| Rubia |
| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Let's say I'm a 5th level magus, and I just got the following really cool ability:
At 5th level, these bonuses can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: dancing, flaming, flaming burst, frost, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, speed, or vorpal.
So, the next combat I get into, I activate my swift action to make my blade FLAMING! No wait, I don't. I instead gain the ability to take a standard action to start my blade flaming, as per the magic weapon section (quote below). So, I spend my entire turn to activate my arcane pool ability. . . that lasts for a minute. If I foolishly chose to add flaming and frost and shock, I can set this up 3 rounds later. Is this right?
Here is the relevant quote from the Magic Weapon section:
Activation: Usually a character benefits from a magic weapon in the same way a character benefits from a mundane weapon—by wielding (attacking with) it. If a weapon has a special ability that the user needs to activate, then the user usually needs to utter a command word (a standard action). A character can activate the special abilities of 50 pieces of ammunition at the same time, assuming each piece has identical abilities.
Upon command, a flaming weapon is sheathed in fire that deals an extra 1d6 points of fire damage on a successful hit. The fire does not harm the wielder. The effect remains until another command is given.
The reason it's not an issue normally is that there isn't a duration, so you can activate it "once" and it's on forever. But in this case, you don't get the ability until you spend the arcane pool as a swift action.
Question 1: Should we assume that the arcane pool brings up weapon abilities in active status?
Ok, next ability. . . speed.
It seems like a magus might want to add this to a weapon to get an extra attack when they're doing their spell combat thing. But, it seems you can't.
Here's the relevant text. I've bolded the important parts. . .
At 1st level, a magus learns to cast spells and wield his weapons at the same time. This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast. To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand. As a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with his melee weapon at a –2 penalty and can also cast any spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1 standard action (any attack roll made as part of this spell also takes this penalty). If he casts this spell defensively, he can decide to take an additional penalty on his attack rolls, up to his Intelligence bonus, and add the same amount as a circumstance bonus on his concentration check. If the check fails, the spell is wasted, but the attacks still take the penalty. A magus can choose to cast the spell first or make the weapon attacks first, but if he has more than one attack, he cannot cast the spell between weapon attacks.
When making a full-attack action, the wielder of a speed weapon may make one extra attack with it. The attack uses the wielder's full base attack bonus, plus any modifiers appropriate to the situation. (This benefit is not cumulative with similar effects, such as a haste spell.)
Question 2: Can you use the speed enhancement along with spell combat?
Are these items that have been FAQ'd or otherwise addressed?
Rubia
