Myself and my players like to toss in 3PP spells to liven up the game with fresh spells and challenges. Too many times the players know the limits and in/outs of the standard stuff and 'meta' it accordingly.
Today one player's Arcanist cast Force Spikes from Rite Publishing. This is was a new spell for us, never having been used before in one of our games. While overall a straight forward spell, with a lot of stuff going on with it, we probably started overthinking one aspect of it:
Does it require a 'to hit' roll or is it an automatic hit similar to magic missile? If it required a 'to hit' roll, was it supposed to be Touch AC or Standard AC?
Was an automatic hit too powerful for the spell level? Was Touch AC a reasonable option or requirement? Part of the description said the caster 'hurls' the spikes. This verbiage made me lean towards a roll requirement, but the player suggested this is just part of the somatic requirement, also a sound interpretation.
One argument, with sound premises, compared the scaling to fireball, which is 3rd level also.
Boiled down simply, does the spell automatically hit, or need some 'to hit' roll?
I would say no attack roll necessary. It's clearly written as a magic missile upgrade, and attack rolls are called out when they are needed.
I would say no attack roll necessary. It's clearly written as a magic missile upgrade, and attack rolls are called out when they are needed.
Awesome, appreciate the input. We started looking at it the same way the more we looked at it.
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The publisher and I used to discuss spell balance when this book was being written. I recall our discussion on this spell, and their intent was that no attack roll was needed. A max of 10d6 of damage to one target that the target can't avoid was though by the publisher to be as good as 10d5 in a big radius (fireball), that could be halved with a Reflex save.
Which is why a save negates the additional anchoring effect, and a foe can escape it with a quite low skill DC, though at the cost of a standard action.
I actually think this is a tad strong for a 3rd level spell because when you are 10th level and run into low-dex foes, you an use it to pin 2 foes and they are unlikely to escape.
If it stopped at grappled and anchored in place, it's be a lot closer to what I consider balanced.
But that wasn't your question, and the designer definitely intended it to be an auto-hit like magic missile, though it lacks some of the language that would make that clear.