beforehand wouldn't help, he'd still run out.
i cannot believe the "9/Nein/Nine" thing started with Scanlan's most iconic action of sacrifice and defiance, like...... They were really meant to go through that journey, i guess
some people (usually DM's) dislike counterspell, but I really like it as both a player and a DM, the counterspell chains are really fun when you have 2 casters in the party and the bad guy also has counterspell. I remember distinctly a triple counterspell chain where the enemy tried to Polymorph to get away, our Sorcerer counterspelled, the enemy mage countercounterspelled, and our Wizard countercountercounterspelled. Gooood times
Yeah. Counterspell for leveled spells and guidance for cantrips are the best, unless you have a bunch of invocations on top of eldritch blast. Also, fun bard trick for a Vecna level combat: cast 8th level glibness beforehand. Even a 3rd level counterspell will automatically wipe out a 9th level spell for the whole combat if your Cha is 18+ (it makes your lowest roll on Cha checks 15, before adding your modifier).
That's a great plan generally, but should mention that Vecna in particular was unaffected by spells leveled 5 or less, so Scanlan would have run out of usable slots either way.
@@elbruces He succeed to Counterspell Vecna with a 3rd lvl spell. Probably that Matt ruled that his immunity didn't protect his spells to being countered
@@elbruces I think he was using globe of invulnerability to allow the immunity to spells 5th level and lower. So counter spells which dont target Vecna, but do target Vecnas spells are fair game
That spell is overused and really encouraged bad player behavior. There are some PCs that refuse to describe what spell they are casting when they become aware that the DM pilots a mage with counterspell. If you don't have a good relationship with your DM, this is a really good way to put you at odds
@@jonsimpson6240 I agree. It seems that DMs need a pocket caster in every encounter to balance the counterspelling. I like the spells ease of use compared to older editions, but I also wish it was a little less easy to use, if you know what I'm saying.
@@jonsimpson6240 if there's a daisy chain that broke the encounter, either the enemy have too many spell casters in the first place, or your spell was going to break the encounter anyways. A proper environment is a 1 for 1 on each side. This way, everyone can daisy chain the counterspell, playing a guessing game of what spell slot the enemy used or gamble, while also being possible that no spells gets countered at all.
@@FFXfever basically, there were enough enemies that could counterspell to remove the ability of the players to cast, even when the players were proactive about counterspelling. It was a tad frustrating.
In my campaign, to prevent everyone just using counterspell, if you counterspell a counterspell, it works, but at the point between the 2 mages a random effect from the wild magic table takes effect.
Counterspell is one of those spells that when the party takes it, the DM has to prepare accordingly. On the reverse, the DM really shouldn't have more then one character able to cast it per encounter, due to the insane chains that can result. If you get more then one countered counterspell, either the DM or the Party has invested too many resources. If nothing else, Campaign 1 highlighted how useful late-game Bards are as a support class. when given the right abilities.
Nigga what? If one enemy casts (for example) Teleport, the Bard counterspells, another enemy counterspells the Bard, then the Wizard should 100% counterspell the 2nd enemy. Not sure why you think that would be a waste, because it all depends on the situation and the original spell being cast
bruh i disagree, its hilarious thinking of 3 spell casters fighting, one casts a 9th level spell and then everyone counterspells everyone and just standing there. onlookers just saw 3 dudes walk over to each other and do weird things like throwing bat poo, muttering weird words and wiggle their fingers then just stand there out of breath
Liam saying "Counterspell" then rolling that well with disadvantage followed by what for lack of a better term is "coming to grips with the power of a GOD" is awesome.
Liam's first counter spell was my mood when playing CoS and I counterspelled Strahd's Cloud Kill and Fireball one right after the other (the DM homebrewed him a bit for our party since we were a bit of a large group for CoS)
Total MVP for that final fight Scanlan. Sam killed it and the fact he was devasted using the 9th level he was saving to use to save vax, was heartbreaking. What a player.
