Spellstrike Ammo

How does this work?
It's activated by casting a spell into it, but does it have to be used right away?

Could a caster fill spellstrike ammo during down time, only to have a non-caster use it?
If so, who's spell DC would it use?

To be clear,I hope to cast benign spells into spellstrike blowgun darts for single action buffs and healing.

Expensive compared to Scrolls or Wands, but usable by non-casters.
Healing potions are better in all ways.

It's not really overwhelmingly powerful but I like the idea of having a face full of needles giving me boosts, and handing out loaded needles to allies.
The single point of nonlethal damage is also a neat drawback.

So would it work?
Can we inject ourselves with expensive spell juice, or am I reading the it wrong?

Activated ammunition has to be used the same turn it's activated, so the same turn you cast the spell into it you have to use it.

Thanks!

I'm kind of stuck on whether or not spell strike ammo is good. It's basically a single use reach action? but it uses your weapon proficiency instead of your spell attack, so either you're using a sub-optimal attack stat, or you've got a sub-optimal DC value, depending on the build that's using this. Either way, it's an entire turn spent shooting a single shot. AS written, I don't think you could put AoE effects into one of these, since it has to "target a creature other than the caster." Even if it could take aoe, it says it hits the target only even if it could target multiple creatures.

SO, what are good spells to actually put into these?

SO, what are good spells to actually put into these?

Shocking Grasp

Basically just shocking grasp.

Spellstrike ammunition seems good in very narrow circumstances. Two actions to cast a spell into one leaves you with only a single attack to deliver the damage. However, it does allow you to load up a lot of damage on that single attack. I believe its best user is a fighter who has multi-classed into a caster, as they're the only ones who can REALLY leverage the advantage of being able to use weapon proficiency instead of spell proficiency.

With haste up, you can cast true strike (>), activate your spellstrike ammunition (storing the highest level shocking grasp you can cast) (>>), then make one strike (>) that has a significant chance to crit and does very high damage.

At 8th level fighter, your spellstriking arrow deals 2d8+4+4d12 plus 1d4+2 persistent electric. A pretty big spike! Though you are putting all your eggs in one basket.

ofMars wrote:

SO, what are good spells to actually put into these?

Shocking Grasp

Fair enough. So, spell strike ammo is best used for martials that take spell casting dedications, rather than casters that take martial dedications, and best with attack roll spells, I guess, since if you've got a decent save DC you probably don't have a great weapon attack roll

Wouldn't the best configuration be a wizard casting the spell on his fighter buddy's ammunition?

Wouldn't the best configuration be a wizard casting the spell on his fighter buddy's ammunition?

Not really, you have to use the ammunition the turn it's activated so only way a wizard casting it on a fighter's arrow would work would be if the Fighter readied their reaction to trigger off the ammo being activated.

Or if their intiative came after the spellcaster's. Or they delay specifically for that.

I'd rather spellstrike ammunition could be prepared in advance, but that would probably be too OP.

Or if their intiative came after the spellcaster's.

It expires at the end-of-turn not the end-of-round.

Wow. Didn't realize that. So really, the only way for it to work is for the wizard to be the archer. That significantly reduces its effectiveness.

I miss the notion of having fire (or cold, or whatever) arrows that do 1d6 of the element. It made a good space for low-level magical loot to hand out.

It would appear that it's the bow or nothing. Unless future books give us more magical ammo.

Wow. Didn't realize that. So really, the only way for it to work is for the wizard to be the archer. That significantly reduces its effectiveness.

I miss the notion of having fire (or cold, or whatever) arrows that do 1d6 of the element. It made a good space for low-level magical loot to hand out.

It would appear that it's the bow or nothing. Unless future books give us more magical ammo.

You could always create ammo that does 1d6 extra damage, that's essentially what the Alchemical Crossbow does with bombs.

Spellstrike ammo does a little more than just + 1d6 element so it's more restricted.

Wow. Didn't realize that. So really, the only way for it to work is for the wizard to be the archer. That significantly reduces its effectiveness.

I miss the notion of having fire (or cold, or whatever) arrows that do 1d6 of the element. It made a good space for low-level magical loot to hand out.

It would appear that it's the bow or nothing. Unless future books give us more magical ammo.

Keep in mind that Bespell Weapon and Divine Weapon are not restricted to melee weapons. It's completely legitimate to cast a (non-cantrip) spell using 2 actions and use your third action to shoot a bow that you were "wielding" at the time to gain bonus damage based on the type of spell (for Bespell Weapon) or either force or alignment damage (for Divine Weapon).

Wow. Didn't realize that. So really, the only way for it to work is for the wizard to be the archer. That significantly reduces its effectiveness.

I miss the notion of having fire (or cold, or whatever) arrows that do 1d6 of the element. It made a good space for low-level magical loot to hand out.

It would appear that it's the bow or nothing. Unless future books give us more magical ammo.

I don't doubt they will, seems like low-hanging fruit for additions to a new ultimate equipment style book. Probably start at +d4 of whatever element, then increase the dice with levels