WotBS [WotBS 3.5] What is the point of Volley Shot?

[jeffh]

I'm converting over the 3.5 WotBS feats for my (Pathfinder) players, and I just got to Volley Shot and can't work out what possible point there is in its existence.

First of all, the flavour text and rules description make no sense together. The flavour text says it lets you make an area attack, but the rules text explicitly states that it affects a single creature, then repeatedly uses grammar that reinforces this.

More importantly, I can't for the life of me come up with a situation where you'd want to use this. The differences between this and a normal attack seem to be:

• Forces you to use a full-round action to make just one attack (when, in order to meet the prerequisites, you must be capable of making two or more attacks this way in at least two different ways!)
• Replaces the attack roll with a Reflex save
• Makes you use three arrows instead of one
• Forbids the use of precision-based damage (and means you can't crit either, since it doesn't use a mechanic that allows for that)

Three of these are obvious drawbacks, albeit a fairly minor one in the case of the third point.

I guess the second one is supposed to be the advantage? Given the remarkably high save DC, this should make for a very good chance to hit, even against foes with a good Reflex save. But this is not guaranteed to always be true, and doesn't seem to be worth the drawbacks. If I just want to be sure I hit, don't care that much about damage, meet the prerequisites for this feat, and am willing to devote a full-round action and three pieces of ammo to the task, why not just make a full attack with Rapid Shot? If I meet the prerequisites, I am ipso facto able to do this, getting three tries at hitting, giving me at least as good a chance to hit with the added bonus of being able to switch to a different foe if I get lucky the first or second time?

Does anyone recall what the design goal for this feat was? I could see the point of it if the save was for half damage (no mention of that), or if it could affect more than one target (even in a small area). These versions of the feat, I could see some point in using, even if the save DC were calculated in a more normal, less generous manner. But as written, the feat seems almost strictly inferior to its own prerequisites.

 

[Lylandra]

The benefit is exactly the reflex save. Which is not always the better option, but there are those creatures (umm, dragons, elementals, giant flying mammoths...) who happen to have really high AC, but relatively low reflex. I don't know whether I would "power up" the feat a bit for Pathfinder. Maybe add a small area of effect.

And yes, the feat was originally meant to be an area attack, as mentioned in this thread

 

[jeffh]

Okay, according to that thread it's not meant for PCs, but for NPCs going up against PCs much higher level than themselves. That's the piece I was missing and I do indeed see how there might be some point to that now. I still think I'll either omit this one or modify it in some way, but at least now I'm working from a more informed position re the original intention.