Imbue Arrow (Sp)
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.
Okay, so the arrow has to hit, which means you're targetting a foe, right? Or that you have the option of targetting a foe or an area, and if you target an area (a square or a door for instance) then you automatically hit? What if you hit a foe and the spell goes off - does the arrow stick in the target and have its center move with the target thereafter, assuming its not an instantaneous spell?
How would you house-rule something like trying to cast 'Hold Portal' and then firing across a courtyard to seal a drawbridge? Or targetting a chasm bridge with Grease? Or firing at a flying mount with a Silence spell cast? I think this could be a really interesting and entertaining ability, but if you open the pandora's box of actually making it useful then it might suddenly become substantially over-powered...
Well, Hold Portal isn't an area effect, which Imbue Arrow spells must be... grease and silence work. With an emanation like silence, I imagine it would be centered on the arrow. Though I guess an argument could be made for it to be centered on a hit target, I dunno for certain...
Is fun ability though!
(This is a somewhat edited repost from here, since it's more appropriate here)
Some more questions about Imbue Arrow:
Imbue Arrow (Sp): 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,
1) (minor issue) I imbue an arrow with a Fireball, shoot it at an orc in the middle of a group of orcs, and hit. The Fireball blooms... from where exactly? The arrow hit an orc standing in a square, but Fireballs are centered on grid intersections. Eligible grid intersection (that is, bordering the orc's square) closest to me? Determine randomly? Choose freely?
2)(less minor) I imbue an arrow with Fear, and shoot it at & hit the foremost in a group of foes. Fear affects a 30' cone... but where does that cone originate? A literal reading of Imbue Arrow seems to imply that we need to find the center of the cone (centers of cones don't seem to be explicitly defined anywhere?) and put that over the foe. This puts the origin of the cone some 15' in front of the victim (along the path of the arrow).
Now I suspect that this wasn't the intention, at least it seems counterintuitive to me. I suspect the cone was supposed to originate either (most likely) as if I had been standing right before the victim; or(possibly) from the victim as if it was the caster.
I could also see how some people could take the "centered" wording to mean that only spells with a well-defined center are eligible for Imbue Arrow, i.e., that it means "no cones".
How do you run it?