Bead of Force?

[Tvtyrant]

The Bead of Force does 5d6 force damage and forces a save against being trapped in a Resilient Sphere. It says that you can throw it, but it doesn't specify if this is a standard action or an attack action. Does anyone have a ruling for this?

[Saintheart]

Don't see any rulings per se, but per the SRD Activating a magic item is a standard action (unless the item description indicates otherwise). (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#activateMagicItem)

And for the record, I read the subject line initially as Beard of Force. :smallcool:

[TuggyNE]

And for the record, I read the subject line initially as Beard of Force. :smallcool:

Fistbeard Beardfist with an Amulet of Natural Attacks and the Force enhancement? :smalltongue:

[animewatcha]

Give him throwing enhancement too.

[ericgrau]

I was going to say throwing it and the impact are what activates it and since that's a simple mundane act it's an attack action, but then I noticed it can go up to 60 feet without range penalties. That's some magic ju ju so now I'm leaning back to saying it defaults to a standard action.

[Tvtyrant]

I was going to say throwing it and the impact are what activates it and since that's a simple mundane act it's an attack action, but then I noticed it can go up to 60 feet without range penalties. That's some magic ju ju so now I'm leaning back to saying it defaults to a standard action.

Drat. If it was an attack action it might be useful for spamming, but as a standard action it is useless.

[ericgrau]

Well let's see if this is workable. It's 5d6 no save force damage in an area which isn't bad. Then a save DC that's low but it's reflex so it's about a 50:50 shot. Like the blast the globe is also 10 foot radius so you have to wonder if everything in that radius makes the save or if only 1 target does. And if only 1 target does, what happens to everything else within the radius of the globe-to-be? Do they auto dodge it and appear outside the radius? It looks like it is in fact an area save effect as well.

Even with the 50:50 shot the trapping effect is worth at least as much as the damage if not more. So the bead is worth the same as doing 35 damage, or more. The bead is reasonably priced on a budget that you get around level 13. At that level you're doing 80 damage full attacks in core, or more with some optimization. So if you can hit 3 or more foes, or if you know that for some reason you won't be able to make full attacks, the bead becomes a reasonable weapon around levels 13-15. At levels 16 and later you probably want to get more foes within the radius before using it. But the nice thing about an expendable item is that you don't lose it until you use it so it doesn't hurt to carry one until you reach precisely the right circumstances.

I may have to grab one on my next high level melee or archer character.

[nedz]

I was attempting to see if the price would tell us if it was use activated or something ?

Spell level 4, CL 10, Cost 3,000
This gives us a multiplier of 75 which is inconclusive.

It might be single use, use activated x 1.5 (uncustomary space ?) in which case its like a potion, so standard action.

This would seem to imply that loosing it from a sling wouldn't work, not that this would increase the range at all.