I love the one (not in this video) where Liam’s in the bathroom and there’s a case of bad guy tries to do something, Fjord (I think) counterspells, bad guy counterspells the counterspell and Sam’s like: ”Liam would totally have Caleb counterspell it if he were here”. Then Liam makes it back just in time and they all shout at him to ”Counterspell the counterspell of the counterspell!” and he barely misses a beat and does it. I wish I remembered which episode it was in…
[Extremely minor c2 spoilers ahead] Coming here to relive some of the glorious counterspell moments that led up to the most recent Counterspell of a counterspell of a counterspell of a spell.
Sam with that 9th level counterspell may be one of the most emotional moments of the campaign. Everyone cheering and him looking like his puppy died.
WAAAAH T_T CRYING EVERY SINGLE TIME
The saddest counterspell Ive ever seen
I can imagine it now
Scanlan looks at vaxs the force around vecna blowing and lighting his face.
Vax looks at scanlan confused
Scanlan in tears mouths "I'm sorry"
Looks at a teleporting vecna and sings his song with the pain of what hes doing behind it
His purple arcane notes pulse towards vecna as it dissipates
Scanlan falls to his knees
.vax watching this happen with not a word spoken smiles and nods knowing that scanlan wanted to save him
Poor Bixby
Theres an incredible story behind that.
Vecna: I am the most powerful being alive!
Scanlan Shorthall: *straight up laughter*
I just imagined that scene of sticth laughing with destruction on the background from that "send me the nicest angel you have" meme, but it's Scalan on top of the burning mansion
sixty nine likes, cannot disturb that, sorry. cool comment though
Scanlan Shorthalt: Hold my counterspell!
Matt: And suddenly this arcane magic-
Anyone: Counterspell.
Matt: *surprised Pikachu face*
That's why I'm not a fan of counterspell. It's just way to _boring._ And way to powerful at low levels imo.
If you *always* had to roll for it I'd be happier, but even then it's so bland.
@@TTTristan1 I fucking swear counter spell rolls never fucking fail
Boi if it wasn’t for counter spell my entire party would of been TPK
As we've seen in these clips, you can react to a counterspell BY counterspelling. It takes a reaction to use counterspell.
WufeiLord One game with my group we had a 3 way counterspell.
Enemy cast spell. Bard counterspelled. Enemy counterspelled back. Warlock counterspelled back again.
I appreciate how Marisha's reaction to a clutch counterspell is to whack the caster repeatedly
Marisha "Flying Elbows" Ray at it again
that's Marisha's reaction to basically anything.
@@sayethwe8683 Either that or to climb the furniture.
Liam's poor shoulder...
I didn't even realize it till now but yeah, almost every time
The second Sam got counterspell he freaking ascended
Forget Vecna the Ascended, it's Scanlan the Ascended
Exalted even.
I almost feel bad for Vecna. Imagine, you're a boss-ass wizard, on the verge of godhood, and who stops you? Another epic level wizard? A powerful cleric?
Nope.
Some piece-of-shit with a f*cking flute.
I’m fucking dead 💀
Vecna: "I have spent eons becoming the Greatest Magic User this world has ever seen!"
Scanlan: "Haha, Shawm goes toot"
Oooh. Do not like this take. Scanlan/Burt Reynolds is no PoS. He is a bard that has learned to use his music to twist, weave, and warp the skein of magic. He is, at this point, epic level. All of those counterspells were earned. He has experience using his abilities to disrupt spell casters. A lich who wants to be a god, but is not one yet, needs to put more underlings between itself and epic heroes. Because you can leave when Burt Reynolds tells you you can leave.
@@FinnMcRiangabra i think you're looking to much into that guys "bad take" cause honestly... it is a good take. Scanlan may have earned his status, but against Vecna? he is a piece of shit with a flute.
@Noob7Zilla I am not interested in Vecna's point of view. If you are, you are a fucking monster. What is your problem?
Matt’s face at the 9th level counter-spell is amazing. He’s so shocked and surprised, and a little devastated because he knows this meets the end game in numerous ways
Matt just gives that obvious "oh, shit," On his face, which will always be my favorite vox machina moment, it's perfect and terrifying
Spoilers.........
