Arcane Archer and Phase Arrow...

[Arravis]

The Arcane Archer power Phase Arrow allows you to "launch an arrow...at a target known to her within range, and the arrow travels to the target in a straight path, passing through any nonmagical barrier or wall in its way". Does this mean if target X, who has met the Arcane Archer at one time, goes into a tavern. 20 seconds later, the Arcane Archer stands outside the tavern and shoots the target, would it hit him even if the Arcane Archer has no clue where in the tavern the target is? Is "known to her" mean in a way you "know" your friends and people you've met? Or that you have an idea where he is in a 5'x5' square? in a 10x10 square or what? I'm very confused on this issue... any help would be handy.

 

[trimeulose]

phase arrow simply flies to the target as if walls and barriers were not there. Simply put it travels to point X regardless. Therefore if an arcane archer KNOWS of the location of the target, and the target is within range the Archer (s)he can shoot them without having to worry about cover.

 

[LordAO]

"known to her" means that she knows where the target is, i.e. must be able to see the target. She doesn't have to know who the target is or any other personal info. This ability also allows her to ignore the targets armor bonus, since the arrow passes through armor.

 

[Arravis]

Two in the group are still not convinced, unfortunately, they are taking the "known" target a bit too literally in my opinion. Is there any official examples or anything official written on this? The description of the spell is a bit vague as to how you target someone, I must concede that.

 

[Arravis]

Does a seeker arrow work the same way, as in, you have to know exactly where in the battlefield the target is?

 

[AuraSeer]

I always interpreted it to meant that the archer just has to know what or who she's shooting at-- not necessarily where. She targets the arrow at "Steve, who I know is in the next room" or "the orc who just ran around that corner." If that target is in range, then the arrow figures out where to go, and the archer makes her attack roll (with normal penalties for range).

The book specifically says, "a target known to her within range" (emphasis mine). If the arrow just went to a target square, why would the target have to be "known" to the archer? If the archer needed line of sight, why would they bother giving a Seeker Arrow the power to turn corners?

 

[Arravis]

How about the example I give on my begining post? What if someone goes in a building and you loose track of them? Will a Seeker arrow find them anywhere as long as no obstacles come up? Will a Phase arrow go through all the walls directly to the target, regardless if you know which room he is in or not? That seems extremely overpowerd. What's to stop a Arcane Archer Assassin from killing the king by simply pointing an arrow at the castle and letting go if the king is within range?

 

[hong]

How about the example I give on my begining post? What if someone goes in a building and you loose track of them? Will a Seeker arrow find them anywhere as long as no obstacles come up?

Yes.

Will a Phase arrow go through all the walls directly to the target, regardless if you know which room he is in or not?

Yes.

That seems extremely overpowerd. What's to stop a Arcane Archer Assassin from killing the king by simply pointing an arrow at the castle and letting go if the king is within range?

Walls of force.
Giving the king more than 20 hit points.
A shield spell combined with bracers of armour.
A ring of nine lives (MaoF).

Really, by the time the arcane archer can fire a phase arrow once per day, the typical party will have scry, teleport, dimension door, etc. If they really wanted to assassinate someone, they have plenty of ways to do it instead of relying on a single shot by the archer. If you have a problem with this, tweaking the arcane archer's abilities isn't going to fix it.

 

[Arravis]

So, then what counts as "knowing" the target? Is it knowing your friends? Is it knowing as in knowing there's someone within a 5'x5' square? Which is it? What do you guys think is the "spirit" of the power, since the rule is written vaguely?

*pulls hair out in frustration*

 

[Shadeus]

So, then what counts as "knowing" the target? Is it knowing your friends? Is it knowing as in knowing there's someone within a 5'x5' square? Which is it? What do you guys think is the "spirit" of the power, since the rule is written vaguely?

*pulls hair out in frustration*

I always interpretted this as you can't say, "I shoot the leader of the orcs" when you don't know the leader from everyone else. Or, "I shoot the highest level wizard" when you have no idea who that is. Of course, if the leader was wearing a big head-dress and ducks inside dungeon room slamming the door. You could use that phase arrow to shoot him. Or if the high level mage was wearing a button that read, "I meteor swarmed Cleveland and all I got was this lousy button", you could hit that guy with the arrow too.