College of Swords spellcasting focus question

Ark the Pie King · Feb 4, 2019

So I know that they can use a weapon as a spellcasting focus, does that confer any other benefits? I'm almost positive I read buried in some thread on some forum this lets them add any bonuses from having a magic weapon to their spell attack rolls and DCs, but now I can't find anything to back that up. Like, if you had a +1 rapier you'd add +1 to your Spell DCs and to your Spell attacks. Can anyone weigh in on this? That's how I did my character today but now I'm second guessing it.

pukunui · Feb 4, 2019

I’m not aware of any such rule. The only benefit is that the weapon can be used in place of material spell components.

Ark the Pie King · Feb 4, 2019

Well that is...monstrously less exciting, and kind of useless on the whole. Guess I have some apologizing to do and hard decisions to make lol

Xeviat · Feb 4, 2019

Ark the Pie King said:
So I know that they can use a weapon as a spellcasting focus, does that confer any other benefits? I'm almost positive I read buried in some thread on some forum this lets them add any bonuses from having a magic weapon to their spell attack rolls and DCs, but now I can't find anything to back that up. Like, if you had a +1 rapier you'd add +1 to your Spell DCs and to your Spell attacks. Can anyone weigh in on this? That's how I did my character today but now I'm second guessing it.

I'm fairly sure it's not in the rules, but if you were just adding the weapon's enhancement to spell attacks and spell DCs, I'd be okay with it as a DM. It's not in the rules, though.

pukunui · Feb 4, 2019

Yes, it’s definitely not a default benefit. However, since we’re talking magic weapons here, there’s no reason you couldn’t homebrew a magic sword that also lets you add its bonus to your spell attack and spell save DC. It’d be kind of like combining a +1 sword with a +1 wand of the war mage. It’d probably have to be a rare item.

Paul Farquhar · Feb 4, 2019

Ark the Pie King said:
So I know that they can use a weapon as a spellcasting focus, does that confer any other benefits? I'm almost positive I read buried in some thread on some forum this lets them add any bonuses from having a magic weapon to their spell attack rolls and DCs, but now I can't find anything to back that up. Like, if you had a +1 rapier you'd add +1 to your Spell DCs and to your Spell attacks. Can anyone weigh in on this? That's how I did my character today but now I'm second guessing it.

No. There was a thread where someone thought that +x weapons did confer a bonus to spell casting, and the rest of us explained why they were wrong.

If you read the DMG you will see their are some magic items that do apply a bonus to both attacks and spellcasting (staffs mostly), but if that is the case it is noted explicitly in the item description.

TheSword · Feb 4, 2019

Ark the Pie King said:
Well that is...monstrously less exciting, and kind of useless on the whole. Guess I have some apologizing to do and hard decisions to make lol

What are the hard decisions?

Ark the Pie King · Feb 4, 2019

TheSword said:
What are the hard decisions?

My party pooled together all of their money to buy me a Sun Blade and now I have to awkwardly tell them that it does not confer the benefits I insisted it did, which means I broke the bank for half the benefit I thought I was getting lol. Mostly it's just what to do with the weapon. It's still a sweet sword, just not as sweet as I thought it was.

BluejayJunior · Feb 4, 2019

Ark the Pie King said:
My party pooled together all of their money to buy me a Sun Blade and now I have to awkwardly tell them that it does not confer the benefits I insisted it did, which means I broke the bank for half the benefit I thought I was getting lol. Mostly it's just what to do with the weapon. It's still a sweet sword, just not as sweet as I thought it was.

If there hasn't been a significant time since getting it, I would just ask the DM if you could retcon buying it. Just explain that you were wrong about how it worked and you feel bad about using the party's money for something you had wrong. Hopefully, they'll let you undo it.
If you've already had it too long to do that, you could also ask about changing your specific sunblade to giving you a bonus to spellcasting as well.
But definitely discuss it with you DM and see if you can figure something out. It wouldn't be good if the other players thought you tricked them into getting something cool using their money. I think the best way to avoid that is to confront the problem and see if anything in game can be changed to fix it.

TheSword · Feb 4, 2019

Yeah 2 less to saves and attack roles is substantial in this world of bounded accuracy. You could always chance it and ask if the DM is happy with you having the benefit and that this be a unique version of the blade.

Or ask for it to be refunded, 14 day money back guarantee, as has been suggested.

Or use your bardic performance skills to describe how strong the sword makes your magic feel and fake the result after all player knowledge and character knowledge are very different

(I wouldn’t advise this option!)

Though personally I wouldn’t mind if the sword wasn’t quite as good as you thought. It’s still a good weapon and worth buying for a bard. Bard is such a support class you could really help the party and make sure their good turn is rewarded by you investing in buff spells and inspiration.

College of Swords spellcasting focus question

Ark the Pie King

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pukunui

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Ark the Pie King

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Xeviat

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pukunui

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Paul Farquhar

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TheSword

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Ark the Pie King

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BluejayJunior

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TheSword

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