Would this work?

[Aleolus]

OK, a friend mentioned this to me a little while ago, and I'm wondering if it would work. Per RAW, I can't see why it wouldn't, but I don't claim to know all the rules in the books. He suggested enchanting a bow so that arrows it fires act like Magic Missiles, in that they never miss. Could you actually do that, or would it have a totally different effect or something?

 

[Darklone]

Well, it does not have to be a bow, you could enchant a sword to be able to cast unlimited uses of Magic Missile per day. A helmet even.

Wouldn't be too cheap and unlimited uses per day in items are always difficult to balance...

 

[Aleolus]

Well, it's not casting Magic Missile with a bow, it's enchanting the bow so that arrows it fires are treated as Magic Missiles in that they never miss. So you're doing normal damage for the bow, guaranteed hit, and you can apply all the archery feats like Multishot and Rapidshot to it.

 

[Cbas_10]

Well, it's not casting Magic Missile with a bow, it's enchanting the bow so that arrows it fires are treated as Magic Missiles in that they never miss. So you're doing normal damage for the bow, guaranteed hit, and you can apply all the archery feats like Multishot and Rapidshot to it.

So, what you are saying is, the bow would grant the user the equivalent of a Greater Deity's divine bonus. Well, almost. An intermediate deity merely adds his divine rank to attack rolls, while a greater deity "rolls a 20" each time he attacks. Yours is somewhere in the middle.

You are certainly in major artifact territory, here. Or, you could go easy on the artifact idea and simply have a +20 Bow (Epic item, costing a cool 8,000,000 and needing a 60th level caster in your setting for creation of the thing).

 

[MarkB]

So, what you are saying is, the bow would grant the user the equivalent of a Greater Deity's divine bonus. Well, almost. An intermediate deity merely adds his divine rank to attack rolls, while a greater deity "rolls a 20" each time he attacks. Yours is somewhere in the middle.

You are certainly in major artifact territory, here. Or, you could go easy on the artifact idea and simply have a +20 Bow (Epic item, costing a cool 8,000,000 and needing a 60th level caster in your setting for creation of the thing).

You could maybe go easy on him and reduce the cost by, say, 1/3rd for the enhancement bonus only applying to attack, not damage.

 

[irdeggman]

Definitely in the artifact category.

Precise property - allows ignoring the -4 to shoot into melee (+1 bonus, MIC pg 40)

Ghost touch property - allows ignoring of miss chance against incorporal creatures (+1 bonus, DMG pg 224)


{Maybe Force property instead of ghost touch - allows a projectile weapon to automatically overcome DR adn suffes no miss chance against incorporeal creatures, but doesn;t work against those immune to force effects - +2 bonus, MIC pg 35}

But nothing so far that has auto-hit.

Personnaly I think it is avery bad idea even for an artifact.

There is a reason that a natural 1 always misses on an attack roll.

Magic Missiles are spells and therefore subject to SR and the other things that go along with that. A weapon would not be so restricted (other than an AMF or the like).

Heck the spell True Strike only applies a +20 bonus to hit and no miss chance against concealed opponents. But it still misses on a nat "1".

 

[KeithCrimson]

Sword and Fist.

Bow of True Arrows

Bow of True Arrows. This +1 mighty composite longbow stores the true strike spell, which the weilder can activate with a spell trigger (as with a wand) The wielder gains the benefits of the spell only when shooting an arrow from the bow. Unlike a wand, the bow can cast the spell any number of times. Both arcane archers and initiates of the bow favor bows of true arrows.

Caster level: 5th; Prerequisites: Craft Magical Arms and Armor, true strike; Market price 4,000 Gp; Cost to create: 2250 Gp + 140 XP

 

[the Jester]

Sword and Fist.

Bow of True Arrows

Bow of True Arrows. This +1 mighty composite longbow stores the true strike spell, which the weilder can activate with a spell trigger (as with a wand) The wielder gains the benefits of the spell only when shooting an arrow from the bow. Unlike a wand, the bow can cast the spell any number of times. Both arcane archers and initiates of the bow favor bows of true arrows.

Caster level: 5th; Prerequisites: Craft Magical Arms and Armor, true strike; Market price 4,000 Gp; Cost to create: 2250 Gp + 140 XP

Please note that this is an item widely derided as broken.

You don't figure the cost of an item with a bonus based on the spell emulated, you figure it based on the bonus.

A "never-missing" bow is an artifact imho, and a major one at that.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Please note that this is an item widely derided as broken.

You don't figure the cost of an item with a bonus based on the spell emulated, you figure it based on the bonus.

From my recollection of discussions on it, the conclusion was faulty. It consumes an std action to 'cast' true strike, and then only one attack in the following round gains the benefit of true strike. This item is not equivalent to merely adding a bonus, it requires the wielder to use a spell trigger item. Note the added difficulty that spell trigger items have. Your single-classed fighter can't use this item. Unless some PrC ability reduces the std action time of activating the true strike, it's not broken.

 

[Darklone]

From my recollection of discussions on it, the conclusion was faulty. It consumes an std action to 'cast' true strike, and then only one attack in the following round gains the benefit of true strike. This item is not equivalent to merely adding a bonus, it requires the wielder to use a spell trigger item. Note the added difficulty that spell trigger items have. Your single-classed fighter can't use this item. Unless some PrC ability reduces the std action time of activating the true strike, it's not broken.

Seconded. Especially archers who rely on many attacks per round will only use this special ability in very rare cases.