Full round spell volley attacks and precision damage.

[Vindicus]

According to the rules compendium page 42:

"A form of attack that enables an attacker to make multiple attacks during an action other than a full-round action, such as the Manyshot feat (standard action) or a quickened scorching ray (swift action), allows precision damage to be applied only to the first attack in the group."

So would a spontaneous caster who casts a spell as a full round action be able to apply precision damage to all attacks in the volley? Like a meta magiced scorhing ray?

[holbita]

Yes, that's exactly right.

[Troacctid]

No, precision damage would only apply to the first attack, regardless of whether that attack hits or misses.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

No, precision damage would only apply to the first attack, regardless of whether that attack hits or misses.

No, the rule specifically only applies to spells that don't take a full-round action to cast. He's saying a spontaneous caster using metamagic, which increases the casting time to a full-round action, which falls outside that limitation of only dealing precision damage on the first attack. So it does work, because it's a full-round action casting time.

[Zarvistic]

According to the rules compendium page 42:

"A form of attack that enables an attacker to make multiple attacks during an action other than a full-round action, such as the Manyshot feat (standard action) or a quickened scorching ray (swift action), allows precision damage to be applied only to the first attack in the group."

So would a spontaneous caster who casts a spell as a full round action be able to apply precision damage to all attacks in the volley? Like a meta magiced scorhing ray?


No, precision damage would only apply to the first attack, regardless of whether that attack hits or misses.

You'll find this in RC page 136.

[Troacctid]

No, the rule specifically only applies to spells that don't take a full-round action to cast. He's saying a spontaneous caster using metamagic, which increases the casting time to a full-round action, which falls outside that limitation of only dealing precision damage on the first attack. So it does work, because it's a full-round action casting time.
Casting the spell as a full-round action gets around that rule. But there is also a separate, overlapping rule that limits weaponlike spells to deal extra damage only on their first attack each round, regardless of casting time—and that rule will still apply, preventing you from making multiple sneak attacks.

I've got my books handy now, so here's the citation.

Some weaponlike spells can strike multiple times in the same round. When the caster gets a bonus on damage with such spells (including sneak attack damage), the extra damage applies only to the first attack, whether that attack hits or not.

For example, a 7th-level sorcerer/3rd-level rogue with Point Blank Shot makes a scorching ray attack at less than 30 feet (two rays, each requiring a ranged touch attack roll and dealing 4d6 points of fire damage). If the first ray hits, it deals 6d6+1 points of fire damage (4d6 normal + 2d6 sneak attack + 1 for Point Blank Shot), while each subsequent ray deals only 4d6 points of fire damage whether the first ray hits or not.