Retain spells after successful countercast

[Eraamion]

I am thinking that perhaps it may help the overall balance and diversify the playstyles if countercasting is changed not to consume the countercaster's spell after a successful counter.

You still have to prepare/choose the counterspells, which limits your choice and makes the anticipation and planning game more fun. You have to stay in countercasting mode and not do anything else, so your utility and added value is limited to negating the single enemy caster. You can still get bypassed by potions, wands or scrolls, which are not counterable.

Awareness of the possibility of being sustainably countered can also add another tactical layer to arcane caster thinking, especially in teamplay/dispensaries.

It does not seem to change PvE much except making dispellers less annoying if they are spotted and the line of sight is maintained (which requires investment into see invisibility spells or consumables most of the time). The buffs on bosses seem to be mostly divine spells or consumables, and the really dangerous spellcasting bosses use high level spells that cannot be effectively countered within the COR player character level range anyway.

What are your thoughts? Is it even possible to script/change?

[Mia]

This is a bad suggestion for a simple reason; Universal counters.

Directly from the wiki:

Entering counterspell mode allows a caster to prevent an enemy caster from casting spells. This is done by first identifying the spell being cast (using spellcraft), then sacrificing a readied spell slot containing a counter to the spell being cast. Lesser dispel (level 2), dispel magic (level 3), greater dispelling (level 6) and Mordenkainen's disjunction (level 9) are universal counters, able to counter any spell of the same level or lower with the exception of greater dispelling, which will only counter spells level 5 or lower. In addition, each spell is its own counter, and many spells also have specific counters, as listed in each spell's description. For example, haste can be countered by sacrificing a casting of slow.

You could simply prepare a dispel spell that would refresh indefinitely until Lord Greyskull is out of Combust.

[Dhund]

As much as I would enjoy it from the side of the mage doing the counterspelling, there is a big flaw in it: It destroys the strategy you currently would employ to counteract it. A mage with a Dispel Magic now has you completely locked out of everything from cantrips up to 3rd circle spells.  You can't burn their universal counters (dispels) and out strategize them if they lose nothing from the attempts

[Paha]

It is in effect actual counter spell, that is casted and made. Very idea to me has always been that it likewise needs a spell and that spell is used, so I wouldn't personally want to make it otherwise.