Crystal of Arrow Deflection

[sonofzeal]

So, I'm having a little trouble parsing this item, and I'm not sure if the wording is merely inconsistent, or it's a whole lot better than I thought.

Does it apply its bonus against rays and other spells/SLAs?


A crystal of arrow deflection protects you from ranged weapon attacks.
This seems fairly definitive on the surface of it, and it's how I've been interpreting the item in the past. The name itself is suggestive if not exactly meaningful, and you've got the key phrase "ranged weapon attacks" right there. But this is just the flavour text, isn't it?


Least: This augment crystal grants you a +2 bonus to AC against ranged attacks.
Here's the crunch, and it doesn't make any reference to weapons. Note that this doesn't contradict the flavour description; a +2 bonus against all ranged attacks certainly protects you from ranged weapon attacks. Finally, they had the correct "ranged weapon attack" wording right there, making its critical absence in the second phrase more significant.



So that's the case being presented, but I'm not at all confident about it, certainly not enough to try to bug my DM for a favourable ruling unless I'm actually confident that it's RAW. What do you guys think?

[Gwendol]

It looks like it is intended for weapon attacks, but that they then decided to have it work against, say, splash weapons, who target touch AC. As it stands I do not see how it can't provide protection against rays or other similar ranged spells that target touch AC, especially since the bonus appears to be untyped.

[Darrin]

The name itself is suggestive if not exactly meaningful, and you've got the key phrase "ranged weapon attacks" right there.


Aren't rays and ray-like SLAs already treated as weapons? From the Rules Compendium p. 132, "Weaponlike spells":

"Any spell that requires an attack roll is weaponlike."

[Gwendol]

Yes, but the question is still if that makes them weapons. It's not like they can be sundered or disarmed for example. Still, regardless of that aspect it looks like the arrow deflection crystals should work against ranged weaponlike spells.

[Mirakk]

I was just reading this over carefully and asking myself the same question not a week ago.

It says it protects against Ranged attacks in the mechanical part of it.

Rays are considered weapons for feats like weapon focus, and can critical hit like a weapon as well. They also require a roll to hit, like a weapon.

Disarm and sundering aren't really qualifiers for if something is a weapon. For instance, can you disarm an arrow? Only if they're holding it in their hand...but if an arrow is being shot at you, you can't really disarm it from the person in mid-air with a disarm action now can you?

Therefore a ray is a ranged weapon. The Rules Compendium, and text from the Complete Arcane support these theories.

[Siosilvar]

Rays are considered weapons for feats like weapon focus, and can critical hit like a weapon as well. They also require a roll to hit, like a weapon.

Some traps make attack rolls and can threaten crits, but you can't take weapon focus with them.

Regardless, I'd say "ranged attacks" definitely includes rays and "ranged weapon attacks" isn't the one with the bonus to AC behind it, so it doesn't matter.

[Tvtyrant]

Didn't someone make a snatch-arrow build around catching highly metamagicked orbs that friends tossed to them, and then throwing a lot of them in a turn to do crazy damage? I vaguely remember that happening about 6 months ago.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Since, it's a shield crystal only, I always figured it added to the shield AC. Which means for most people, it would not apply against ranged touch attacks. However, for characters with the Shield Ward or Parrying Shield feat (use shield bonus towards touch AC) WOULD apply the crystal's bonus to touch AC. Along with anyone else w/ the ability to apply shield AC to touch AC.

Just how we play it.

It's a very good item. :)

[Jarian]

The intent, I feel, is to have the item increase your armor or shield AC against ranged physical attacks.

The effect, as written, seems to grant you a flat increase to AC against all ranged 'weapon' attacks, which would also apply to most ray spells, according to the C.Arc/Rules Compendium definition of "weaponlike spells".

RAW, +5 vs everything that's a ranged 'weapon'. RAI, +5 shield/armor bonus in specific cases, in my opinion.

Edit: Or +2 for a Least crystal, obviously.