Was going through some build ideas and found an interaction I find particularly fun.
Wizard with Runelord class archetype.
At 10th pick up Fused Polearm and use it with your Bonded polearm to fuse with a caster staff.
The fun come in though with the fact that the polearm that is fused with the staff doesn't have the same restriction that normal magical staves have with the shifting rune.
Just for fun and theory here Said runelord could have a Shifting Glaive Fused with a Staff of Divination and shift it into lets say a Longbow(that they got proficiency for through a racial or archetype feat) or any other good weapon for that matter and can 1 action use a charge for True Strike, One action make a strike one action left over.
Lots of possibilities here depending on what school and staff you take and what kinds of weapons you can shift into.
While shifting a polearm seems possible, I wanted to point out that your example doesn't work. Shifting runes can only shift a melee weapon into another melee weapon, so it can't become a longbow.
You are right there. For the build I am theorizing is for a game I will GM so I will probably allow it to ignore the melee part but it still even with that allows for some good versatility in die size and weapon traits.
I just think it is a fun idea and gives back one of the gish utilities we lost in the staff errata.
This doesn't change anything, the moment you Shift it from being a polearm the requirements (Your arcane bonded item is a polearm.) instantly fail and the effect fizzles into nothing, presumably pooping our the Staff and the Arcane Bond polearm in the process.
That is an interesting way to interpret it but as I read it is that your bodned object is a polearm is a requirement for the initial fusion. There is no further text saying anything causes the effect to end.
Would taking a battle form so that your polearm fuses with you cause the staff and polearm to split?
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Requirements do not have a timing window or limit, they must always be met in order to use the ability, in this case, the ability itself is keeping the polearm fused with a staff and once you no longer have an arcane bond that is a polearm the requirement check is failed.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean unless there is a battle form that turns your body into a weapon that I am not as yet aware of but ... the equipment melds into you, it still exists on some level but it's just inaccessible... that's a tricky question to answer and I don't personally know enough to give you a yes/no on that, so I'll take another tack on it instead that might help explain better where I am coming from.
It's the same reason why one cannot cast a humanoid only buff on a PC, have them shapeshift/morph into an animal or magical beast and retain said buff.
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Requirements do not have a timing window or limit, they must always be met in order to use the ability, in this case, the ability itself is keeping the polearm fused with a staff and once you no longer have an arcane bond that is a polearm the requirement check is failed.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean unless there is a battle form that turns your body into a weapon that I am not as yet aware of but ... the equipment melds into you, it still exists on some level but it's just inaccessible... that's a tricky question to answer and I don't personally know enough to give you a yes/no on that, so I'll take another tack on it instead that might help explain better where I am coming from.
It's the same reason why one cannot cast a humanoid only buff on a PC, have them shapeshift/morph into an animal or magical beast and retain said buff.
I see where you are coming from, however I at least in this case disagree. The shifting rune is a transmutation effect so on paper it is still a +n (n)Strikeing Shifting [Polearm].
My interpretation in this case is that even when shifted since ita transmutation effect, that it continues to be a polearm.
Again I can see how you come to your interpretation and if you were my GM would respect that call. However neither Fused Polearm or Shifting provide enough specifics for this to be a 100% ruling one way or the other.
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To Further Clarify my reading of the rules for this.
During your daily preparations, you can magically fuse your arcane bonded weapon and a magical staff together into one item, with the staff making up the haft of the weapon. You prepare the staff at the same time you do this, and you can do this only with a staff you're able to prepare. This fusion lasts until the next time you make your daily preparations.
While the two are fused, the weapon's haft takes on aesthetic aspects of the staff.
Bolded for emphasis. The requirement as I read it only matters to do the fusion. Once fused it lasts until you prepare again.
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The shifting rune does have the 'Any property runes that can’t apply to the new form are suppressed until the item takes a shape to which they can apply.' restriction: While this doesn't specifically apply in this particular case, it does strongly indicate to me that somehow shifting a staff (or polearm-staff) into another form should cause it to lose it's staff functionality until it is reverted to it's original form...
Basically, if you are using the shifting rune to create something that otherwise couldn't exist, you are almost certainly 'doing it wrong' (in my opinion, at least).
Also, please note that even if you do ignore the 'Melee Only' restriction on the rune, you still can't shift a polearm into a Long/Short Bow because they do not have the same 'number of hands' requirement...
Finally, even if you do ignore the 'hands' requirement, you are taking a rare archetype to combine a fairly weak staff (in combat, at least) with an expensive polearm (assuming you fully rune it) so you can burn two actions and one charge to get a single accurate strike that will probably do unimpressive damage compared to a simple cantrip...
ADDENDUM: I should add that Shifting is a really annoying rune to have if you are playing online since you'll generally need to stat up each weapon version you think you'll actually use...
Was going through some build ideas and found an interaction I find particularly fun.
Wizard with Runelord class archetype.
At 10th pick up Fused Polearm and use it with your Bonded polearm to fuse with a caster staff.
The fun come in though with the fact that the polearm that is fused with the staff doesn't have the same restriction that normal magical staves have with the shifting rune.
Just for fun and theory here Said runelord could have a Shifting Glaive Fused with a Staff of Divination and shift it into lets say a Longbow(that they got proficiency for through a racial or archetype feat) or any other good weapon for that matter and can 1 action use a charge for True Strike, One action make a strike one action left over.
Lots of possibilities here depending on what school and staff you take and what kinds of weapons you can shift into.
I disagree with this working simply because the developers have gone out of their way to make magical staves not benefit from Shifting in any manner, whether they are in staff form or otherwise.
That being said, there are only 9 Polearm weapons in the game, so there aren't very many weapons you can shift to that would benefit from your proficiency that would maintain any sensible difference, and if you're shifting to other weapons, you're burning even more feats for it.
It's not overpowered by any means, since the other Shifting criteria limit what else you could do with the weapon, but it's still seriously not intended for Shifting to affect spellcasting staves, no matter what else they are attached to.
Never said it was overpowered just that it is fun and allows someone to do what magic is meant to do. Bend the laws of reality in fun and creative ways. Even if the shifting situation doesn't work at base you can still do the staff of divination with a polearm and have a Wizard Gish who can make a good strike when they need it and save on spell slots. Obviously you won't be smacking on the bbeg with it(unless they are a squishy wizard too) but allows a wizard to act as a flank buddy and do decent single target damage to save slot spells for harder or more appealing situations.
As I said in the original post it also doesn't have to be a staff of divination. Use a Staff of Transmutation and use enlarge to get extra reach. Take bespell weapon so that you are getting extra rider damage.
Fused Polearm just allows a Runelord Wizard to do a bit extra without juggling gear.
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To be clear, since this is a general discussion topic and not categorized in the Rules section I think it is TOTALLY fine, in fact maybe even encouraged to run with it as you see fit in accordance with rule 0 as long as the GM is okay with the idea.
At the end of the day, I don't think that even if it's allowed to do all that has been proposed (or even more potentially) that it's going to "break" anything at all from a balance perspective.
Go crazy with it at your table, my main take here is that I don't think this is technically permitted by RAW but if it's something the GM+Player are okay with using then I say go wild and have fun with it.