Inquisitors casting spells through ranged attacks?

[Milodiah]

Hey Playground,


I'm relatively new to Pathfinder, having switched over from 3.5 recently. A friend of mine whom I'm playing alongside has been casting spells through his bow as an Inquisitor, such as the various Inflicts...basically adding spells onto his arrows at will, in addition to his judgement class feature. however, I just looked through the Inquisitor class and I don't think I saw anything supporting that. I don't know his feat combinations or anything like that, but is this something that an Inquisitor is capable of doing, or has said friend taken some liberties with the rules (as he is prone to do)?

To clarify, I'm not referring to the bane class feature, the judgements class feature, or anything else. He's basically just picking out spells from his spell list and attaching them to his shots without going through the casting process or anything..

[Geddy2112]

There are ways to have spells cast through a weapon like spell-storing (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abilities/spell-storing) weapons but this is melee only. 2 levels in arcane-archer (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/core-rulebook/arcane-archer) also allows for a caster to infuse an arrow with a spell. I don't know of any other ways, so I would inform them that usually you cannot do this.

Unless there is some inquisition or domain or archetype of the inquisitor that allows this. If so, ask them because I am equally curious to know.

[Psyren]

Iis this something that an Inquisitor is capable of doing, or has said friend taken some liberties with the rules (as he is prone to do)?


They can't, so it sounds like your friend has some explaining to do unless the GM has given him a custom ability of some kind.

[GreyBlack]

Hey Playground,


I'm relatively new to Pathfinder, having switched over from 3.5 recently. A friend of mine whom I'm playing alongside has been casting spells through his bow as an Inquisitor, such as the various Inflicts...basically adding spells onto his arrows at will, in addition to his judgement class feature. however, I just looked through the Inquisitor class and I don't think I saw anything supporting that. I don't know his feat combinations or anything like that, but is this something that an Inquisitor is capable of doing, or has said friend taken some liberties with the rules (as he is prone to do)?

To clarify, I'm not referring to the bane class feature, the judgements class feature, or anything else. He's basically just picking out spells from his spell list and attaching them to his shots without going through the casting process or anything..

No, not to my knowledge. There is a Magus archetype which allows this, but no Inquisitor archetype to my knowledge. Unless he's going Inquisitor/VMC Magus?

ETA: Even that won't work because of the circumstances necessary for Spellstrike.

[Novawurmson]

Your friend could play an Eldritch Archer (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus/archetypes/paizo---magus-archetypes/eldritch-archer-magus-archetype), or your GM could adapt the rules given in the Eldritch Archer to fit an inquisitor chassis.

Edit: Ah, your friend is already doing this. Your friend may be misunderstanding the "Holding the Charge" rule:


Holding the Charge: If you don't discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the charge indefinitely. You can continue to make touch attacks round after round. If you touch anything or anyone while holding a charge, even unintentionally, the spell discharges. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates. You can touch one friend as a standard action or up to six friends as a full-round action. Alternatively, you may make a normal unarmed attack (or an attack with a natural weapon) while holding a charge. In this case, you aren't considered armed and you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal for the attack. If your unarmed attack or natural weapon attack normally doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, neither does this attack. If the attack hits, you deal normal damage for your unarmed attack or natural weapon and the spell discharges. If the attack misses, you are still holding the charge.

Emphasis mine. This gets even worse for your friend with the paragraph below:


Ranged Touch Spells in Combat: Some spells allow you to make a ranged touch attack as part of the casting of the spell. These attacks are made as part of the spell and do not require a separate action. Ranged touch attacks provoke an attack of opportunity, even if the spell that causes the attacks was cast defensively. Unless otherwise noted, ranged touch attacks cannot be held until a later turn.

You definitely can't hold ranged spells and use them at a later time, and you can't simply cast a spell through a bow without appropriate class features. Is it possible your friend picked up an odd feat or archetype, possibly a 3rd party one?