Watch the matt colville on the finale and scanlan and sams counterspell, matt knew that scanlan was saving a wish spell to save liam, thats why he went oh shit
It's almost over and well they in for a well revenge ain't it Matt?
Uno! Bingo!
@@artygunnar Matt has actually said he didn't know what Scanlan was planning, he was reacting to Sam's saving of his 9th level.
If I learned anything from XP to Level 3....it's that Dispell Magic, Counterspell and Fireball are the only spells one needs.
You should see part 3 of fireball
And identify
I’m switching my bard from College of Swords to Lore at 6th level just to get Counterspell
Jessica Freeland can you swap subclasses?
@AkiraWolf98 My DM is allowing it. My bard has become more of a ranged spell caster anyway and it fits his narrative
Scanlan Shorthalt : The Bane of Vecna
Vecna: So I-
Scanlan: No
Vecna: So instead I-
Scanlan: No
It is said in lore that Vecna is a keeper of ancient, lost, powerful secrets. Now he knows the greatest secret of them all.
Never mess with a bard.
The chad Bard of Dragonfisting vs the Virgin God of Secrets.
After my campaign I can never look at vecna again he went from a knife to the patron of my friend to a bird to a sprite and we just treat him as a pet
Anyone: Tries to cast magic
Scanlan Shorthalt: and I took that personally
The sheer manic thrill Liam gets after pulling off his first counterspell gives me purpose.
9:25 the unadulterated joy on liams face...breathtaking
Scanlan counterspells where legendary, but that counter spell from Caleb and Liam's reaction is just so... HOT!!!
Germanly: "SHE FEYLS!"
I love how much Matt loves to hate counter spell :) great video
@Aidan Hall You're not wrong, but imagine a battlefield where casters would sling spells without risk of failure. The existence of counterspell helps balance spellcasting in a very important way.
@Aidan Hall I mean, I can't exactly hate on counterspell itself, or the casters that use it. It's a valid use of resources. Sure, DMs might get annoyed when their big spell gets shut down, but proper encounter planning should remedy that.
@@resdamalos I was so proud of having Shield ready to go when we went up against a mage, and when he cast magic missile at me, I was happy to cast Shield.
DM: "But did you see it coming?"
Me: "Uh, what?"
DM: "It came from this direction, and you were looking over that way. Did you see it coming, so you even could react to it?"
Me: Dang it!
My DM and I have a fun time frustrating the heck out of my character with realistic stuff like that.
@@resdamalos tell that to WOTC because they are nerfing counter spell into the ground with new material. All enemies are starting to have a ton of "spell like abilities" that are just normal spells with a different name but with RAW they can't be counterspelled fireball was the first spell they gave this treatment.
@@brianhalligan9268 yep, my comment aged pretty badly I think. Five months ago this wasn't a problem, lol.
That being said, it's not like every spell is going to be replaced with a spell-like ability, so there's still reason to have it in your kit
Can we talk about how at 7:17 Matt is smiling cause he thinks he's gonna get the teleport off since Scanlan already used his 8th level spell so he'd have to roll. Then his face drops when Sam says he's casting it at 9th level. Always gets me
To be fair, if he had wanted to gamble, it would have been reasonably safe. DC is 17, and Scanlan has a +6 charisma with Jack of all trades at a +3, so +9 equals a 65% success chance.
@@jonsimpson6240The question is: Do you really want to gamble the Chance of having a dark god of magic escape and come back as even more of a nightmare on a 65% roll?
@@TheLaioElektrizzel I wouldn't. But I try to remove the chance of failure if possible.
That’s not why, Sam was saving that 9th level for wish to save vax and had talked to Matt about it before, Matt realizes that Scanlan gave up saving Vax to save the world, if you watch the VOD it brings Sam to tears
10:13 That high five Travis gave Liam looked and sounded so satisfying.
Liam didnt even look and that was clean and sharp af
when i was watching C2 and saw that i felt such an immeasurable amount of satisfaction and pride from that slap
Cleanest high five in recorded history occurred at a D&D table. Whodathunkit?
