Arcane Archer: Imbue Arrow

[GullyFoyle]

But doesn't Imbue Arrow give you greater acurracy. You can shoot an arrow into almost total cover. I assume you can't shoot a fireball or web through an arrow slit at a distance, but if you were a good shot you can do this with a bow - I don't remember the difficulty, but I do remember that it is a possible bow shot.

Thoughts?

 

[Hypersmurf]

I assume you can't shoot a fireball or web through an arrow slit at a distance...

Fireball:
"A glowing, pea-sized bead streaks from the character and, unless it impacts upon a material body or solid barrier prior to attaining the prescribed range, blossoms into the fireball at that point (an early impact results in an early detonation). If the character attempts to send the bead through a narrow passage, such as through an arrow slit, the character must 'hit' the opening with a ranged touch attack, or else the bead strikes the barrier and detonates prematurely."

-Hyp.

 

[GullyFoyle]

Fireball:
"A glowing, pea-sized bead streaks from the character and, unless it impacts upon a material body or solid barrier prior to attaining the prescribed range, blossoms into the fireball at that point (an early impact results in an early detonation). If the character attempts to send the bead through a narrow passage, such as through an arrow slit, the character must 'hit' the opening with a ranged touch attack, or else the bead strikes the barrier and detonates prematurely."

-Hyp.

So an Arcane Archer with a bow would have a better chance than a wizard with ranged touch attack, right?


edit: plus what about web, etc.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So an Arcane Archer with a bow would have a better chance than a wizard with ranged touch attack, right?

Well, yes, but it's not exactly a difficult shot to make.

Being generous, let's call an arrowslit "diminutive" for purposes of calculating its AC.

Base of 10, +4 (size Diminutive), -5 (Dex 0), for a grand total of AC 9.

It's pretty damned hard for even a wizard to miss that by the time he's, say, 11th level - the earliest an Arcane Archer could imbue an arrow with fireball.

And spells have no range increments, so the wizard has no penalty on that roll even from 500 feet away, while the archer is looking at around a -8 range penalty at that distance.

The advantage of imbue arrow is not accuracy; it's range. There aren't many spells that can hit you from 1500 feet away.

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

edit: plus what about web, etc.

From the SRD:

Line of Effect: A line of effect is a straight, unblocked path that indicates what a spell can affect. A line of effect is canceled by a solid barrier. It's like line of sight for ranged weapons, except it's not blocked by fog, darkness, and other factors that limit normal sight.

The character must have a clear line of effect to any target that the character casts a spell on or to any space in which the character wishes to create an effect. The character must have a clear line of effect to the point of origin of any spell the character casts. For bursts, cones, cylinders, and emanating spells, the spell only affects areas, creatures, or objects to which it has line of effect from its origin (a burst's point, a cone's starting point, a cylinder's circle, or an emanating spell's point of origin).

An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square foot through it does not block a spell's line of effect.

Such an opening makes a 5-foot length of wall no longer considered a barrier for purposes of a spell's line of effect (though the rest of the wall farther from the hole can still block the spell).

-------

So again, if the arrowslit is within range, you can cast your Web through it with no problem. You don't even need to see where you're aiming - you only need line of effect, not line of sight.

The advantage of imbue arrow is not accuracy, it's range.

-Hyp.

 

[GullyFoyle]

I see your point, but I disagree. I think it lets you be much more creative with the spells you have. It sounds like a fireball might be a bad example (I'm most familiar with 2ed rules) and I don't have my books with me, and I'm sure you have more experience with it than I do, but I think Imbue can give you a lot more options for spells that are not inherently acurate. Does this make it a super great ability, probably not, but it isn't worthless.

Just my two cents.

I'll check back in tomorrow - have to hit the sack, but thanks for the info.

Gully

edit: sorry didn't see your latest post, I'll think about it some more, thanks again for the ideas

 

[Saeviomagy]

Sounds like it works a charm on cone spells.

Imagine a fear spell covering your army... Or cone of cold...

 

[Bloodstone]

The advantage of imbue arrow is not accuracy, it's range.

The max range of a normal composite long bow is 1100 ft.

The range of a normal fireball cast by a Wizard 18/ AA 2 is 1120 ft.

For a 20th level caster it's a nice round 1200 ft...

so to actually make imbue arrow worth it you need one of the following:

- very poor casting ability. A Fighter 4/Wizard 5/ AA 2 can only shoot his fireballs 600' without Imbue Arrow, so for him the bow nearly doubles the range of his wimpy little 5d6 fireball...

- lots of good area spells that normally have a shorter range. (web, glitterdust, color spray, healing circle, etc)...

- even better range. either the far shot feat (max range 1650 ft), the distance enchantment (2200 ft) or both (2750 ft).

However, I think it's worth mentioning that you need to be in a campaign that supports taking shots at over half a mile away to really make this sort of range worth it.

In your typical dungeon crawl imbue arrow amounts to a ho-hum sort of trick more often then not and you gave up a at least two 9th level spells or several points of BAB to do it...

 

[The Forsaken One]

Wiz 5/ Shadowadept 10/Archmage 3/AA 2

Tensers Transformation ect... Horrid wilting, wail of the banshee, you just make it work baby (not sure about the wail though, noo books here) and with the spell and haste you aren't even passing out on + to attack and stuff


And as for the AC 9 on an arrowslit? I think you are forgetting a possible range increment? Or doesn't that officially apply to spells? (I actually do use it, nonsense otherwise IMHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHO)

 

[Hypersmurf]

And as for the AC 9 on an arrowslit? I think you are forgetting a possible range increment? Or doesn't that officially apply to spells?

If you reread the message where I gave the arrowslit an AC9, you'll note that I pointed out "and spells have no range increments"...

-Hyp.