Staff Spellstrikes?

[Mangaholic13]

So... I was just looking over the rules for Casting Spells from staves and Spellstrike, and I wanted to check:

Can you use the spells in a staff for Spellstrike-ing? If so, this might make Twisting Tree hybrid study even more interesting.

[HammerJack]

Yes, you can.

[Mangaholic13]

HammerJack wrote:

Yes, you can.

Thank you very much for that confirmation!

I was already interested in Twisting Tree for its telescoping staff attack, but now I'm even more interested!

[Finoan]

There is room for an argument against it, but it is a pretty weak argument.

"Cast a Spell" is the name for two very different things: a standard activity of its own, and a subtype of Activate an Item. So when Spellstrike gives you a subordinate action to "Cast a Spell", it may only mean one of those - and if it is only one, then it would be the casting of spells from your own abilities.

The only rules text argument that I have seen that support this ruling is that Striker's Scroll can be read to be explicitly giving the ability to cast a spell from a scroll as part of Spellstrike.

Striker's Scroll wrote:

You can Cast the Spell from the scroll as part of a Spellstrike, assuming the spell is one you could normally use with Spellstrike.

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But like I said, that is a pretty weak argument.

The wording in Striker's Scroll can also be read to be allowing casting the spell from the scroll as part of Spellstrike when it can't be cast in any other way. And that seems to be the more natural reading of that second paragraph in its entirety. It is only when reading the first sentence of that paragraph out of context that it seems to be implying that you can't normally cast a spell from a scroll to power Spellstrike.

Striker's Scroll wrote:

You can Cast the Spell from the scroll as part of a Spellstrike, assuming the spell is one you could normally use with Spellstrike. You can't Cast the Spell in any other way while it's affixed,

And there is nothing in Striker's Scroll that says that you can't normally use a scroll to power Spellstrike. That isn't even where such a restriction should be put if it did exist - that restriction should be in the general rules for Spellstrike.

Also the Cast a Spell Item Activation is pretty clear that it is considered equivalent of casting a spell from spell slots or focus points or innate spellcasting.

Cast a Spell Item Activation wrote:

You essentially go through the same process you normally do to cast the spell but draw the energy for the spell from the magic item.