6:14 will still forever be the most sassy "I will counterspell" moment tho
That will forever be my favorite critical role moment frfr
6:35 his most infamous sass.
7:47 it's at this moment where everyone realizes that while they went there prepared to fight a god, Scanlan was prepared to fight two
Sam rolling that 20 on the 3rd level counterspell against Vecna... I could watch that a million times and it will still feel just as awesome.
COUNTERSPELL
3rd.level abjuration
Casting Time: I reaction, which you take when you see a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell
Range: 60 feet
Components: S
Duration: Instantaneous
Effect: Flippin' awesome!
"When you see a creature"
Caleb: I'm going to pretend I didn't see that
@@TheWorldBelowDnD "We all make mistakes in the heat of passion jimbo"
@@TheWorldBelowDnD I think that's why he rolled with disadvantage
@@_Nekonaut he rolled with disadvantage because he had 1 level of exhaustion from working through the whole night. And the "see a creature cast" part is likely RAI as " _percieve_ the creature cast" because otherwise spells that only have verbal components are not able to be countered at all
Edit: in addition to that, Matt had Liam roll a perception check to discern if he was able to locate Avantika, which was enough. If she had been actually Invisible then he wouldn't have been able to counter her.
5:00 Can I just remind everyone of how brutal feeblemind is, assuming you don’t have the time or ability for someone to cast greater restoration on you? Let’s go over it’s effects again. It’s an intelligence save spell, where if you fail the save your intelligence and charisma become 1 (-5). You can repeat the save every 30 days. However, you’re repeating the save now with a -5 to the save, and the caster of feeblemind more than likely has a spell save above 15. You can’t crit on a saving throw. You are stuck like that PERMANENTLY assuming you don’t have proficiency in intelligence saves.
I've never thought about that. Damn, brutal.
Well there's also bardic inspiration, but it's doubtful they would inspire you within 10 minutes (which is the duration) of you making the save unless they noted the time you were feebleminded. Although I see no such problems with a 5 charisma paladin with aura of protection.
@@VentStrike aura of protection has a minimum bonus of +0, so it wouldn't do anything although it'd be hilarious
@@Cannonmaster24 Sorry, meant +5 modifier lol
@@VentStrike ah right 😂😂, sorry for misunderstanding
6:41 Ashley running out of her chair is the BEST THING
Yes!!!
"THATS MY SCANLAN"
Oh I didn't notice that that's ADORABLE. thanks for it pointing it out!
Sam: "I want to make the worst character"
Also Sam: Clutch MVP of the entire campaign
Yeah, unironically made the worst combination of class and race.
@@thefiresworddragon927 I assume if they didn't switch from pathfinder he would have been way worse than seen on cr. 5e races don't really mean a lot and bards are a really good class.
@@treacle4617 Absolutely. Back when they started, bards were okay, but nowhere near this OP.
He bodied an entire building himself, it was legit just Scanlan being a badass
@@Aloysius_OHare The biggest difference between a bard and wizard. Wizards are smart and rely on knowledge. Bards rely on their own creativity. That's what makes them dangerous
3:02 this sums up sam's usage of counterspell the entire vecna fight. the amount of PATIENCE you have to have to hold onto that counterspell, after the DM puts you through so much in an encounter, desperately trying to drain your spell slots and other resources. In mtg, an equivalent of holding onto a force of will until the last second
The sheer, unbridled joy on Liam's face the first time he Counterspells. That is a joy I hope everyone gets to experience in their lives.
The hype on Joe Manganiello’s face when scanlan gets the Nat 20 is so pure
BBEG: TRIES TO CAST A SPELL
Scanlon: I'll be taking those
2:23 Sam is waiting the entire time KNOWING the counterspell is coming, you can see in his eyes he's just waiting for Matt to try it so he can shut it down with his own.
you can see taliesin realize it too. the moment he tries to get him to counterspell the attempt against pike, but he doesn't budge, and then they start to attempt to planeshift and that's when everything clicks into place
@@madelyn1758 Yep. Taliesin knew and Travis knew. Sam looked like a jaguar about to pounce. Just full "lock and loaded" mode.
