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The Cartomancer feat includes the Hidden Ace feature (The Book of Many Things, p. 49), which lets you imbue a spell into a card and later cast it.

Of course, there’s dissension about whether or not the feat uses the spell slot (and if so, when). But I used it for the first time recently; I imbued the spell Holy Aura in it (I'm playing an 11th-level cleric/5th-level wizard), and the DM had an enemy cast Counterspell.

I didn’t think a card cast from an item could be counterspelled. He over-ruled my objection and we moved on. But now, I'm asking you all.

Can a spell cast using the Cartomancer feat's Hidden Ace feature be counterspelled?

V2Blast
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Mighty Flea
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    Welcome to RPG.SE! Have a look at the [tour] and maybe visit the [help] for any guidance in posting Q&As. Can you provide the related text of the feat for helping addressing the issue? – Eddymage Jan 16 '24 at 16:51

2 Answers2

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It can be counterspelled.

The relevant part of the Cartomancer feat's description states (The Book of Many Things, p. 49):

[...] While the card is imbued with the spell, you can use a bonus action to flourish the card and cast the spell within. [...]

Counterspell has a casting time of 1 reaction:

which you take when you see a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell

So yes, a spell cast using Cartomancer's Hidden Ace benefit can be counterspelled, since counterspell requires only that you see the target casting a spell, and the Cartomancer is casting a spell.

There has been some discussion elsewhere about whether or not the cast spell requires its listed V/S/M components when cast via Cartomancer. It should be noted here that it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this question. Casting the spell via Cartomancer is plainly observable, since it requires flourishing the card as part of the casting, de facto (S,M) components.

Thomas Markov
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    I think this answer can be improved by stating why the casting of the spell through Hidden Ace is indeed perceivable despite possible not having components because the feature text explicitly calls for a "flourish". – Pepijn Jan 17 '24 at 09:34
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    @Pepijn Yeah, I meant to add a note about that. Thanks for the reminder. – Thomas Markov Jan 17 '24 at 09:35
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It Depends on whether the DM rules that the spell's components are required at the time of casting.

If the DM rules components are required at the time of casting, the spell can be counterspelled for reasons laid out in Thomas Markov's answer. But if the DM rules components are not required at the time of casting, then it would have the same problems being counterspelled as a spell cast using Subtle Spell metamagic.

Kerrick
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  • Even if the spell’s written components aren’t required, casting via Cartomancer has de facto S and M components by virtue of requiring that you flourish a card. – Thomas Markov Jan 16 '24 at 21:03
  • As detailed in this answer, "strict reading of RAW suggests that casting a spell from an item is imperceptible and therefore cannot be countered" -- it requires a DM ruling to get those "de facto S and M components" since the flourish is not explicitly a "spell component" according to the text of the feature. Nothing in the rules states the flourish is a component to the casting, just that you flourish the card "and" cast the spell within. – Kerrick Jan 16 '24 at 21:08
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    Right, but counterspell requires only that you see a spell being cast (e.g. the card flourish), not that you see the listed VSM components being performed. – Thomas Markov Jan 16 '24 at 21:10
  • Is the card flourish “the spell being cast” or a separate action due to the use of “and” rather than “to”? It’s up to DM interpretation. – Kerrick Jan 16 '24 at 21:16
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    @Kerrick Nothing in the rules states that you can only counterspell things with components, so debating whether flourishing the card counts as a component is pointless. The only actual rule is that the counterspeller can see the spell being cast. Even the very sentence you cite from that answer actually says "a strict reading of RAW suggests that casting a spell from an item is imperceptible and therefore cannot be countered (unless the item's description mentions a perceptible requirement for use, such as a command word or hand motion)." (emph mine) – Ben Jan 17 '24 at 02:43
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    The caster having to perform components is one easy way to conclude that the casting of the spell would be visible; lack of formal components is not a reason to conclude that the casting of the spell cannot be seen regardless of any other information. It takes reasoning about the full context to determine that, it's not just a simple mechanics check whether there are VSM components. – Ben Jan 17 '24 at 02:49
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    This answer is right, since you can't counterspell spells cast without using components that means the ability to counterspell depends on how DM rules this class feature. – Arek Kubiński Jan 17 '24 at 07:33