how long does a spell last in a piece of spellstrike ammunition before the ammo has to be shot/used? descript only says item becomes activate when spell is cast into it.
must it be used on same round as activated?
can i give it to ally to shoot while still activated?
What happens if the shooter misses the tgt?
So yeah. The character with the ranged weapon and Spellstrike Ammunition has to activate the ammunition by using Cast a Spell on it for two actions (regardless of the action cost of the spell being cast). Then they will have one action left for Strike with their ranged weapon before their turn ends and the ammunition deactivates.
If another character tries to activate the ammunition for an ally, then the activation still ends at the end of the caster's (activator's) turn and before the ally can Strike with the ammunition. Maybe there is some way of making this possible with the Ready action and reaction, but I don't think it is feasible or practical in most combat scenarios.
Which... makes Spellstrike Ammunition a pretty terrible option for... as far as I can tell, every character build. Spellcasters would just cast the spell on the target directly since they pretty much universally have a better attack bonus with their spell attack rolls than their ranged attack rolls. Martials wouldn't be able to cast meaningful damage spells into the ammunition from just their spellcasting archetype spells. And a Magus already has Spellstrike, so they don't need to buy ammunition to give it to them.
If someone disagrees with that, please provide a practical use case for buying and using Spellstrike Ammunition on a regular basis. Or even for buying it for niche use cases.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If someone disagrees with that, please provide a practical use case for buying and using Spellstrike Ammunition on a regular basis. Or even for buying it for niche use cases.
Magus only has melee spellstrike by default; starlit span is the only subclass that has ranged spellstrike. The ammunition can be used by other magi with their backup ranged weapon.
A champion (or warpriest, or maybe even a monk) could use it with their focus spells, as well. Champion can pick up Fire Ray, right? It's expensive, but it doesn't seem awful aside from the cost. It's not a terrible trick against a flying enemy, in a pinch.
OK. That is a start.
But what is the build details for that? Non-Starlit Span Magus is generally building for melee combat. They are likely going to be in the same category as full spellcasters where their spell attack bonus is better than their ranged attack bonus.
Also noted that this is an 'in a pinch' recommendation, not something that a character is going to be using on anything resembling a regular basis.