Counterspell is such a clutch spell that even Warlocks, with their limited spells known and spell slots, should take it. You may not always need it, but when you need it you NEED it.
Like my dad always says:
“Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.”
You know I forgot Fjord had counterspell until just seeing this video. I wonder why he didn’t use it in the latest episode to help prevent some damage, but good thing Caleb remembered at a critical moment. Maybe Fjord didn’t want to use it just to stop a cantrip, or maybe forgot with all the craziness going on.
The Red Eft you know how Fjorgetful he is.
Though, there was a lot going on. Yea
He also had a healing potion that he could have taken before popping up in the crow’s nest.
@@pinkbella901 I mean... compared to fjorgeting his last name, a healing potion is to be expected :P
Only two spell slots capable of casting it so he was probably trying to reserve his one remaining slot.
he only has 2 spell slots
Matt’s legit mini rage at 12:13 at the thought of Cad stopping him.
Then the other Wildmother Brother screws it’s up for him anyway.
Liam's first counterspell will forever be one of my favourite Liam moments
he is just using all of his spell slots to say no
person: attempts to cast magic
scanlan: plays dio's theme on a lute
Muda muda
"I, Scanlan Shorthalt, have a dream."
Thats not dio
Every time they cast counterspell is amazing but why is no one talking about their reactions after 12:27 ? I love how Liam and Marisha hug Travis like that, it's so wholesome!
I love how they learned their lessons with VM and now more people have counterspell
I mean
If they can do crazy stuff with cupcakes, imagine what they'll do with this kinda thing
there was also a nice banter moment in camp1.
"I cast silence on Vax"
"Dispel Magic"
"Counterpsell!"
People just forget it because of Orion
I can tell you have no no memory of anything from eps 1-18 and anything Orion related.
Mainly cause I wasn’t note taking I was working on something while listening and I skipped Orion parts cause I felt second hand embarrassment.
@@DaniGeez which is how far from "choosing to forget it ever happened", exactly?
@@texteel not much.
i dont have to try hard to forget since memory is terrible in this head..
Follpwed by "do you actually have counterspell?" and Sam replying "no." I honestly think that's where he first got the idea to learn it.
@@DaniGeez Oh yeah, just like almost anytime marisha open her's mouth skip skip skip
Scanlan is the best at being sneaky about getting into spell range for Counterspell, he learned his lesson in the first fight against Vecna, this time he owns him. Vecna has to ask if his spells Resolve. 😉
Scanlan clowning on Vecna: the musical
*_A wild Anti-Mage appears_*
"Thy sorcery fails thee!"
I love at the moment where Scanlan chooses to cast the 9th level Counterspell instead of saving Vax, ever so quietly over everyone's cheers you can hear him say to Liam. "I was going to save Vax.." Defeated, he knows what comes next. Liam's reaction to that comment comes later in the episode, and I believe it makes it all the more painful for Vax to leave.
12:28 this is so funny.
"do you have counterspell?"
After scanlan shows the might of counterspell in campaign 1, we now have 2 people with counterspell
that face that caleb made when he counterspelled avantika, lol
2:30 Sam looking like a viper ready to strike.
8:29 Joe's terror turning to unbridled JOY is such an amazing thing to witness!
man its been two years and I watched the fight with Vecna live and i still found myself holding my breath and hanging off the edge of my seat re-watching those counter spells.
Imagine if Scanlan had cast Glibness on himself before the Vecna fight. Every Counterspell check he rolled would have been a minimum of 23, counterspelling any spell no matter the level. He could have saved his 9th level slot for that Wish he wanted for Vax. Oh well, it created a great story.
Not really a spell that many would think of for a buff for the endgame fight. But a really cool plan.
jon simpson which is really unfortunate because glibness is busted and bards can learn it.
I don’t think that Scanlan knew this spell. Only if he used his Wish to cast it on himself and it wound waste his 9th spell slot.
That's a slick idea, but I think he was limited to 6+ level spells against Vecna anyways, so spending an 8th level slot beforehand wouldn't help, he'd still run out.
