Hunter's Mercy

[JDinkum]

One of our party members used Hunter's Mercy for the first time last night and the DM was not happy. The ranger, with his +4 composite longbow fired an arrow with a cold iron head at a jacked red cap in the cliffs near on Ft. Blackwell during the STAP. Even though he was using multishot and the red cap had cover, the ranger argued he had an automatic hit and crit threat.

Spoiler:

Hunter's Mercy
Transmutation
Level: Rgr 1
Components: S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round

Your eyes glow red, but you see the world as normal except when you look at your target. A small glowing dot reveals the creature's weakest point.

This transmutation makes a bow strike true. Your first hit with a bow (not including crossbows) in the next round is automatically a critical hit. If you don't hit in the round following the casting of this spell, the effect is wasted.

The DM thought the spell was broken, the ranger (obviously) argued for it. It was the heat of battle of a long night, so the DM let it go though he said no to the multishot.

What do you guys think? If DMing would you allow this spell? If an archer ranger would you NOT take it?

[Ungoded]

It's not an automatic hit. It says so in the spell text that you posted:

"This transmutation makes a bow strike true. Your first hit with a bow (not including crossbows) in the next round is automatically a critical hit. If you don't hit in the round following the casting of this spell, the effect is wasted."

It's not an auto-hit critical threat. It's an auto-crit on a successful hit.

If you miss, you miss. If you hit, ouch.

[Misanpilgrim]

The way I read this, he didn't have an automatic hit, or even a bonus to hit. If he did manage to hit his target (unlikely, in this situation), he'd automatically get a critical.

Edit: And what Ungoded said, too.

[Rhavin]

wow, the interpretation of the spell as you used it is off in so many ways.
-It says "if the shot hits". that precludes an auto-hit
-It goes on to say that this is an "automatic critical hit", this does not mean a threat, instead it automatically is treated as both threat and confimation.
-to further evaluate, the text of multishot makes clear that a critical hit or sneak attack only applies to one arrow, not theother or others.

As fr weather I would use it: yes, but only as a sniping attack; it has one-stanard action to cast and thus one cannot cast it and make an attack in the same round

[Freehold DM]

More broke than me after my wedding. I would disallow it. Let them take True Strike instead.

[varianor]

Sounds like the DM was ticked that he didn't get to use his jacked-up redcap. Tch tch. Two of his tougher redcap brothers could have run in around the corner right afterward....

Anyway, it's fine. It lasts for one round. It affects one creature and gives you a crit. Maybe. Rangers get what, one first level spell for the longest time, then two, and so on? No worse than true strike, which everyone panicked over at first.

[JDinkum]

Looks like the Ranger misread the description and convinced everyone else to misread it too!

[Kobold Catgirl]

Keep in mind that not only is it a ranger spell (he has to get to 4th level to use it), but that, using it with multishot, only the first arrow would get a crit. And only if it hit in the first place. I'd say the spell is fine.

[Korgoth]

Yeah, its the DMs responsibility to make sure that the players are not making idiot mistakes. Whenever something like that comes up with our group, everyone pulls out a copy of the approprate book and we race to prove them wrong. Either the player misread the spell or he was trying to cheat; whatever the case, the DM needed to read the spell for himself. (which is not broken, by the way)