Duskblade - Channel Spell + Holding the Charge

[Brain]

This came up last night:

3rd level Duskblade using Arcane Channeling with Shocking Grasp and a melee weapon. He misses the attack. Can he hold the charge in his weapon?

For reference:

Beginning at 3rd level, you can use a standard action to cast any touch spell you know and deliver it through your weapon with a melee attack. Casting a spell in this manner does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The spell must have a casting time of 1 standard action or less. If the melee attack is successful, the attack does damage normally; then the effect of the spell is resolved.

Touch Spells and Holding the Charge: In most cases, if you don’t discharge a touch spell on the round you cast it, you can hold the charge (postpone the discharge of the spell) indefinitely. You can make touch attacks round after round. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates.

 

[bestone]

This came up last night:

3rd level Duskblade using Arcane Channeling with Shocking Grasp and a melee weapon. He misses the attack. Can he hold the charge in his weapon?

For reference:

Funny, i was actually looking at this myself, i think raw no you dont hold it in your weapon, you'd have to deliver it normally. Cause it only states when you cast a spell that you can deliver it through your weapon.

Next round you wont be casting it again if you trying to deliver it from a held charge

You could house rule it anyway you want, but i think they'd have to make a normal touch attack next round, or cast it again to channel it

 

[3d6]

I would say that you could hold the charge in the weapon, but I don't think there's a clear RAW position.

 

[carborundum]

We play 3.0, and that has the duration listed as "Permanent until discharged", so my Duskblade has always been allowed to let it hang around in his sword until he managed to hit (not so often - with his hitpoints he makes good use of his Combat Expertise).
Not sure how I'd call it if I was DM-ing in 3.5 though. From a visualisation POV, I like the idea of him releasing the energy into the blade during a swing, and having it hum there, creeping out opponents

 

[TheGogmagog]

I just don't agree with these replies. At level 13 you can make a full round attack with the spell, but the spell discharges at the end of the round. (Say Chill touch if it's on the duskblade list).

So by the replies that you can hold the charge when you only have one attack a round, you are saying the ability gets weaker at 13th level?

I'll agree that it's not explicit that you can't hold the charge, but it doesn't add up if you allow holding the charge. IMC if you want to hold the charge, you can't channel it.

 

[Brain]

I'm glad to see both sides represented here as I'm trying to come up with a reasonable way to handle it.

That being said, I think the 13th level ability is worth evaluating separately because it allows affecting multiple targets with a touch spell that is normally discharged after affecting only one.

 

[carborundum]

I'd have no problem with holding the charge if the 13th level Duskblade missed every single target.

 

[TheGogmagog]

That being said, I think the 13th level ability is worth evaluating separately because it allows affecting multiple targets with a touch spell that is normally discharged after affecting only one.

It also restricts spells that could have durations past the first round.

As far as I see chill touch is the only spell on the duskblade's list that would be affected by the restriction. which probably won't be known once it's safer to kill undead rather than turn them.

Holding the charge when you miss would be nice, I just don't see any indication that it's an option in the duskblade writeup.

I'm curious about ENW Opinion on something else about the 13th level ability. Does 'spell affect each target' mean after each hit you must choose a new target if you want the spell to take affect a second time? I thought that is what it was alluding to.

 

[Brain]

Yeah, that's my conclusion about the 13th level ability - you only get another application of the spell if you hit a different target during that round. There's also an ambiguity about whether it ends at the end of the full attack, or if it lasts 1 full round (so that you get it on attacks of opportunity as well)

At least it's written better than the spellthief abilities.

 

[Thaumaturge]

Well. I asked WotC Customer Service a few months ago this question:

When a Duskblade (Player's Handbook II) of third level or higher uses his Arcane Channeling ability as a standard action and misses on his attack, what happens to the spell? Does it get spent regardless of whether it hit or missed, or can he 'hold the charge' on his weapon like he could if he had cast the touch spell normally. Also, when a Duskblade of thirteenth level or higher uses Arcane Channeling with a full attack action and he attacks the same target with multiple attacks, does the spell he is channeling affect his target multiple times? The text of his ability says "the spell affects each target you hit in melee combat". Is this each target *only once per round*, or each target every time you hit it with the full attack?

I got this response:

Okay, the 3rd level channeling holds the charge until a successful hit, and the 13th level channeling ends at the end of your round, whether or not hit something. The Full Attack version of the channeling ability will only affect each target you hit once. You could not hit the same target more than once to get the spell effect on them more than once.

Thaumaturge.