|
I have a few questions about combining Eldrich Archer Magus, Dye Arrows and Named Bullet:
1. If I deliver a ranged touch attack spell with a dye arrow and hit against touch, is the target hit with that spell?
2. If I deliver a ranged touch attack spell with a dye arrow and hit against touch, do elemental damage effects apply (flaming, frost, etc.)?
3. If the dye arrow has named bullet cast on it, would the ranged touch attack spell have a crit threat if it hits against touch?
I welcome any thoughts on legality and brokenness.
1) What you really want to know is - when using spellstrike (ranged or otherwise) does the weapon attack need to hit (regular AC) to discharge the spell, or does it only need to touch to discharge the spell? Its an interesting question, and one I thought i knew the answer to. I thought you needed to hit the appropriate ac for the weapon attack to discharge the spell. but then I read this FAQ stating that spellstrike is not intended to make it more difficult for a magus to use touch attacks.
It also uses touch attack in refrence to the spell and states that hes still holding the spell that can be discharged at the slightest touch (except for holding the weapon). Because of this, i establish that spells being delivered with spell strike are still touch spells, and would discharge on a touch ac hit, even if the weapon is riding on would otherwise fail to hit.
You added the wrinkle of a Dye arrow, an arrow that targets touch ac. This simplifies the approach, but might be unneccisary.
TL; DR: Without a dye arrow it would probably work, but expect Table Variation. With a Dye Arrow, it would almost certainly be yes.
2) Elemental effects of the spell? Certainly. Elemental effeects of the arrow(assuming it was enchanted)? YMMV. But if you are talking about the elemental effects of the arrow, it does not matter if you are delivering a touch spell, that is about the interaction of the dye arrow and the enchantment.
3) Yes.
As a note, this is really a rules question. Its about how various rules interact.
I have a few questions about combining Eldrich Archer Magus, Dye Arrows and Named Bullet:
1. If I deliver a ranged touch attack spell with a dye arrow and hit against touch, is the target hit with that spell?
2. If I deliver a ranged touch attack spell with a dye arrow and hit against touch, do elemental damage effects apply (flaming, frost, etc.)?
3. If the dye arrow has named bullet cast on it, would the ranged touch attack spell have a crit threat if it hits against touch?
I welcome any thoughts on legality and brokenness.
1 - yes, but at best this is just paying the arrow ammunition cost to use weapon focus(bow) with your regular spell. Why use weapon attacks to get your spells against touch AC when your spells already are against touch AC before the magus gets his spellstrike hands on it?
2 - I would lean towards No, because the flaming enchantment is coming from the ammunition (by proxy of the bow possibly) and the special ammunition says "takes no damage"
3 - Yes, because that's in the description of named bullet. The spell would be a critical hit. In fact, it's not even necessary to use a dye arrow because named bullet allows the normal arrow to target touch AC.
but then I read this FAQ stating that spellstrike is not intended to make it more difficult for a magus to use touch attacks.
It also uses touch attack in refrence to the spell and states that hes still holding the spell that can be discharged at the slightest touch (except for holding the weapon). Because of this, i establish that spells being delivered with spell strike are still touch spells, and would discharge on a touch ac hit, even if the weapon is riding on would otherwise fail to hit.
This is categorically incorrect. There is no language in any of the rules for attacking that allows this, for the simple reason that "hitting" and "missing" are the two binary options within the rules on any attack.
If you roll a 20, and his ac is 21, you simply don't hit. You don't graze his armor and discharge your touch spell, you simply miss. There's no by-rules contact that is happening. Therefore, no discharge of your touch spell.
When the FAQ says "not intented to make it more difficult", it's simply talking about the action economy. A wizard needs a standard action to cast the spell, a free action given to deliver the touch spell, and the ability to make the attack. The magus is given "more options when it comes to delivering touch spells", namely the ability to instead choose to deliver it via your weapon and add weapon damage and crit range to the attack.
This is further evidenced by the language in spellstrike: "Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell". This means that you're only making a melee attack against regular AC. You can't hit against touch AC without making a touch attack against it.
^Last time I checked, Natural 20 always hits.
^Last time I checked, Natural 20 always hits.
I meant a modified 20, not a natural 20. Who has an attack bonus of 0 anyway?
3. Named Bullet allows you to hit against touch and crit if the roll would be a hit without the spell. The point of the combo would be to be able to crit on any successful touch attack making it almost an auto crit.
Ahh, I didn't catch that part of named bullet.
Then yeah, targeting a dye arrow with named bullet, then attacking a spell to that dye arrow would essentially be guaranteeing a critical hit against touch.
I personally don't think that's too overpowered, because you're essentially spending 1 gold and two spells to deal double damage on one spell. Probably only useful if you manage to cast named bullet without being detected and then alpha-strike a high single target spell, like maybe disintegrate.