Find the Gap, Manyshot and more...

[Alpha Polaris]

In a previous thread, I was looking for some way to bypass natural armor. Following some hints, I found what I was looking for, and a bit more, in the form of a spell in the Draconomicon. I quote the spell here for the sake of discussion.

Find the Gap
Divination
Level: Asn 3, Pal 3, Rgr 3
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 1tandard action
Range Personal, Target You, Duration 1 rd/lvl

You gain the ability to perceive weak points in your opponent's armor. Once per round, one of your melee or ranged attacks may disregard the target's armor, shield and natural armor bonuses (including any enhancement bonuses) to armor class. Other AC bonuses, such as (... yada yada...) still apply.

Now, I fully realize that Manyshot has already been discussed ad nauseam, especially with regard to its use with Shot on the Run, but the wording of this spell leaves me with a few questions:

- As a quick reminder, does the lack of somatic component mean that the caster does not provoke attacks of opportunity while casting ?
- Is Manyshot considered a ranged attack for the purpose of this spell ? If so, I suppose all missiles disregard relevant bonuses to AC ?
- The spell does not preclude you from making multiple attacks, it just states that only one attack ignores said bonuses to AC. Does it mean you may make a full attack, and disregard bonuses to AC on your last attack ?
- Bonus question: what do you think about this spell, considering you have to hit level 11 to use it ?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

- As a quick reminder, does the lack of somatic component mean that the caster does not provoke attacks of opportunity while casting ?

No. It does, however, mean that there's no chance of Arcane Spell Failure.

- Is Manyshot considered a ranged attack for the purpose of this spell ? If so, I suppose all missiles disregard relevant bonuses to AC ?

Good question. I'd be tempted to go the route of Sneak Attack, and say the spell effect only applies to the first arrow / bolt / whatever, but I'll need to check the rules some more before I say that definitively.

- The spell does not preclude you from making multiple attacks, it just states that only one attack ignores said bonuses to AC. Does it mean you may make a full attack, and disregard bonuses to AC on your last attack ?

Yes.

- Bonus question: what do you think about this spell, considering you have to hit level 11 to use it ?

Looks interesting - and the fact that it ignores armor, shield, and natural armor bonuses is a good thing, because that's just Touch AC, which is easily found on creature's statblocks.

 

[Alpha Polaris]

I'd be tempted to go the route of Sneak Attack, and say the spell effect only applies to the first arrow / bolt / whatever, but I'll need to check the rules some more before I say that definitively.

That would have been my first guess, but Manyshot is resolved with a single attack roll. So if you fire a number of arrows, the first would hit/miss against touch AC, and the rest would have to go through regular AC ?

 

[Hypersmurf]

That would have been my first guess, but Manyshot is resolved with a single attack roll. So if you fire a number of arrows, the first would hit/miss against touch AC, and the rest would have to go through regular AC ?

This is not unprecedented.

For example, a Manyshot firing a +4 arrow and a normal arrow might beat the target's AC with the magic arrow, but not with the normal arrow - a single attack roll could end up with different results for the magic arrow and the normal arrow.

The same Manyshot against an incorporeal creature might result in the magic arrow striking (50% chance of affecting incorporeal), while the normal arrow cannot affect an incorporeal creature.

In the case of True Strike, for example, which explicitly affects the next attack roll, the result is clear (whatever a Sage might have to say on the matter) - you make one attack roll for Manyshot, and add +20 to your next attack roll.

What's less clear is if the Manyshot is considered one attack, or several attacks.

It's of particular importance when we consider DR. DR 5/adamantine, for example, will subtract 5 from the damage dealt by each attack. If I shoot two cold iron arrows with a Manyshot, do I subtract 5 from each arrow, or 5 from the total?

Consider Scorching Ray, which is considered a volley, similar to Manyshot. We know that Fire Resistance applies to each ray separately. Resistance to Energy states "When resistance completely negates the damage from an energy attack, the attack does not disrupt a spell."

The implication is that Scorching Ray applies to attacks, like DR applies to attacks, but unfortunately the phrasing is not unambiguous - it says that ER applies each time you take damage of the appropriate type. But we can, at least, say that each ray is considered a separate source of damage, since if ER applies three times, you must have taken damage three times.

So, we can confidently rule that each arrow in a Manyshot is a separate damage source, which strongly argues that DR applies against each arrow separately, which means that each arrow is a separate attack, which means that Find the Gap applies to only one arrow.

There is room for argument, I fear - the chain of reasoning is not watertight.

-Hyp.

 

[Alpha Polaris]

Not watertight, but still impressive. Thank you.

 

[JimAde]

In addition to Hypersmurf's well-reasoned argument, my balance-o-meter goes off on this. If Find the Gap worked on all the arrows, there would be no logical reason to preclude Sneak Attack or other precision-based damage from working on all of the them as well.