The spell allows you to swap out your melee dice for your arcane or divine dice on a combat check using a weapon.
Is it just me or does this seem like a fluff spell without an actual use?
Why wouldn't I just carry an actual attack spell? and attack with my arcane dice plus 1-3 d6 depending on the spell.
I can't remember if this spell has the attack trait or not. The only reason I can see it being useful is if it does not have the attack trait allowing you to use arcane or divine dice against monsters that stop you from using the attack trait against them.
It doesn't add the magic trait either IIRC. Sorry just saw it last night and don't have it in front of me.
If I'm wrong I'd love to hear the good uses it does have. It just didn't seem obvious to me why I would want it over another spell.
Seltiel had this for half a game - turns out replacing a D8+4 with a D8+4 is almost entirely pointless.
Depending on how you spend your card/skill feats, this could be useful for Lem or Lini as they carry weapons in their decks and their spell casting skills are better than their weapons skills.
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I tried looking through the different Arcane and Divine characters in S&S, thinking that at least one of them would possibly benefit greatly from it... But I couldn't find anyone.
The two obvious ones, Feiya and Alahazra, can't pack weapons anyway. I suppose it's useful if you acquire one and you're stuck with it during the scenario, but that's a strange contingency spell to carry around.
Lem and Lini could get a slight upgrade out of it with a bigger die and likely higher bonuses depending on how they've been upgraded. But it seems like a very marginal improvement over their already-decent Melee powers.
Oloch and Seltyiel get no benefit what-so-ever really.
Now, once you start looking at the Class Deck characters, it actually gets a little better. For example, the wizard Darago keeps 2 weapons in his deck, despite not having any Melee skill. I could see it being somewhat viable for him, but that's really it.
Well a weapon can give a combat check some traits (like swashbuckling, piercing...) that you'll have a harder time finding in a spell. May come very handy in some cases. For a monster hard to deal with but with a specific weakness to those traits, you may see quite an advantage.
Plus (I don't have the game in front of me) maybe some cards like daggers can be played as second weapons but not as an addition to a spell. And so on.
What is the recharge check on it? Given that weapons tend to allow for more dice if the weapon is discarded, and if Animate Weapon had a low recharge check, it might be a combo some casters could use that would allow them to do more damage than an attack spell and with a lower recharge check.
Granted, it would be at the cost of 2 cards, but that isn't necessarily a bad strategy.
Yeah, the first time we drew it we puzzled over who would even bother. It's not so much about would anyone ever use this? as it is spells are practically the most diverse category in the game, I can't fit all the Cures/Hastes/Black Spots/Auguries/whatever else in my deck, and now you want me to truck this thing around too?
Disappointing, because ensorcelled weapon v. crab is some great card art! :D
I'm in agreement, you'd be better off with an attack spell. Which is a shame, since I like the idea behind it.
Now, if it could be used more than once... That would be a different story. Or if it replaced itself somehow - drew a card, searched for the weapon, whatever. As is, though, it's basically a crappy stat stone (more powerful but far less flexible).
The most obvious trait I can think of that you'd want to add in S&S is Swashbuckling. You could do this with a cutlass and Animate Weapon, but I'd prefer to use Tessa Fairwind. (My Seltiel has just picked up Tessa, and I'm sufficiently in love with her right now that I'm actually considering hand-size +1 as my 4th power-feat!)
I guess some of the plant-monsters and/or jellyfish want "slashing" - it could be good for that.
Darago would probably like it, Melindra too, but as has been noted at length elsewhere, the Wizard Class Deck is largely composed of cards the wizards don't really want, and this spell is absent...
Swashbuckling is just as much a bane as a boon sometimes. A few monsters add to their checks if you are using swashbuckling.
Good points on durago though. I have another group playing with him in it, Maybe I'll stuff it into that group's boon deck instead as he could get actual use out of it.
It seems generally not difficult to get the swashbuckling trait onto checks and yah we couldn't find anyone in the group last night who would even on a mathematical level benefit from using it ever. Oloch has WAAY better options and seltiel just plain doesn't care, Feia can't even pack a weapon reliably...
Now I'm curious if it is an attack trait spell. If not The alchemist could get some REAL mileage out of it since he gets divine/arcane equal to his craft skill, letting him roll a d12 +3 while casting spells without the attack trait! He would get also get to recharge it with that pumped up check as well.
As if he wasn't already a complete combat powerhouse already though <.<
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I just checked. Animate Weapon does NOT have the Attack trait, just Magic, Arcane and Divine. It is a recharge check of 10. And it replaces any skill used by the weapon, not just Melee. You play the weapon as normal, but you discard the spell. So if the weapon only instructs you to reveal it, you will retain the weapon.
It is a decent combo for Damiel. Especially if he takes a weapon that recharges (as opposed to discards). Like Return Throwing Ax +1. He can recharge the weapon, then (hopefully) recharge the spell. Then he would draw them together again. Assuming Damiel is a good deck cycling character (which it looks like he should be), he should get them back before too long.