There's something wrong with the returning rune in Magus Runic Impression


Rules Discussion


Magus focus spell Runic Impression in its description, it says

"Your unarmed attacks or weapon gain the benefits of a weapon rune you choose when you cast this spell: corrosive, flaming, frost, ghost touch, returning, shock, or thundering. If you cast runic impression on a weapon, this spell ends if you cease holding the weapon."

so I want to give my thrown weapon a [returning] rune, wishing that it can flies to me after my Strike.

But I also find that "this spell ends if you cease holding the weapon", so I throw a weapon to strike, when it leaves my hand, the spell ends and the rune disappear, my thrown weapon will never come back. ("cease" is even not the free action "Release",so it can be used more widely)

Is there some errata about it? Or it's intentionally designed to be stupid?


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I suspect it's unintentionally designed to be stupid. So if you are a GM you could make it work, if you aren't you can ask a GM to do that. That returning is on the list suggests that it should work somehow by intention.


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I would say that since it's on the list, throwing the weapon (supposing you have returning on it) it continues to function and returns to your hand after the attack as normal. If you do not catch it, or if the weapon leaves you hand for another reason (like you are disarmed or intentionally drop it) then it ceases to function.

Not RAW, but RAI.


There is also the rule for Doubling Rings to look at. It specifically says that it doesn't work for thrown weapons because you stop wielding the weapon as soon as you throw it.

But Doubling Rings are intended for use exclusively with melee weapons, and tries to work with any arbitrary runes on the primary weapon.

Runic Impression instead tries to work with any weapon, and has a specific list of rune effects that it allows.

I would agree that RAI Runic Impression (returning) should work with thrown weapons as long as the weapon successfully returns to your hand immediately after the Strike. Otherwise Returning shouldn't be on the list of available rune effects.


Yeah. Doubling ring doesn't work, and it's pretty explicit about it.

If Runic Impression isn't meant to work with throwing weapons, they should have removed returning from the list.

If that is the intention then it would need to be updated, as I find it's inclusion in the list to be a stronger reasoning to allow you to throw and use the weapon with Runic Impression than to disallow it because of the wording around not holding the weapon.

Sovereign Court

I agree with Claxon, abilities are supposed to work. Not be cleverly self-sabotaging.

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