Does a Magus' Spellstrike cast the spell INTO the weapon or THROUGH the weapon?


Rules Questions


Interesting scenario popped up in last night's game. My magus cast Vampiric Touch as part a Spellstrike but missed. Thus, he held the charge. The creature then hit him hard enough to knock him unconscious. When that happens, you fall prone and drop your weapon. If the spell is stored in the weapon, I believe it goes away as soon as the magus let's go of it. However, if it is stored in the magus himself, I believe the charge holds until he touches something else.

Just FYI, the party healer immediately channeled so my magus woke up under a very large and angry beast. If the charge was still in his hand, I could have made a (prone) touch attack to potentially drain the creature of some HP and further heal myself. However, if the charge was gone, I would have woken up under said angry beast with no magic and no weapon in hand. My DM ruled it was the latter scenario which is fine but just curious if there is a rule to support this either way in case it happens again.

Thanks!


There's a FAQ for that.

http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5ld3d?FAQ-Attack

"On a related topic, the magus touching his held weapon doesn’t count as “touching anything or anyone” when determining if he discharges the spell. A magus could even use the spellstrike ability, miss with his melee attack to deliver the spell, be disarmed by an opponent (or drop the weapon voluntarily, for whatever reason), and still be holding the charge in his hand, just like a normal spellcaster. Furthermore, the weaponless magus could pick up a weapon (even that same weapon) with that hand without automatically discharging the spell, and then attempt to use the weapon to deliver the spell. However, if the magus touches anything other than a weapon with that hand (such as retrieving a potion), that discharges the spell as normal."


FAQ wrote:

Magus: Can a magus use spellstrike (page 10) to cast a touch spell, move, and make a melee attack with a weapon to deliver the touch spell, all in the same round?

Yes. Other than deploying the spell with a melee weapon attack instead of a melee touch attack, the magus spellstrike ability doesn’t change the normal rules for using touch spells in combat (Core Rulebook page 185). So, just like casting a touch spell, a magus could use spellstrike to cast a touch spell, take a move toward an enemy, then (as a free action) make a melee attack with his weapon to deliver the spell.

On a related topic, the magus touching his held weapon doesn’t count as “touching anything or anyone” when determining if he discharges the spell. A magus could even use the spellstrike ability, miss with his melee attack to deliver the spell, be disarmed by an opponent (or drop the weapon voluntarily, for whatever reason), and still be holding the charge in his hand, just like a normal spellcaster. Furthermore, the weaponless magus could pick up a weapon (even that same weapon) with that hand without automatically discharging the spell, and then attempt to use the weapon to deliver the spell. However, if the magus touches anything other than a weapon with that hand (such as retrieving a potion), that discharges the spell as normal.

Basically, the spellstrike gives the magus more options when it comes to delivering touch spells; it’s not supposed to make it more difficult for the magus to use touch spells.

Edit: Ninja'd by 16 seconds. :)


Awesome! Thanks for the quick responses!


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Does touching the ground count as touching anything other than a weapon?
I would say yes personally, in which case I would've ruled the same way your DM did, but if you were disarmed or dropped the weapon & remained standing, then you would retain the charge in your hand, by my interpretation.


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^That would result in your discharging the spell charge as soon as you took even a 5' (or even sub-5') step, since by that ruling, your feet would also count and discharge the spell just from stepping on anything (including normal ground).


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Where in the rules does it say that spellcasters with a held charge in their hand can lose it through their feet if they touch anything with their feet?


Dukasaurus82 wrote:
Where in the rules does it say that spellcasters with a held charge in their hand can lose it through their feet if they touch anything with their feet?

Where is the rules does it say your hands are considered touching the ground while prone?


Dukasaurus82 wrote:
Where in the rules does it say that spellcasters with a held charge in their hand can lose it through their feet if they touch anything with their feet?

So, you can't discharge a spell using an unarmed strike/natural attack with a body part other than a hand?

If you look through the entire 'Holding the Charge' section of the rules, the word 'hand' is nowhere to be found.


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[Hansel voice] The spellstrike is coming from INSIDE the weapon!


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On a related topic, the magus touching his held weapon doesn’t count as “touching anything or anyone” when determining if he discharges the spell.
A magus could even use the spellstrike ability, miss with his melee attack to deliver the spell, be disarmed by an opponent (or drop the weapon voluntarily, for whatever reason), and still be holding the charge in his hand, just like a normal spellcaster.
Furthermore, the weaponless magus could pick up a weapon (even that same weapon) with that hand without automatically discharging the spell, and then attempt to use the weapon to deliver the spell.

It's in his hand, he delivers the spell through any weapon he attacks with while holding the charge.

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