More bladesinger questions

[On Puget Sound]

1. feat:

Arcane Reserves

Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Human, any arcane class
Benefit: If all your arcane encounter attack powers are expended, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with your arcane at-will attack powers until the end of the encounter or until you regain the use of one of your arcane encounter attack powers.

Is this feat always on for a bladesinger, unless he somehow acquires an encounter power? "All" can equal 0, after all.

2. (I think I know the answer, but hoping I'm wrong)... Bladespells have neither the Weapon nor the Implement keyword. Does this mean they gain no benefit from the "properties" of the weapon being used in the MBA that triggers them?

 

[Don Incognito]

Note that the bonus is to damage ROLLS to ARCANE powers. Bladesinging riders don't involve dice rolls, so they don't get the damage. MBA isn't Arcane, so that doesn't get the damage either.

 

[On Puget Sound]

Note that the bonus is to damage ROLLS to ARCANE powers. Bladesinging riders don't involve dice rolls, so they don't get the damage. MBA isn't Arcane, so that doesn't get the damage either.

Excellent point. So the feat does work, but only for the human bonus at-will, which still makes freezing burst or thunderwave much more attractive.

 

[Don Incognito]

More importantly, it also works for Eldritch Strike, although even then it's just about as attractive as paragon tier Weapon Focus (read: not very).

 

[thewok]

Is this feat always on for a bladesinger, unless he somehow acquires an encounter power? "All" can equal 0, after all.

There is discussion on the WotC charop forums regarding an effect like this. Some people say that bladesinger dailies are encounter powers that act like dailies. Basically this is a strict interpretation of the text that means that all Bladesinger daily powers are technically encounter powers with a special exception that makes them usable once per day.

The opposing stance is that, yes, this effect would always be on for a Bladesinger, as its bladesinger daily powers are, in fact, daily powers, even if they're taken from the wizard encounter power list.

Personally, I'm with the second group. The first group's interpretation makes the level 3 Bladesinger feature "Arcane Strike" useless, as "there is no such thing as a 'Bladesinger daily attack power.'"

2. (I think I know the answer, but hoping I'm wrong)... Bladespells have neither the Weapon nor the Implement keyword. Does this mean they gain no benefit from the "properties" of the weapon being used in the MBA that triggers them?

Correct. The MBA and the Bladespell are separate attacks. Bladespells simply do effects, and they are not affected by any enhancement bonuses or properties from a weapon or implement. As an example, Unseen Hand can slide a target only up to three squares, even if you have an orb equipped and have the Orb Expertise feat. You do not make the attack with the orb.