SC Blessed Aim and CW Zen archery

The Rolling Man · Aug 15, 2007

I'm thinking of making an archer type Favored Soul of the Silver Flame to join the fun here in LEB but I might just use a couple of things outside the core books so I'm making this proposal thread.

The first is Blessed aim from the Spell compendium. It a bit like Bless but the bonus is a +2 moral bonus to ranged attacks. I think they changed the lvl of it (it's now lvl 1) from where ever it came from. I also want to make sure it affects the caster not just others.

The other thing is the Zen Archery feat from the complete warrior. It allows to use the wisdom bonus for attacking with a bow (or with all ranged attacks, I'm not sure right now without my books).

And yes, I know that a Favored Soul won't be able to take Zen Archery at lvl 1. *grumble*

The Rolling Man · Aug 20, 2007

After verification, the original Blessed Aim appeared in the Complete Divine but it was a Blackguard 2/Cleric 3/Paladin 2 spell. Spell compendium reduces that to first level for all 3 classes. In my opinion, the spell is not good enough for a third level spell but fits nicely as one of the good first level spell.

Any judges would care to comment or vote on that?

Wik · Aug 22, 2007

*grumble* make me dig out my D&D books on my day off... *grumble*

Blessed Aim: You know, I'm not entirely sure I like this spell at 1st level, since it does supplant Bless if you wish to focus on ranged attacks. Although, that being said, I guess it's alright, since it's in effect a much more limited form of Cat's Grace (which is a 2nd level spell). I'm going to go with YES on this one.

Luckily, I have CW on my desk right now, so...

ZEn Archery allows Wis to supplant Dex for all ranged attack rolls. On the surface, I don't like it. Except, when you really look at it, it's fine - since if you want to really be an archer, you're going to need some other archer feats, which require a Dex 13. So I'll say YES to this one, too.

Also, you're aware that you can make a 3rd level character, right? So that you could get access to both feats?

stonegod · Sep 16, 2007

Zen Archery is Wisdom Finesse on ranged weapons only, including ranged touch attacks. Monks, clerics, and druids would love it. However, Wik is right that any archery feat would still need Dex, so its okay. YES

Blessed aim gives everyone of your allies a +2 ranged attack. That's a mini mass cat's grace. It is strictly better than bless (fear affects are very situational, attacks are not) and cat's grace (and stacks w/ the latter). I'd hedge it closer to a 2nd, and would like to hear from the other judges before my final vote.

Rystil Arden · Sep 16, 2007

stonegod said:
Zen Archery is Wisdom Finesse on ranged weapons only, including ranged touch attacks. Monks, clerics, and druids would love it. However, Wik is right that any archery feat would still need Dex, so its okay. YES

Blessed aim gives everyone of your allies a +2 ranged attack. That's a mini mass cat's grace. It is strictly better than bless (fear affects are very situational, attacks are not) and cat's grace (and stacks w/ the latter). I'd hedge it closer to a 2nd, and would like to hear from the other judges before my final vote.

It's not quite strictly better than Bless, since it doesn't provide melee to hit bonuses, but for a party that can use it, it is a pretty darn fierce benefit. +1 to hit (from Bless) is already a useful benefit. +2 to hit is a major boost. It's like having an 8th-level Bard (the +2 to damage from Inspire Courage isn't really a big deal by then, the +2 to hit is the main attraction).

Bront · Sep 17, 2007

Rystil Arden said:
It's not quite strictly better than Bless, since it doesn't provide melee to hit bonuses, but for a party that can use it, it is a pretty darn fierce benefit. +1 to hit (from Bless) is already a useful benefit. +2 to hit is a major boost. It's like having an 8th-level Bard (the +2 to damage from Inspire Courage isn't really a big deal by then, the +2 to hit is the main attraction).

It doesn't stack with Bless (or Inspire Courage, and you can get to +2 at Level 3 with Song of the Heart btw), and while it's nice for a ranged party, it's not devistating and you'd need to set it up ahead of time for it to be specificly more useful than Bless (Know in advance you would need almost all ranged).

I don't see it as too bad...

Patlin · Nov 20, 2007

Doesn't Zen Archery only work within 30'?

If so, it seems to me that both the feat and the spell are sub-par. The spell is only really worthwhile if your whole party uses ranged weapons, and if you are coordinated to that degree you deserve the synergy you get.

YES to both.