Ghost Hunter Combat Feat

[Anditch]

We are using the Frank Trollmans Races of War and combining them with 3.5 edition. One of the Combat Feats is called Ghost Hunter. It gives you the Ghost touch ability. This is a feat that you have its not a magical abillity on the weapon. It allows you to see creatures invisible and Ethereal creatures. So it does say it applies to all weapons. Does this include ranged weapons, or would you still get the 50/50 miss even though you can see creatures on the ether and oviviously Prime Mat plane.

 

[Dross]

We are using the Frank Trollmans Races of War and combining them with 3.5 edition. One of the Combat Feats is called Ghost Hunter. It gives you the Ghost touch ability. This is a feat that you have its not a magical abillity on the weapon. It allows you to see creatures invisible and Ethereal creatures. So it does say it applies to all weapons. Does this include ranged weapons, or would you still get the 50/50 miss even though you can see creatures on the ether and oviviously Prime Mat plane.

I don't know the feat but.....

If it was meant for melee weapons only that should be noted somewhere in the description.

However the Ghost touch ability can only be applied to melee weapons (not sure what happens if you throw a ghost touch dagger though).

If you have the ability and you throw/shoot something (non-game) logic dictates that the weapon would stay on the plane it was shot on.

In game logic? For me it would be based on what would balance the feat overall (for our games, it would be most likely melee only).

After some research:
Ghost Hunter [Combat]
You smack around those folks in the spirit world.
Benefits: This is a combat feat that scales with your Base Attack Bonus.

• +11: Your attacks count as if you had the Ghost Touch property on your weapons.

See the part in bold (way different to saying that all weapons had the ghost touch property): The Ghost Touch property is a melee only weapon special ability. Unless the book has a different definition for Ghost Touch, they don't include a note saying that ranged weapons are also imbued with this property. So for me melee weapons only.

 

[Anditch]

Yes thanks, It makes sence now. Teleporting arrows into the Ether makes little sence . So this means i can see them properly but they still have to be on the prime mat to be able to hit them.

 

[Persiflage]

The ghost touch property does not help you hit ethereal creatures anyway, only incorporeal.

Incidentally, where does it say that the ghost touch property doesn't apply to ranged weapons? I'm certainly not saying it does, but all I can find are references to people saying that Ghost Touch doesn't apply to bows and the like: I can't actually find where in the rules it says that. Other properties are specifically melee-only or ranged-only, but the only thing indicating that ghost touch doesn't apply to ranged weapons - as far as I can tell - is the lack of a line saying "a ghost touch ranged weapon confers the property on its ammunition", which is hardly conclusive. Admittedly, the Ghost Touch Weapon spell from the Spell Compendium excludes it, but the weapon property entry doesn't seem to.

There could well be an entry somewhere else that I'm not aware of, of course.

If there's nothing definitive, then I see no problems at all with the concept of a bow that makes its arrows able to hit incorporeal (but not ethereal) creatures. Remember: incorporeal creatures are on the Prime Material plane by default, they're just insubstantial. Ethereal creatures are on the Ethereal plane, which is a different kettle of fish.

 

[Dross]

The ghost touch property does not help you hit ethereal creatures anyway, only incorporeal.

Incidentally, where does it say that the ghost touch property doesn't apply to ranged weapons? I'm certainly not saying it does, but all I can find are references to people saying that Ghost Touch doesn't apply to bows and the like: I can't actually find where in the rules it says that. Other properties are specifically melee-only or ranged-only, but the only thing indicating that ghost touch doesn't apply to ranged weapons - as far as I can tell - is the lack of a line saying "a ghost touch ranged weapon confers the property on its ammunition", which is hardly conclusive. Admittedly, the Ghost Touch Weapon spell from the Spell Compendium excludes it, but the weapon property entry doesn't seem to.

There could well be an entry somewhere else that I'm not aware of, of course.

If there's nothing definitive, then I see no problems at all with the concept of a bow that makes its arrows able to hit incorporeal (but not ethereal) creatures. Remember: incorporeal creatures are on the Prime Material plane by default, they're just insubstantial. Ethereal creatures are on the Ethereal plane, which is a different kettle of fish.

In the SRD, HypertextSRD, & DMG, there are tables listing the properties available to melee and ranged weapons. Ghost Touch is only available in the melee weapons table. Even if text trumps table, there is not a conflict between the two (unless errata somewhere changes that).

Thus I conclude that ranged weapons cannot have the Ghost Touch property.

I didn't look at the spell (admittedly I didn't remember it's existence) since that is a special case.

Spell Storing would seem to be in the same position, but the Arcane Archer PrC allows spells to be placed on arrows (maybe not the best example).

I also noted the problem of a dagger with Ghost Touch. If used for melee Ghost Touch is valid, but if thrown, the rules imply Ghost Touch is NOT valid. And to be a real , add the throwing and returning properties to a greataxe.

 

[Dandu]

Want to hit ghosts with your arrows? Get a bow with the Force enchantment that makes your arrows... force projectiles.

See if you can't throw Splitting on top of that.

 

[Persiflage]

I've always found it hilarious that the one thing the Ghost Touch property doesn't do is "let you touch ghosts", although of course it works normally when the ghost is manifesting and therefore isn't totally cringe-worthy.

The real howler on these lines is the Hydra Slaying Strike (a Setting Sun maneuver from Tome of Battle). The one creature it is completely useless against is... Yeah, you guessed it