Bounce Rays off Mirrors


Homebrew and House Rules

The Exchange

I think that taking a feat to be able to bounce rays would be really fun. You could shoot spells around corners and you could make attacks without revealing your hiding spot.

There aren't that many ray spells, so I don't think this would be overpowered.


It sounds neat, but I wonder if the "line of effect" rules would come into play. As I understand them, normally you have to have a direct line to your target. But, I don't see why a feat couldn't be houseruled for them.


I'd look at ricochet shot as a start of what you may need for this, mod to taste.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

Mirrors reflect light. Magic rays are not necessarily such. I think this would be better off as a feat. Being able to avoid line of effect restrictions is a big deal when it comes to spellcasting.


Like Cyrad said, mirrors tend to reflect light (though that's not saying that certain spells can't be made that can be reflected). If I had to Houserule something up on the fly, the feat would probably go along the lines of:

Mirror Bounce:
Prerequisites ability to cast any three ray spells, Weapon Focus (ray)
Description
'You can bounce your ray spells off mirrors or other highly-reflective surfaces. You make your attack against the mirrored surface (size modifier to AC applies) and then an attack against the target or another mirrored surface with a cumulative -2 attack penalty for each mirror already struck. Additional penalties may be applied for bouncing off damaged, warped, or poor-quality reflective surfaces, such as a cracked or dirty mirror.

Ray spells whose effects are entirely or very nearly-entirely composed of light, even those without the [light] descriptor (like searing light), can travel up to their full range without losing potency to their effect, damage, or save DCs. Other damaging rays deal half their damage to each surface struck (which might be a creature in highly-reflective armor), losing potency with each redirect. For instance, a ray spell that would deal 30 damage, deals 15 to the first mirror struck and 15 to the target, or 15 to the first mirror, 7 to the second mirror, and 7 to the target. Rays that deal no damage instead lower their save DC by 2 for each surface deflected from.

Mirrors or surfaces destroyed by damage or effects from the ray (such as disintegrate) do not prevent the ray from continuing on, though a surface or target can never be struck or affected more than once by a single ray spell. Casting a ray spell using this feat always takes at least a full-round action (unless the spell normally has a longer casting time) as that time is spent aiming and lining up the attack.'

That's just a quick a dirty suggestion of course. I haven't looked over all ray spells and how that can be abused. Obviously a caster of disintegrate could wreak havoc on a room of highly-reflective objects assuming he could hit each one with the stacking attack penalties. So might have to have a provision in there for not allowing secondary effects on 'bounced' targets (like just disintegrating objects straight-out without dealing enough damage), but I don't want to get too technical or exacting for a quick example. I guess if you counted the green beam as strictly light... then it would still only effect its final target, which would be fine with the attack penalties... not sure I consider it in the 'light' category though.


I would make precise shot a prerequisite for certain over the ability to cast 3 Ray spells. You can do that by 1st level.

Grand Lodge

You could combo it with tremorsense or life sense if you can get it to pinpoint targets.


Cavall wrote:

I would make precise shot a prerequisite for certain over the ability to cast 3 Ray spells. You can do that by 1st level.

Yeah, I'd probably go with that. Logically I like it, but that will also require Point Blank Shot, thus making the requirements 3 feats to get it though. So that might be a bit too much for a caster. Could up the requirement to 4 ray spells known.


Making the requirement spells known will mean that a prepared caster has a much easier time than a spontaneous caster. A cleric automatically qualifies at 3rd level.

I would not have prerequisites, but make it a one-level metamagic feat. For this one, I wouldn't reduce the damage or effect for bounces. I'd simply apply a -2 penalty to each shot, as well as concealment if you don't have a good view from wherever you are targeting from.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Homebrew and House Rules / Bounce Rays off Mirrors All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Homebrew and House Rules