Arcane Archer Question

[Zad]

What spells are most useful with the Imbue Arrow class ability?

Very very very few.

a) there are very few spells that qualify as "area" spells
b) few of those you will likely even be able to cast
c) some of them you wouldn't want to cast
d) most of them can just be cast with their usual range, and the sole benefit of the imbue - the range - is moot.

Maybe I should ignore the "area" prerequisite and allow the Arcane Archer to apply Imbue Arrow to touch attacks as well.

Personal experience here - I have a fairly high level AA:

The imbue arrow thing is one of those that looks neat, but turns out to be next to useless as written. I think that yes, you should be prepared to expand the definition a bit in order to make it at all useful.

Touch spells might be a bit odd - might be overly powerful. But you should feel free to expand the strict definition of what's imbuable. It's really a junk ability otherwise.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Possible brokenness?

Most of the area detect spells (detect secret doors, detect thoughts, etc.) have the following area:

Area: Quarter circle emanating from the character to the extreme of the range

Could it be ruled, that if an arrow with detect magic is imbued, and shot 1000ft away, you'd detect everything in a 1000ft radius? That's the range of it, now.

 

[Caliber]

I believe someone once suggested pulling a similar trick with a Cone of Cold in a thead on the same topic.

 

[Wippit Guud]

A cone specifies it's only to 30 ft.

These spells says to the extreme of the range.

 

[Caliber]

From the SRD, special bolded section added by me:

Cone of Cold
Evocation [Cold]
Level: Sor/Wiz 5, Water 6
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: Cone
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes
Cone of cold creates an area of extreme cold, originating at the character's hand and extending outward in a cone. It causes 1d6 points of cold damage per caster level (maximum 15d6).

If you want to say the arrow's range replaces the spell's range, it would seem to me that the cone would continue all the way out as far as the arrow goes.

I could be wrong though.

 

[wolff96]

The imbue arrow thing is one of those that looks neat, but turns out to be next to useless as written. I think that yes, you should be prepared to expand the definition a bit in order to make it at all useful.

Maybe I just went into it oddly, but I had a lot more wizard levels than Fighter levels in my Arcane Archer. (Wiz 11/Fighter 1/AA 9 at level 20).

The one house rule that we used on Imbue Arrow is that if you put a spell into an arrow and hit someone with it, it would spread as normal -- but the person physically hit by the arrow got no save against the spell. (This only worked on Reflex for 1/2 spells.)

Suddenly, Imbue Arrow was a wonderful, wonderful ability that I wished I could use far more often.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Hmmm...

Hmmmmmmm....

well, for BALANCE sake, we know the answer, but.....


Hmmmmm.....

I always took cone to be from point of origin of the spell, which would be the impact point.

Whereas the detect spells say a semi-circle from the caster to the etreme of the range...

Hmmmm.....

Dunno.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Took a quick scan through the SRD... here's the area spells that a wizard can cast, that are short range and would benefit from imbue arrow (up to 7th level)

Antimagic Field
Banishment
Break Enchantment
Burning Hands
Color Spray
Cone of Cold
Fear
Forcecage
Grease
Hypnotism
Illusory Wall
Obscuring Mist
Prismatic Spray
Shatter
Slow
Summon Monster #
Summon Swarm

Not much to choose from.

They should make a divine archer, there's some nice short range area spells for clerics.

 

[Caliber]

Hmmm...

Hmmmmmmm....

well, for BALANCE sake, we know the answer, but.....


Hmmmmm.....

I always took cone to be from point of origin of the spell, which would be the impact point.

Whereas the detect spells say a semi-circle from the caster to the etreme of the range...

Hmmmm.....

Dunno.

I know what you mean. Seems a bit TOO wrong to me to. But still. Seems like it should work by the rules.

Weird eh?

Edit: Prismatic Spray would be pretty nasty with Imbue Arrow as well, if it works the way I think it does (the spell, not the ability)

 

[Hypersmurf]

Could it be ruled, that if an arrow with detect magic is imbued, and shot 1000ft away, you'd detect everything in a 1000ft radius? That's the range of it, now.

I found the same loophole last time the question came up

-Hyp.