Arcane Archer's Imbue Arrow

[Tesserax]

We are playing a campaign, and I am an arcane archer. I am trying to determine how various types of area spells work, when imbued into an arrow.

The two area types we are challenged by are Cones and Lines. As the person playing the archer, I would argue that as part of the casting/imbuing processes, I can determine what direction these effects will take. Here are 2 examples:

1)
We approach a castle, that we must raid. There are guards across the top of the wall, but none are bunched together. My Arcane Archer imbues a lightning Bolt spell into an arrow, and fires it at a guard all the way to the right. He is struck, and the lightning bolt goes off, firing parallel to the wall, thus hitting every guard in a 120 ft line (which is perpendicular to the original arrow's direction).

2)
We HAVE to deal enough cold damage to the fire-troll (yes, I made it up) to kill it, but no one has any cold spells left, except for me. If I just let rip, though, I will kill some of my friends. Instead, I imbue a cone of cold into my arrow, nail the troll, and the cone of cold goes off, straight up, thus I avoid injuring any of my companions.

I have not found any 'official' ruling on this, just lots of opinions... is there an official ruling out there? If not, can I get some educated opinions?

[Sylvanite]

Imbue arrow says the spell is "centered" on where the arrow is....so technically its in the middle of the cone or line. You do, however get to pick the point of origin for the spell still. As long as the arrow is in the center.

As far as I can tell, that is the RAW of it. However, that seems lame for spells that aren't bursts or emanations or spheres. I would say the arrow is the point of origin for cones and lines and such. It just seems to make more sense that way. You would still get to decide their direction.

[Shadow_of_death]

I thought the arrows could only use burst, emanation, or sphere.

[Tesserax]

Shadow_of_death wrote:

I thought the arrows could only use burst, emanation, or sphere.

Here is the precise wording:

At 2nd level, an arcane archer gains the ability to place an area spell upon an arrow. When the arrow is fired, the spell's area is centered where the arrow lands, even if the spell could normally be centered only on the caster. This ability allows the archer to use the bow's range rather than the spell's range. A spell cast in this way uses its standard casting time and the arcane archer can fire the arrow as part of the casting. The arrow must be fired during the round that the casting is completed or the spell is wasted. If the arrow misses, the spell is wasted.

It's the first two sentences that are providing the confusion, as the first one says "an area spell", which, according to the Pathfinder SRD, Area spells are Bursts, Cones, or Lines of Effect (see under Area *LINK*.)

However the second sentence says "the spell's area is centered where the arrow lands". For Bursts (or other circle based spell effects), that's easy. When you switch to cones or lines, it's tougher.

[leo1925]

I also think that RAW says that the target of cone or line is in the middle of it but it seems kinda lame so i am siding with Sylvanite on this one.

[garvdart]

what about a say contingency imbued arrow....with say black tentacles and grease.....

[garvdart]

nevermind was thinking of the old contingency spell...which allowed you too link two spells together into one casting if conditions were met...ill have too comb through the spells and see if there is something like this say spell splicing...or something like it...