Arcane Archer imbue question

[paranoid]

Don't know if this is the right forum to post, but I have trouble with this sentence from the Arcane Archer description (emphasis mine):

Imbue Arrow (Sp): At 2nd level, an arcane archer gains the ability to place an area spell upon an arrow. When the arrow is fired, the spell’s area is centered on where the arrow lands, even if the spell could normally be centered only on the caster. This ability allows the archer to use the bow’s range rather than the spell’s range.

What exactly is an area spell? Is it a spell with an "Area: ..." entry in its statistic block? My first thought was yes, and I see no problem when you imbue a fireball or an antimagic field on an arrow, I presume. But what happens to other areas, cones for example? In which direction do they point? Or lines? And how are the various detect spells handled, which are also "area" spells?

On a side note, very few Sor/Wiz spells qualify for this "Area:" entry. I somehow doubt that this was intended that way.

Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.

thanks,
paranoid.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think it means any spell which covers an area not centered on the caster.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'd need to look it up in 3.5, but in 3E there was a rather nifty effect of the wording.

It stated that you replaced the range of the spell with the range of the arrow.

Let's say you fire the arrow 500 feet... imbued with Cone of Cold. Thus, we replace the range of the spell with the range of the arrow - 500 feet, in this case. The area of a 3E Cone is defined by its range... so we have a Cone of Cold 500 feet long, 500 feet wide at its widest point, originating from a point 500 feet from the Arcane Archer.

Alternatively, Imbue a Detect Evil. This allows you to detect any evil in a quarter circle emanating from the caster to the limit of the range... the range being 500 feet, in this case.

-Hyp.

 

[Magic Slim]

Imbue Arrow (Sp): At 2nd level, an arcane archer gains the ability to place an area spell upon an arrow. When the arrow is fired, the spell’s area is centered on where the arrow lands, even if the spell could normally be centered only on the caster. This ability allows the archer to use the bow’s range rather than the spell’s range. It takes a standard action to cast the spell and fire the arrow. The arrow must be fired in the round the spell is cast, or the spell is wasted.

What do you do with that sentence? (the wording is the same in the 3.0 and 3.5 SRDs). They probably (I could be wrong) meant that you can imbue your arrow with spells that are defined as bursts, spreads and emanations (maybe touch spells also)...

Slim

 

[Hypersmurf]

They probably (I could be wrong) meant that you can imbue your arrow with spells that are defined as bursts, spreads and emanations (maybe touch spells also)...

A touch spell definitely isn't an area spell.

I always figured a cone or a line is "centred" on its point of origin - the apex of the cone, the 'start' of a line...

-Hyp.