Questions about Battle magic

[Frank]

I'm running OpenQuest for my kids and we ran into a problem last night: how do spells like Firearrow, Multimissile and Speedart actually work with bows? Are they on cast on a single arrow that works once or are they cast on the bow and work every time the archer shoots? By the book it seems like Firearrow and Speedart are cast on a single arrow, while Multimissile reads more ambigious on the matter.

And if they are cast on a single arrow, isn't that a bit underwhelming? 

[soltakss]

They are cast on a single arrow.

I agree that they are not super-powerful, but adding a few points of damage might be enough to disable an opponent.

[davecake]

It is certainly less powerful than the equivalent spell cast on a hand to hand weapon - but then, hand to hand weapons generally need to boost less (because their damage it often higher) and parries usually block it. A Firearrow or a Multimissile (especially against a lightly armoured oponent) can often be devastating from ambush, a Speedart really helps a moderately skilled archer become a threat. 

[Frank]

Thank you. I feared this might be the case.

But what a strange nerfing of missile attacks. Has it always been this way? I didn't notice it back in my RQ3 days, but then again archers weren't that common in our campaigns.

I think I'll house rule this: Firearrow and Speedart both last 10 min enhance every attack in that time. Both can be combined with Multimissile (but not with each other). This will level the field with melee users. 

[soltakss]

1 hour ago, Frank said:

Has it always been this way?

Yes.

1 hour ago, Frank said:

I think I'll house rule this: Firearrow and Speedart both last 10 min enhance every attack in that time. Both can be combined with Multimissile (but not with each other). This will level the field with melee users.

Missiles have always been underpowered. In RQ2/3, even Trueshot only works for one missile. Yelorna had a spell that was cast on the bow, not the arrows, so that was better, and Aldrya's Arrow Trance was cast on the archer, not the bow or the arrows. 

[Newt]

21 hours ago, Frank said:

I'm running OpenQuest for my kids and we ran into a problem last night: how do spells like Firearrow, Multimissile and Speedart actually work with bows? Are they on cast on a single arrow that works once or are they cast on the bow and work every time the archer shoots? By the book it seems like Firearrow and Speedart are cast on a single arrow, while Multimissile reads more ambigious on the matter.

And if they are cast on a single arrow, isn't that a bit underwhelming? 

Its on the BOW for the entire duration of the spell, which by default is 10 mins, which is more than the lengh of any reasonable battle (since combat rounds are roughly single enchange 5 second ).

19 hours ago, Frank said:

I think I'll house rule this: Firearrow and Speedart both last 10 min enhance every attack in that time. Both can be combined with Multimissile (but not with each other). This will level the field with melee users. 

No need to house rule it that way because that's how it works by the book - with the exception that you are allowing Firearrow to stack with the either of the other spells. Which will be fun and expensive in terms of mp cost, but quite devestating - which is why the default is Firearrow can't stack with other missile magics

[Frank]

Now that is interesting. Thank you for sharing your author's intent with the spell. Do you run multimissile this way too? Stacking with speedart and firearrown was based on my interpretation that multimissile works like mulitiattack: a spell that is put on hold for up to 10 minutes, and triggers a single time the first time you attack.

But if multimissile also has a 10 min duration, then stacking might be a bit of an overkill. Litterally.

[Newt]

Just to be clear the fact All battle magic spells last 10 miniutes by default, its there in stated in the rule book on p90 under the heading of "Spell Traits &
Descriptions". So this is not something I've implyed or hinted, or even missed out, its something I've boldly stated up front in a section which states the common traits of all battle magic spells. I conceed that there is a bit of disconnect that if you are refering to the spell description  in play this isn't re-stated.

The intent really is to say "all Battle Magic spells last the duration of the encounter/scene/battle", but I've found from experience that stating things in this sort of language in OpenQuest really confuses some people, because they care coming from older editions of RQ and expect things like this to be clearly stated in cold hard quanties. I still remember the threads we had because I didn't assign physical quanties to a point of SIZ

Its been my experience in play that any of D100's magic missile spells on thier own with a chracter who has a half-decent ranged combat on their own are a real game changer. If you want a quick visual reference Hawkeye from the Avengers series of films comes to mind   And the whole line of "this spell doesn't stack with the magic missile class spells" comes from previous editions so its a well playtested rule