[SPELL/MECHANICS] Flame Arrow

[Rhangalas]

I move to change flame arrow to mirror it's original function in tabletop.

Flame Arrow
Transmutation [Fire]
Level: Sor/Wiz 3
Components: V, S, M (a drop of oil & a piece of flint)
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: Fifty projectiles, all of which must be in contact with each other at the time of casting
Duration: 10 min./level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

You turn ammunition (such as arrows, bolts, shuriken, and stones) into fiery projectiles. Each piece of ammunition deals an extra 1d6 points of fire damage to any target it hits.

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Currently the spell acts as a supercharged magic missile and is way too powerful to be a 3rd level spell.

[Nylo]

It's powerful, yes, but I don't see how it's comparable to a supercharged magic missile. Magic missile has no chance of missing, and deals force damage, so only spell resistance or a shield spell will stop it. Flame arrow has a reasonably large miss chance even with high dex, from my experience(though this may be different at master or GM), and deals fire damage. It seems similar in power to lightning bolt. That said, I'd support this change, though I don't know how possible it is with current spell and ammunition code.

[Rhangalas]

I was thinking it could possibly be a tweak on magic weapon, but instead of adding hitroll/damroll to an object flagged as a weapon, it would add 1d6 fire damage to an object flagged as ammunition. If the random damage is the issue, it could add a set amount of damage from 1-6 on all the objects targeted, and the damage/number of objects would be based on your skill with the spell.

I.E. if you were to cast it at apprentice level on 25 arrows, those 25 arrows would have probably a +3 fire damage bonus which would expire after 10m/level. I suppose you could use the old <flaming> weapon flags to show the enchantment properties.

It's probably a lot of code, but I'm not sure. If it were to be done though, I assume you could use this same code as a template for other/future spells that enchant objects.

[Hrosskell]

I'm not sure if I'm breaking any transparency issues (because Cahir wielding a giant icy halberd is already pretty transparent), but the weapon tags for the elemental enchants are in game and functioning to some degree. Whether or not these can be applied to ammo/ranged weapons at this point in time is the real question, and it's a hard-code question at that. I do think it, like ranged fighting, deserves looking into; there are a wide range of feats, weapon types, and trainers available to rangers and fighters and rogues alike, and all this combat style needs to be fleshed out is the ability to functionally use them in combat.

[Aldren]

The problem being that supposedly elemental flags were not functioning properly at one time, and now specific quest rewards which were, at one point or another, charged elementally, now are not.

/sidetracked
That being said, I fully support bringing elemental flags back in as they are an excellent addition to the game and, in my opinion, should have never left. Much agreed with Hrosskell, I believe that bringing more perks to using ranged weapons (and fixing the possibly not-functional ranged feats) would be a great game addition. Great idea.