At our last RPGA game day, a player asked about a special ability. Her character was an Archer, and she wanted the Spell Storing ability to be part of her bow. (Rather than arrows enchanted with the ability.) While I ruled on the fly, I'm wondering what you think the right answers are.
a) Can a bow have the spell storing enchantment on it?
b) Does the bow confer the stored spells to arrows fired from it? (Otherwise, you just have an enchanted improvised quarterstaff, which wasn't the effect she was going for.)
c) If the arrow misses, is the conferred spell used up? Can you choose to confer the same spell on the next arrow? Do you not even decide whether it is used until after a hit is determined?
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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a) Can a bow have the spell storing enchantment on it?
Spell storing is melee only. Take a look at the charts on the SRD here:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm
There is one listing abilities that can go on melee weapons and one listing abilities that can go on ranged weapons. Spell storing is melee only.
b) Does the bow confer the stored spells to arrows fired from it? (Otherwise, you just have an enchanted improvised quarterstaff, which wasn't the effect she was going for.)
When bows bestow their special ability on an arrow, it specifically says so in the description of the ability (e.g., the description of chaotic says that a bow bestows the chaotic power on its ammunition). Since spell storing is not a ranged weapon enchantment, it has no such statement, and so reading strictly, the ability would be in the bow and not the arrows.
c) If the arrow misses, is the conferred spell used up? Can you choose to confer the same spell on the next arrow? Do you not even decide whether it is used until after a hit is determined?
Spell storing works on a successful hit only, so if you were to allow a ranged version and allow that version to effect ammo, the answer would be no, the ability is not used up if you miss. You determine whether to have the spell take effect after you hit and do damage.
Spell storing on a ranged weapon is more powerful than spell storing in a melee weapon because it lets you use touch spells at a range (and a significant range at that). If you were to allow such an ability, I would recommend limiting the range in which it is effective and/or increasing the cost of the ability.
a) Can a bow have the spell storing enchantment on it?Spell storing is melee only. Take a look at the charts on the SRD here:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm
There is one listing abilities that can go on melee weapons and one listing abilities that can go on ranged weapons. Spell storing is melee only.
Those are the listings of random treasure drops. Where does it say you can't craft a ranged weapon with an ability from the melee list except in individual ability descriptions?