@@elbruces Except he did cast Counterspell at 3rd level and it succeeded.
i cannot believe the "9/Nein/Nine" thing started with Scanlan's most iconic action of sacrifice and defiance, like...... They were really meant to go through that journey, i guess
some people (usually DM's) dislike counterspell, but I really like it as both a player and a DM, the counterspell chains are really fun when you have 2 casters in the party and the bad guy also has counterspell.
I remember distinctly a triple counterspell chain where the enemy tried to Polymorph to get away, our Sorcerer counterspelled, the enemy mage countercounterspelled, and our Wizard countercountercounterspelled. Gooood times
Yeah. Counterspell for leveled spells and guidance for cantrips are the best, unless you have a bunch of invocations on top of eldritch blast.
Also, fun bard trick for a Vecna level combat: cast 8th level glibness beforehand. Even a 3rd level counterspell will automatically wipe out a 9th level spell for the whole combat if your Cha is 18+ (it makes your lowest roll on Cha checks 15, before adding your modifier).
That's a great plan generally, but should mention that Vecna in particular was unaffected by spells leveled 5 or less, so Scanlan would have run out of usable slots either way.
@@elbruces He succeed to Counterspell Vecna with a 3rd lvl spell. Probably that Matt ruled that his immunity didn't protect his spells to being countered
@@bluebird8221 He also ruled similarly in the first fight with the Raksasha.
@@elbruces I think he was using globe of invulnerability to allow the immunity to spells 5th level and lower. So counter spells which dont target Vecna, but do target Vecnas spells are fair game
EVERY time sam counter spells is amazing. he is such a master of timing and knowing exactly what needs to be countered. i love them all so much
counterspell is the sexiest spell you can't change my mind
They did the saddest counterspell in all of Crit Role :( The Vax save
Damn, forgot how much I miss scanlan
counterspell! is! the! sexiest! spell!
One of the least cast spells but arguably the most game-changing in a fight
That spell is overused and really encouraged bad player behavior. There are some PCs that refuse to describe what spell they are casting when they become aware that the DM pilots a mage with counterspell. If you don't have a good relationship with your DM, this is a really good way to put you at odds
9:30 I love how Liam turned into doom guy for a moment
Travis's Counterspell vs. Oban is underrated since Oban still gets away but if he hadn't stopped that Yasha wouldn't have SkinGorger.
New addition to the pantheon: Scanlan, the God of Counterspell
It's easily the best addition in 5e. It has adds so many exciting mind games. It's only issue is that it adds too much pressure to an unprepared DM.
And it's an absolute pain in the add for a party when the DM has every freaking caster use it.
@@jonsimpson6240 I agree. It seems that DMs need a pocket caster in every encounter to balance the counterspelling. I like the spells ease of use compared to older editions, but I also wish it was a little less easy to use, if you know what I'm saying.
@@Raichulula I have experienced a daisy chain of counterspells that broke the encounter quite badly.
@@jonsimpson6240 if there's a daisy chain that broke the encounter, either the enemy have too many spell casters in the first place, or your spell was going to break the encounter anyways.
A proper environment is a 1 for 1 on each side. This way, everyone can daisy chain the counterspell, playing a guessing game of what spell slot the enemy used or gamble, while also being possible that no spells gets countered at all.
@@FFXfever basically, there were enough enemies that could counterspell to remove the ability of the players to cast, even when the players were proactive about counterspelling.
It was a tad frustrating.
I rolled a 14 and a 19 she fails!
The manic joy in his voice really sells it!
Scanlan definitely put the "No" in Gnome.
Aaaaand of course TH-cam would recommend this now, I guess I'll watch it 3 times.
In my campaign, to prevent everyone just using counterspell, if you counterspell a counterspell, it works, but at the point between the 2 mages a random effect from the wild magic table takes effect.
Ooooooooo imma use that, that sounds amazing
That's actually such a cool idea
14:11 Matt's story telling is so good Ashley was enthralled
9:30
I like to imagine going all the Medic from TF2 shouting "I HAVE SO MUCH POWAAH!!!"
Question: Is counter spell the best spell?
