sorcery headache: how do you counter steal breath?

[Joerg]

Attract Magic and Attract Missiles are a sorcerer's friends in the face of hostiles, and a protective circle with wards against the typically encountered runes and spirit magic will be nice, too.

A team of field sorcerers probably has a few lower ranking members tasked with setting up the attraction targets (possibly adding Castback to the poor recipient of the Attract Magic) and providing the protective circle(s - you might have them layered, with attack spells against intruders).

Sorcerers trained for this kind of interactions will come prepared. Fortunately, such units are fairly rare. Unfortunately, people like Argrath appear to attract such people, whether as allies or foes. Sir Narib's Company probably travels with such preparations made and regularly refreshed... and so do the Imperial Colleges.