So I've looked at the Spell-storing weapon rune, and it's gotten me a bit confused as to how it's activation is supposed to work, and I'm left with a few interpretations that have me a bit dumbfounded, so I'm looking for additional clues or advice that I may be missing here.
Here's the full text of the Spell-storing rune:
A spell-storing rune creates a reservoir of eldritch energy within the etched weapon. A spellcaster can spend 1 minute to cast a spell of 3rd level or lower into the weapon. The spell must have a casting of 2 actions or fewer and must be able to target a creature other than the caster. The spell has no immediate effect—it is instead stored for later. When you wield a spell-storing weapon, you immediately know the name and level of the stored spell. A spell-storing weapon found as treasure has a 50% chance of having a spell of the GM’s choice stored in it.
Activate [1 Action] command; Requirements On your previous action this turn, you hit and damaged a creature with this weapon; Effect You unleash the stored spell, which uses the target of the triggering attack as the target of the spell. This empties the spell from the weapon and allows a spell to be cast into it again. If the spell requires a spell attack roll, the result of your attack roll with the weapon determines the degree of success of the spell, and if the spell requires a saving throw, the DC is 30.
So, one thing of note is that it takes 1 minute to refill it (which must be done out of combat, since that falls under the Long-Casting Time spells rule), and that it has to originally be of 2 or fewer actions, with the ability to target a creature (meaning no AoE or personal-only spells). Okay, that's reasonable and pretty easy to understand.
What I'm confused with is the activation part, and most specifically the finer details it encompasses. Based on the requirements, I must have hit and damage a creature with the enchanted weapon with a previous action in the same turn. Okay, no problem. But when I activate it, what happens? Yes, it says that I use the stored spell on the creature that I attacked, but what does that precisely mean? Here's why it's confusing me:
If I use a spell that requires a spell attack roll, the result of my spell attack roll is equal to the attack roll of my weapon. Does it use the result of my previous attack? Does that mean I make a new Spell Attack, using my weapon's modifier instead of my spell attack's modifier? Also, would I not suffer MAP from this attack (especially since I had to have hit and dealt damage with said weapon prior to activating this rune), meaning if I critically hit an enemy without a Natural 20 (yes, the requirements don't include critical hits, but that's beside the point), and I consequently suffer a -5 (or whatever penalty I am at) on this roll, wouldn't that also affect the result of my Spell Attack roll, thus causing me to not critically hit with it? Or worse, miss, and essentially "waste" the spell if it wasn't a critical hit to begin with? What about concealment/cover, or reactions used in response to this ability; could they potentially negate or ruin the odds of this effect firing off and successfully affecting the enemy? Part of me says that it doesn't require further rolls or checks on my part because there are no subordinate actions taking place here; there is no Cast a Spell activity or Strike being called out, but the wording suggests otherwise.
Incidentally, if I use a spell that targets a saving throw instead, it seems like a simple "Enemy must make a saving throw against a measly DC 30." But it does raise the question of if the enemy is affected by Concealment (thus providing a flat check miss chance) providing the possibility of simply not being affected by the spell in question.
I'm asking because I had a Spell-storing weapon that I used one time, and made the assumption that it simply took the same result as your previous attack and applied it to the respective spell (meaning if you rolled a Natural 20 and Critically Hit the enemy, for example, it would take that same result and apply it to the Spell with this action as well), and it seems almost wrong, or Too Good to Be True for it to work that way, even if it's limited to 3rd level spells. (I do wish the Spell DC was 30, or the spellcaster's DC, whichever is higher, but I guess runes like this can't be too OP with effects like Slow, for example.)
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I'm asking because I had a Spell-storing weapon that I used one time, and made the assumption that it simply took the same result as your previous attack and applied it to the respective spell (meaning if you rolled a Natural 20 and Critically Hit the enemy, for example, it would take that same result and apply it to the Spell with this action as well), and it seems almost wrong, or Too Good to Be True for it to work that way, even if it's limited to 3rd level spells.
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That is the way it works. It doesn't say you make a new attack roll. You take the result of the triggering attack (success or critical success) to be the result of casting the spell.
As for it being too good to be true, the Magus' Spellstrike and Eldritch Archer's Eldritch Shot work the same way but can be used multiple times per battle and are available at much lower levels.
The Spell-storing rune is roughly the equivalent of the Spellstriker feat from the Magus Multiclass Archetype.
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I suppose. The big difference for the archetype feats and the Magus/Eldritch Archer feats are that they are specifically tied to their main class identity, meaning it makes sense for them to function that way. It's also expressly written to function that way, and doesn't require any extraneous actions outside of the given activity to function compared to this one, hence the confusion.
I am still curious if it would still be affected by Concealment or Reactions, especially if they would change the outcome of the previous attack.
Remember the cap is a 3rd level spell at a level where the Magus (et al) characters are tagging on a 7th level+ spell (perhaps even at range) which should match a 3rd level crit in damage.
Not that that's necessarily the metric used. Spell-Storing was more likely balanced around having bonus damage every Strike vs. one burst of damage per combat. And the difference in the effectiveness of that can vary a lot, or at least enough to make which Rune is superior a complex question meaning it's a weighty PC choice.