Answer: Yes
Nobody:
Liam: Sham nom yum nam nam.
If there is one lesson every player definitely took from campaign one:
Its that Counter Spell is the greatest spell
The look on Matt's face at 6:30 is great!
I just got Counterspell on my Wiz. I'm looking forward to using it.
The look of insane joy on Liams face is one of my favourite things
Counterspell is nice.
nice.
nice.
Nice.
nice.
That counter spell on the ship still gives me goosebumps
Travis' face of absolute relief on that last one is such a mood
I started tearing up when I heard Sam say Level 9.
Counterspell is one of those spells that when the party takes it, the DM has to prepare accordingly. On the reverse, the DM really shouldn't have more then one character able to cast it per encounter, due to the insane chains that can result. If you get more then one countered counterspell, either the DM or the Party has invested too many resources.
If nothing else, Campaign 1 highlighted how useful late-game Bards are as a support class. when given the right abilities.
Nigga what? If one enemy casts (for example) Teleport, the Bard counterspells, another enemy counterspells the Bard, then the Wizard should 100% counterspell the 2nd enemy. Not sure why you think that would be a waste, because it all depends on the situation and the original spell being cast
bruh i disagree, its hilarious thinking of 3 spell casters fighting, one casts a 9th level spell and then everyone counterspells everyone and just standing there. onlookers just saw 3 dudes walk over to each other and do weird things like throwing bat poo, muttering weird words and wiggle their fingers then just stand there out of breath
Every time it's successful it is sooooo satisfying.
7:25 Matt's face is priceless
I still feel the pain of what Sam gave up with that lv 9 counterspell
6:40 - I loved how Ashley jumped with joy over Sam's counter spell!!
"The notches on his Counterspell
read one and nineteen more,
one and nineteen moooooooore!"
12:57 Sam: "The best spell in D&D."
Liam: "Yes."
Scanlan was beyond clutch in that final battle against Vecna. I remember watching it when it first came out.
Scanlan's first counter spell was Laura's idea was and she rewards her self with a pastry, Jester was a long time coming.
at this point it IS the best Spell
I mean...it IS the spell to end all spells. :)
@@theviewerofart I hate you
Liam saying "Counterspell" then rolling that well with disadvantage followed by what for lack of a better term is "coming to grips with the power of a GOD" is awesome.
Liam's first counter spell was my mood when playing CoS and I counterspelled Strahd's Cloud Kill and Fireball one right after the other (the DM homebrewed him a bit for our party since we were a bit of a large group for CoS)
Total MVP for that final fight Scanlan. Sam killed it and the fact he was devasted using the 9th level he was saving to use to save vax, was heartbreaking. What a player.
Ashley's happy dance at "That's why I got closer...." will always make me smile.
The first spell I cast in D&D was counterspell.
I love the one (not in this video) where Liam’s in the bathroom and there’s a case of bad guy tries to do something, Fjord (I think) counterspells, bad guy counterspells the counterspell and Sam’s like: ”Liam would totally have Caleb counterspell it if he were here”. Then Liam makes it back just in time and they all shout at him to ”Counterspell the counterspell of the counterspell!” and he barely misses a beat and does it.
I wish I remembered which episode it was in…
I made a second part, it’s there
Liam O'brien is a fascinating case study of human emotions, through simple die rolling
4:30 I love how Vecna signifies that with a response. 🤣
13:47 Liam and Laura's faces is a BIG mood XD
8:49 Liam grabs Travis’ head as he hugs Laura like “Come here buddy”😂
06:40
Ashley dancing in the background is the best lol
[Extremely minor c2 spoilers ahead] Coming here to relive some of the glorious counterspell moments that led up to the most recent Counterspell of a counterspell of a counterspell of a spell.
Already uploaded separately:)
Hearing Skyrim music while looking at Laura takes me back to my loneliest, most depressed days, when my only friend in the world was Serana.
I love how Arkhan is like come on chop that hand! Gotta lay the groundwork for that hand coming off!
I love the look of disbelief on Matt's face at 7:28
Love that there was a Skyrim song in the background on that first clip