Summary

• Countercharm is a special ability granted to the bard class, but it's very underwhelming in both DnD and Baldur's Gate 3.
• At best, Countercharm is situationally helpful, but it usually isn't worth the action investment it requires.
• The revised 2024 Player's Handbook makes a simple change to Countercharm that makes it more useful.

Bards are extremely powerful in Baldur’s Gate 3, with an amazing spell list, access to magical secrets, and subclass options that make them incredibly versatile. But undoubtedly, their worst feature is Countercharm. In both the video game and the TTRPG, Countercharm is a blemish on an otherwise amazing list of class abilities.

Unlocked at level six, Countercharm allows bards to use an action and set up an anti-charm effect in an area around themselves. This effect does not actually prevent players from being charmed; rather, it gives them advantage on saving throws against the Charmed and Frightened effects, which many DnD races already get through abilities like Fey Ancestry. On top of that, maintaining the effect requires an action each turn. This ability is almost never worth using, given how much of a bard's turn it takes to set up, but DnD's 2024 Player's Handbook has a solution.

Despite Some Small Changes, Countercharm In Baldur's Gate 3 Is Just As Bad

Situationally Helpful, But Most Often Useless

In Baldur's Gate 3, Countercharm can be used with a little more flexibility. The area it affects is not tied to the bard; rather, it can be put down and left in an area within range when it is activated. Furthermore, the ability doesn't require an action each turn to maintain. These things make it better, but they by no means make Countercharm good.

The main issue with Countercharm is that it requires players to preemptively realize when they will need to make a save against Charmed or Frightened effects. This might be fine on repeated playthroughs, when players know exactly which enemies will use these effects, but otherwise, players must take a risk by using their action to set up a power that may or may not have any use whatsoever. Plus, the Charmed effect hardly ever shows up in Baldur's Gate 3, making that part of the ability useless in pretty much every situation.

The New Player's Handbook Fixes Countercharm With One Simple Change

Countercharm Is Now A Reaction

With that main issue in mind, the 2024 Player's Handbook makes one change that takes Countercharm to the next level: making the ability take a reaction to activate. This not only cuts down on the amount of time in a turn that bards have to devote to activating Countercharm, but also makes it so that the ability only has to be used when it actually matters. This change alleviates every issue with Countercharm previously, making it less resource-intensive and leaning into its situational use cases.

Granted, Countercharm is still a pretty niche ability. Charmed and Frightened conditions won't come up every fight, and out of the bard abilities in the new Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, this is by far the worst. But the ability is at least more useful than even its Baldur's Gate 3 counterpart now, even if it is still pretty niche. It is nice to see abilities like this, which have gone so long without revision, getting some much-needed improvement.