The example in the description of the Seeking property specifically uses a bow. Even though it seems like it's affecting the ammunition, it's really the same thing as Distance in that the bow is firing the arrow differently. I'm pretty sure that's why it is NOT one of the enhancements that is specifically transferred to the ammunition. I understand where you're coming from with that, though. However, I think that by RAW your interpretation would be a houserule (which are fine).Per my understanding of the rules, your bow is legal - the Seeking property of the bow is not passed to the arrow, so doesn't count against its +10 limit. I'd let it play at my table.That's my opinion, too, but I'm not sure it's the same as your's concerning the statement's consequences. As I understand footnote 2, the only time a seeking enchantment for a bow is useful is when using the bow as an improvised thrown weapon. You want a seeking arrow? Enchant the ammunition.
Actually I was trying to give my opinion on the RAW (that "seeking" is a property of the thing propelled at an opponent is the better solution flavorwise is another matter). I'm afraid I cannot find a bow as an example for the seeking property in my rulebook, can you give me a hint? What I find is the (fluff, I guess) discription "The weapon veers towards its target ..." which sounds weird for a bow.
The distance enchantment is different, as ammunition doesn't have a given range at all, that's a property of the bow (and need not be bestowed on the arrows), and "speed" works similarily, as it isn't a property of an arrows how many of them can be shot in a round (personally I don't allow ammunition to be enchanted with "speed", but I'm not backed by the rules on this afaik).
With "brilliant energy" paizo explicitely stated that it only affects melee, thrown and ammunition, with "returning" the stated that only thrown weapons may be enchanted that way, so an argument against my ppint my be: why haven't they written that "seeking" only applied to thrown weapons and ammunition?
Well, at least we can agree that this is all a bit messy, I guess :)
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I haven't found anything that makes the bow and the arrow the same weapon.
The only thing the book says is that the enhancement bonus does not stack.
So no +5 bow +5 arrow = +10 to hit and damage. The problem I see with going they together can only go to 10 enhancement bonus is there would be no reason to spend money on 1 shot magic arrows. Honestly if a dude wants to spend the gold to get +10 enhancement bonus arrows and fire them from a +10 enhancement bow as long as the bonuses don't overlap IE arrow and bow are both flaming then if he wants to spend his plat on it there is nothing in the raw preventing him from doing so.
Seeking: "Only ranged weapons can have the seeking ability. The weapon veers toward its target, negating any miss chances that would otherwise apply, such as from concealment. The wielder still has to aim the weapon at the right square. Arrows mistakenly shot into an empty space, for example, do not veer and hit invisible enemies, even if they are nearby."
Interesting. You have a certain point with your reading of it. You're also right in that if it couldn't be applied to Bows, crossbows, blowguns, slings, etc. that they would specify as they do for so many other enhancements.
Looking further, can you even wield ammunition? Can you enchant ammunition with the Speed property? The Distance property only applies to ranged weapons, yet cannot be placed on ammunition as ammunition has no listed range. Are Holy arrows or Unholy arrows a way to bypass the negative level granted by wielding weapons of opposed alignment, considering you wield the bow and not the ammunition?
Arrows can be wielded as improvised melee weapons, does that mean you can put melee enchantments on them? Do those enchantments work still when they're fired from a bow? If not, do they count towards the +10 max? If so, how valuable are spellstoring arrows and the feat that allows characters to use improvised weapons at no penalty....especially considering you can draw as many arrows per round as you have attacks...
*sigh*
Edit: Answered my own question about spellstoring arrows as improvised weapons. They would still have to be enchanted one by one as improvised melee weapons to gain melee weapon properties. However, you could enchant 50 arrows with Flaming or some such thing to gain 50 flaming weapons to use with the Catch Off-Guard feat. Interesting concept for an army....all soldiers are trained in improvised weapons (they all have Catch Off-Guard), allowing you to arm them with one magical arrow each (arm 50 soldiers with magic weapons for the price of one!). You could then have casters going around with Flame Arrow wands before the battles.
It works.
If you have a +5 holy bow of speed, and fire +1 flaming frost arrows from it, you fire arrows at a +5 enhancement bonus, one additional attack per full round and they deal 1d6 fire and 1d6 cold.
The trade off here is that if you are firing +10 arrows from a +10 bow, you've spent 400K gp, half of that on ammo, and when your arrows run out, you're all done with that fun trick.