Hello, sorry to bother. I was wondering because the description of the feat says "You can shoot or throw ranged weapons at an opponent engaged in melee without taking the standard -4 penalty on your attack roll".
Shoot or throw ranged *weapons*.
So... Are rays (magic rays such as enervation, scorching ray, and so on) treated as "weapons"?. Or in other words, do I incur in the -4 penalty if I shoot my ray to an opponent engaged in melee (a situation that will come up often in my wizard's adventures). Im somewhat worried because my wizard won't probably be good at shooting with her base attack bonus and her not-too specialized dexterity bonus (aiming at a 12 or 14) and honestly I don't want to spend my feats in point blank shot/precise shot (but will if i have to ): )
Thank you!
Also this is the description of "shooting or throwing into a melee" If you shoot or throw a ranged *weapon* at a target engaged in melee with a friendly character, you take a -4 penalty on your attack roll."
Yes, it does. Rays are treated as weapons. Anything that affects weapons and doesn't specify manufactured weapons OR melee weapons can affect a ray.
Even inspire courage affects them.
yes.
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Ranged touch attacks, like the various ray spells, do indeed suffer the -4 penalty when used to attack someone who is in a threatened square.
And, equally, Precise Shot negates said penalty.
And, also, for ranged attack spells that do actual hit point damage, they can benefit from the effects of Point Blank Shot. Ranged attacks spells that do not do hit point damage can still gain the +1 to hit from PBS, just not the damage boost.
Note that spells like Magic Missile gain no benefits from either Point Blank SHot or Precise Shot, since it does not have an attack roll.
thank you! however I believe this will bring in more disadvantadges than advantadges ):
Honestly I was thinking the same but I was looking for an obscure rule to save me. So I better buy feats, be invisible, on higher ground (flying) and all if I want to land a spell on my targets. Le sigh.
Its slightly confusing, and would be less so if it specified ranged attacks without specifying weapons. That may or may not cover more territory, but ut would be better wording.
thank you guys for the explanations :D, will also take those into account when DM wants to use rays on party members ;D
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thank you! however I believe this will bring in more disadvantadges than advantadges ):
Honestly I was thinking the same but I was looking for an obscure rule to save me. So I better buy feats, be invisible, on higher ground (flying) and all if I want to land a spell on my targets. Le sigh.
A few things that can help:
Use your ranged attack spells against targets who are not threatened in melee. That Wizard/Sorcerer standing behind the front line is a good target. ;)Take feats that improve your attack rolls (Weapon Focus: Rays, for example)
Remember that, especially as you go up in level, touch AC is usually easier, if not significantly easier, to hit than regular AC. There was a whole debate about Gunslingers (who attack touch AC in their first range increent) and Dragon AC (around 35 at that level) and Dragon Touch AC (still around 10 at that level). Remember that most defensive modifiers don't affect touch AC. Armor, shield, natural armor, just to name the biggies.
And, last but not least, avoid spells with attack rolls. Either specialize in a single school, and take Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, etc., to up the DC of the spells' saves, or work with party buffs, where saving throws will pretty much not matter.
Haste, for instance, is seldom a bad spell choice. At the intermediate levels, stay with the +4 stat buffs, and move up to the mass versions, at least until your party has them covered with items.
And, of course, there are the spells with saves that still can be handy even when saved against, like Glitterdust (even if it saves against being blinded, preventing the target from using Invisibility is a good thing.)
thank you Callarek! all of those are Pro tips :D. Played a succesful wizard in 3.5 (up to lvl 16) but I believe we were young and missing some of the rulings =P.
Yeah, in the end I think buffing will be safer ground. Planned my wizard to be evoker/admixture school in order to deal some damage to most mobs and feats allowing be able to spell focus/gsf both evocation and either enchantment or transmutation since there are a lot of save or die (cc) spells. I learnt a lesson from certain final boss of a Pathfinder campaign where a save or die aoe spell at DC 34 can instakill 3+ party members and win the encounter through that.
Indeed! I am totally a fan of touch attacks (Wraithstrike will be in my heart forever) but some mobs (the dexterous type) seem to be a real problem (touch AC at 20+ which will surely be problematic for a wizard to hit).
There's another wizard in the party and I believe he will be an abjurer/counterspeller specializated who designed evocation as opposition school, so we might be lacking somewhat in aoe, elemental damage and all of that.
Thank you for the tips and thank you all for your time and insight :D
p.s.: yeah every party loves haste. I used to buff blessing of fervor both on my cleric and on my oathbound: revenge pally and I believe it was never a bad spell to cast!
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p.s.: yeah every party loves haste. I used to buff blessing of fervor both on my cleric and on my oathbound: revenge pally and I believe it was never a bad spell to cast!
Oh, yess. Played an 11th level module recently, and we had two spellcasters in the party, one usually started the encounter by casting Blessing of Fervor, and the other started with Haste. Now, some of the options in BoF won't stack with Haste, but I think it is still a fairly good combo.
I think so!