Nightblade of Arvandor... What do?

[Condé]

Nightblade of Arvandor, Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 115.

It reads as follow:
This +2 longsword appears to be made of black steel. Within the blade, one can see miniscule twinkling stars. Upon command, the sword launches starlike pulses of light. Each round, as a standard action, the nightblade can fire as many stars from its blade as the wielder has ranged attacks. Using the sword in this fashion provokes attacks of opportunity, and each star requires its own ranged touch attack roll. A nonevil creature struck by a star takes 1d8 points of damage, half of which is nonlethal damage (rounded down). An evil creature struck by a star takes 1d8 points of lethal damage. The stars are magical force, not weapons, so they ignore damage reduction and incorporeality.

Oddly worded "full-attack" as a standard action every turn. No range but we can assume the same as Stars of Arvandor. (Same book, p. 108) Which is required to craft the item.

Is probably a volley of sort so no Sneak/Skirmish Attack on every star...

There is threads mentioning the weapon but nothing focusing on this item spcifically.

Is there something we can do with it?

[Zarvistic]

As they are now touch attacks, you could stack penalties plenty to get a lot of ranged attacks with various feats and such. For the damage it seems you'd be looking to get + to damage rolls mostly like knowledge devotion.

[Inevitability]

Use Divine Might, sacrifice a turn attempt, add charisma modifier to your 'weapon damage' for 1 round? Is weapon damage defined anywhere as to prevent this?

[Zarvistic]

It does have that last line saying they are not weapons so I'm not sure if divine might would work. But I think besides knowledge devotion, shiba protector and lady's gambit should work. Maybe even something like the fierce weapon enhancement and the champion of corellon larethian ability?

[Condé]

Use Divine Might, sacrifice a turn attempt, add charisma modifier to your 'weapon damage' for 1 round? Is weapon damage defined anywhere as to prevent this?


The stars are magical force, not weapons, so they ignore damage reduction and incorporeality.

No sighting gloves, no Abjurant Champion's Arcane Strike-like ability... The list goes on.


It does have that last line saying they are not weapons so I'm not sure if divine might would work. But I think besides knowledge devotion, shiba protector and lady's gambit should work. Maybe even something like the fierce weapon enhancement and the champion of corellon larethian ability?

I wasn't thinking about Fierce. It could work since it doesn't say anything about weapon damage. You are right.
We can argue that since the +2 of the weapon doesn't apply to this special ability, why Fierce would? But I guess it is DM-dependant...

EDIT: I wonder if Collision would work tho...

[Inevitability]

Peerless Archer requires 4 feats to get into (though two are the standard archery feat taxes) but gives Power Attack With Ranged Weapons at level 3, that seems significant enough to warrant the investment. You also get to ignore some degree of cover and make ranged sneak attacks, plus the ability to create magic arrows, but apart from the first thing those don't really appeal to us.

[Condé]

Psionic Shot but it would apply only to the first shot.
Factotum, if you invest enough Inspiration Point could work too... And is a nice pair with Knowledge Devotion.

[Rebel7284]

I wonder how this would interact with effects that give you more ranged attacks.
- Rapid Shot?
- Two-weapon fighting?
- Targetteer variant fighter in Dragon #310 can take this ability:

Arrow Swarm: By taking a -5 penalty to all attack rolls for a round, the targetteer may make two additional ranged attacks at his highest attack bonus. The targetteer must have the Rapid Shot feat to take this ability and must be making a full attack to make use of Arrow Swarm.

Most of them reference a full attack, but the ability is clearly looking at the number of ranged attacks you can make as a full attack.

Also, I looked up Manticore Belt, but it's a single volley attack so probably doesn't count (although it IS a possible attack even though not usable as part of a full attack.. hmmm)

Factotum idea is pretty good, in addition to working with Knowledge Devotion, you get that delicious additional standard action at Factotum 8, so you can activate the sword twice.

Edit:
Warshaper to grow a ton of Natural Weapons + Blood Wind to make all of them usable at range?