Blood Crow Strike... just... what?

[Torbyne]

Once again i am confused :)

Here is a really cool sounding spell:

Blood Crow Strike
School evocation [fire]; Level cleric 4
Components V, S
Casting Time 1 round
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target one creature
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes

Your unarmed strikes release blasts of energy in the form of bolts of fire or glowing red crows, which fly instantaneously to strike your target. You can make unarmed strike or flurry of blows attacks against the target as if it were in your threatened area; each successful attack deals damage as if you had hit it with your unarmed strike, except half the damage is fire and half is negative energy (this negative energy does not heal undead). For example, if you are a 14th-level monk, you can use a flurry of blows to attack five times, creating one energy crow for each successful attack against the target, and dealing 2d6 points of damage (plus appropriate unarmed strike modifiers) with each crow.

Here is my confusion, "You can make unarmed strike or flurry of blows attacks against the target as if it were in your threatened area" The spell does not actually grant you an effective monk level for the casting so you need to be a monk to flurry with this spell, correct? and the example character used is at least Monk 14/Cleric 7 for a total of 21 levels?

How does one use this spell to any effect? All i can think of is a Warpriest with weapon focus Unarmed Strike and Improved Unarmed Strike. Maybe multiclass Monk 1/Fighter(Brawler) 3/Cleric(or Warpriest) 7?

[Nicos]

It is a qinggong Ki power.

[Azten]

Well, Qinggong Monks can pick it up as a Ki Power. There's that at least.

[Samuel Stone]

If you are a cleric/oracle, you can cast the spell on a monk. As a 14th level Qinggong Monk, you can take this spell as a ki power.

Using the spell on yourself if you are a cleric/oracle isn't very useful in most situations, as you will not gain the benefit of Flurry of Blows.

[Torbyne]

wow, that is a very specific spell. Too bad, it would be a cool add on for a Warpriest if it werent for all the hoops to jump through to make it effective. Thanks all!

[Malwing]

My problem is that it does not say when it stops. Basically as written you can attack the creature you cast on it from a distance, forever.

[Ipslore the Red]

Duration: Instantaneous. It works once.

[Hawktitan]

Samuel Stone wrote:

If you are a cleric/oracle, you can cast the spell on a monk.

No you can't, the target of the spell is one that you are doing damage to / attacking.

[Samuel Stone]

Hawktitan wrote:

Samuel Stone wrote:

If you are a cleric/oracle, you can cast the spell on a monk.

No you can't, the target of the spell is one that you are doing damage to / attacking.

I always interpreted this spell as a buff rather than a targeting spell. My bad!

Then, can a Qinggong Monk self-cast this and flurry as a free action during his/her next turn, or does the monk need to spend his/her full attack action to shoot out some crows? I assume its the latter, but the wording is a bit unclear.

[Malwing]

Ipslore the Red wrote:

Duration: Instantaneous. It works once.

In that case it does nothing considering that it allows attacks not making attack rolls or modify your next attacks, or it simply targets once and works forever for that target.

[ryric]

Samuel Stone wrote:

Then, can a Qinggong Monk self-cast this and flurry as a free action during his/her next turn, or does the monk need to spend his/her full attack action to shoot out some crows? I assume its the latter, but the wording is a bit unclear.

My read is this:

It's a full round casting time effect, so:
round 1: start using it(can be disrupted)
round 2: it goes off. The spell provides you a "full attack" of blood crows. After, you still have your full normal round, just like with any other full round casting time spell.

Like many full round casting time spells it's fairly powerful but you pay for that in the possibility of disruption.

[Malwing]

That's what it's supposed to mean but that's not what it says.

[Caedwyr]

Malwing wrote:

Ipslore the Red wrote:

Duration: Instantaneous. It works once.

In that case it does nothing considering that it allows attacks not making attack rolls or modify your next attacks, or it simply targets once and works forever for that target.

Based on how damage, heal spells, awaken, Wall of Stone and similar spells work, it appears that it grants the monk either the ability to make all their attacks work as per the spell, or all their attacks against a single specific target as designated by the spell. From the wording, it appears that the second interpretation is better supported by the text. Which is kind of cool and makes it a pseudo smite type ability.

[Torbyne]

The more I think about this spell the worse it gets.

1)Are the Blood Crow Strike hits factored using attack modifiers in place on the round you cast the spell or the round when they "loose"? Thinking about Bardic performances, Haste, any of the last one round blessing/domain/etc things. Could make for a great finisher if someone is trying to flee, start your casting and have the buffers boost you up for it.

2) "as if it were in your threatened area" and "as if you had hit it with your unarmed strike" Does this mean you can flank with this spell?

3) Attack riders, can you stunning fist, disarm, trip etc with these attacks?

4) Style feats, i.e. Boar Shred or Dragon Ferocity, does the bonus damage from these feats still apply as fire and energy?

My game has taken a maritime bend to it lately and I keep thinking about this as a better Anti-Ship weapon.

[WRoy]

1) Spell effects happen when the spell is completed, so yes, a qinggong monk's allies could dump buffs on him while he is in mid-cast.

2) No. It means that you make a full attack of unarmed strikes (including a flurry of blows) at a target at X range as if it were in your threatened area. You are not actually threatening those squares, and the duration is instantaneous in any case. The only reason the spell's description references a threatened area is because these are still melee attack rolls despite being at range.

3) Debated, but RAW these attacks are still unarmed strikes and can carry "effect riders" such as stunning fist, etc.

4) See #3.