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One of the people I tend to GM for in PFS informed me that he's interested in the Pilum as a weapon for his character, rules for which can be found at: Advanced Player's Guide - Gear (He's going for a general "Roman Warrior" theme with his character.) However, aside from the legality of the weapon in PFS (as far as I can tell, it's legal), he's worried about the cost. 5 gp is a steep price for a single weapon that will be destroyed, should it hit a target.
Furthermore, since it appears to only be treated as ammunition for that purpose, a masterwork Pilum appears to run 305 gp; a cost that seems a bit outlandish for a single piece of nonmagical, nonalchemical ammunition. (If it's meant to be treated as ammunition for cost, that would cost 11 gp apiece and ameliorate but not entirely dismiss some concerns).
In the interest of addressing these costs, I was wondering whether Mending might be used to restore broken (non-magical) ammunition, or whether Make Whole would be the only way to do so. I know of at least one group in my area that uses Mending in this way, and I was wondering if this might be allowed (perhaps even for a masterwork weapon).
My player had specifically asked about using Craft(weapon) to fix it, but unfortunately, the best that could do, I think, is raise money a la Day Job to buy some new ones (though it might be described in downtime as repairing one, for roleplaying purposes).
Anyway, does anyone have any ideas?
I have no idea about PFS, however if he gets all the parts of the weapon then Mending might work. The problem is that unlike other ammo this is designed to break apart. And it all needs to be there for Mending to work.
Make whole works as mending for this purpose except it can fix the magic of a magic item.
I would suggest that this shouldn't be his primary weapon. As I understand it the fighting style for a Pilum was to throw it to disable your targets defense followed by charging with your gladius (short sword). If he just wants it for flavor he can call a different weapon a pilum and use that weapons stats and functionality. Then he could throw his javelin\spear and not have it break.
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Well, Mending does sound promising, then. As I understand Pila, they don't shatter apart in quite the same way as you'd expect from other types of ammunition, so retrieving the pieces should be possible.
(He's actually been using Javelins up until now, but is interested in pursuing a more accurate version of the pilum, since mechanics already exist for it.)
Anyone with PFS standing to make an official ruling about Mending (or the personal experience about a prior ruling) to help me out? He may want to try out the Pilum this weekend if we can find a good solution to the problem of cost.
Mending is usually considered doable. Start with destroyed arrow, cast mending. Viola, you now have a whole arrow.
Now, beyond that yes, you could state that the person needs to retrieve all the little bits. A time consuming process but probably less so than the spell itself.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with a Pilum on a regular basis and I only usually suggest Mending on things like Adamantine arrows.
- Gauss
The only problem I see (besides what has already been said) is that his casterlevel (or the casterlevel of the one casting mending) has to be high enough. A pilum has a height of 4lb after all, which means CL4 is needed.
If he uses this tactic to throw his pilum and then go to melee on a regular basis he should check if opening volley feat is PFS legal.
This spell repairs damaged objects, restoring 1d4 hit points to the object. If the object has the broken condition, this condition is removed if the object is restored to at least half its original hit points.
Generally speaking, ammunition that hits its target is destroyed or rendered useless, while ammunition that misses has a 50% chance of being destroyed or lost.
If the damage you deal would reduce the object to less than 0 hit points, you can choose to destroy it.
When an object's hit points reach 0, it's ruined.
Mending heals hit points to an object and removes the broken condition. Ammunition is destroyed in most cases as soon as you use it. An item is destroyed / ruined if it has less than 0 hit points.
You cannot heal hit points to a destroyed item -> Mending dont work.
It is not game breaking and it is legal on my table but some GMs will argue in this way (see above).
Magic items that are destroyed (at 0 hit points or less) can be repaired with this spell, but this spell does not restore their magic abilities.
If you can get a magical version in some form, you can Mend it, even at 0hp. It seems odd that you can't do the same with mundane objects..since you could fix a broken magical one, which becomes non-magical...
Magic ammunition (or in general 'items') is better than mundane ammunition. You can use it twice if mending is available. The rules of mending are clear.
Only magic items with 0 hit points or less can be repaired. Mundane are destroyed and lost.
It is not game breaking to allow it but it is not RAW.
Magic ammunition (or in general 'items') is better than mundane ammunition. You can use it twice if mending is available. The rules of mending are clear.
Only magic items with 0 hit points or less can be repaired. Mundane are destroyed and lost.
It is not game breaking to allow it but it is not RAW.
Magic ammo loses its magic after being shot once. You can see this in the rules for durable arrows.
But as pilums are only treated as ammo when it comes to being destroyed on a hit this doesn't apply to the pilum.
Eridan, I disagree that it is not RAW. It is clear that you can repair destroyed items from the section Blindmage quoted. It is pointing out a limitation (that magic is not restored), not stating that ONLY magic items can be restored from a destroyed condition.
- Gauss
LazarX, the spell specifically states it fixes destroyed items.
- Gauss
Mending will not repair a destroyed item.
Ammunition does not get the broken condition if it hits, it gets the "destroyed" condition.
In which case you're out of Mending and into "Make Whole" territory. One spell for each pilum.
Make Whole works "as Mending". I don't see how if Mending doesn't work that Make Whole would.
I think Mending with a sufficient caster level would work just fine.
Mending and Make Whole are able to "heal" magic items as an exception to the above rule. Therefore any magical pilum can be repaired if they become destroyed, but mundane ones won't.
But of course, once you repair the magical ones one time (with Mending), then they are no longer magical and cannot be repaired again, which is batty.
I think it allows you to repair destroyed mundane objects as well, otherwise, it's gets really weird. it allows you to keep that magical MW sword that's been your Heirloom Weapon that you've carried to hell and back to get enchanted, but was sundered when you used it to prop open that monster's mouth to free your friend, it's lost it's magic, but it's whole again....but if it breaks now you're SOL since it's easier to fix magic than mundane stuff....right...