I decided to take this spell for my sorcerer/dragon disciple, and it generated a bunch of "hmmm I wonder how this is suppose to work" questions.
So first what does the spell say:
You fuse your thoughts with an ally’s, allowing the two of you to fight in tandem, perfectly coordinated. You and the ally each roll initiative in combat and use the higher die result before adding modifiers. This has three effects.
Melee: If you both make melee attacks against the same creature, you both make attack rolls and both use the higher of the two dice for your attack rolls (plus bonuses).
Ranged: If you both make ranged attacks against the same creature, you both make attack rolls and both use the higher of the two dice for your attack roll (plus bonuses).
Spell: If you both cast spells and target the same area or same creature, affected creatures take a –2 penalty on their saving throw against the spells.
You and the target lose these benefits if you cannot see each other or if you or the target is unconscious or helpless.
The first part seems pretty clear, you each roll initiative and use the higher die roll and then add your personal modifiers.
Next up, say my attack sequence is a quicken shocking grasp, and I take the free touch attack, followed by 2 1h sword attacks - for a total of 3 attacks (w 1 spell cast). Do you count shocking grasp as a spell, as a melee attack, or if I use reach metamagic, a range attack. Do I pair my attack rolls with the ally, 1 for 1 in order? If there is a mismatch in the number of attacks do you just roll enough times to cover the gap?
The other question is it calsl out bonuses explicitly for the attacks, with the phrase (adding bonuses). Does that mean that if my attack bonus is say +10, and my ally has a attack bonus of +15, and we use this spell and both attack the same monster. I roll a 10, he rolls a 19. Is my attack roll considered to be:
a) 19+10 (his roll + my attack bonus)
b) 19+15 (his roll + his attack bonus)
And then finally if I cast Battlemind link on first one and then another ally, do we all three share the rolls? Does the caster gain the benefits of both allies, while the allies only benefit from the casters rolls?
It's really a terribly written spell, even beyond your confusion.
There are other threads that have discussed it, but this one has links to just about all the info available...which is really almost no info at all.
I've come up with some house rules to make it work because a player wanted to try it out - its a pretty cool SOUNDING spell, but the rules for it and actual implementation in a real game make this spell unusable as written.
Thanks. I've read the various threads, all dated, and all come to the a similar conclusion that it's a terribly written spell. My GM and I are doing some house rules to make it sort of work, but it would be nice if a more definitive FAQ would address the many issues with the spell, rather than just ignore it. It just that I like the idea of the spell.