When does a weapon that's the target of the spell hurl return?

Question

The 2nd-level Sor/Wiz spell hurl [trans] (SpC 117) says that

For the duration of the spell [1 min./level], when thrown, the weapon returns to its wielder at the beginning of the wielder's next action.... On its return, the thrown weapon hovers for 1 round next to the wielder and can be seized and thrown again. After 1 round, the weapon falls to the ground.

1. Does the phrase at the beginning of the wielder's next [unstated type of] action mean the affected weapon can be used to make iterative attacks? Does the phrase can be seized and thrown again mean the wielder needn't employ a method of faster readying between iterative thrown attacks (e.g. perhaps a crystal of return (least) (MIC 65) (300 gp; 0 lbs.), the feat Quick Draw (PH 98))? Assume, in both cases, a 1-handed or light weapon.
2. Although the spell lacks the teleportation descriptor--therefore presumably the weapon must reach the thrower manually (again, presumably--although this goes unstated in the spell's description--by flying (but burrowing would be hilarious))--is there a limit to the distance the wielder can move between throwing the weapon and the weapon's inevitable return?

Answer 1

Does the phrase at the beginning of the wielder's next [unstated type of] action mean the affected weapon can be used to make iterative attacks?

By RAW, no, because "make an iterative attack" is not considered an action type. You'd likely be getting those from a full attack action, which is a full round action.

By that wording, if you had a way to throw it as a move or swift action, it'd come back in time to also use it for a standard action. Which is kind of silly, but welcome to RAW. You could house rule it such that you can use it during a full attack, but you'd almost certainly also want to do that with the Returning property if you do, otherwise the spell would be strictly better.

Does the phrase can be seized and thrown again mean the wielder needn't employ a method of faster readying between iterative thrown attacks (e.g. perhaps a crystal of return (least) (MIC 65) (300 gp; 0 lbs.), the feat Quick Draw (PH 98))?

Since you can't use it to make iterative attacks, it's a moot point. But assuming you could, the rules don't say. Returning is a free action to gab the weapon again (and says so), and in the absence of anything saying otherwise, I'd be inclined to treat this the same way.

Although the spell lacks the teleportation descriptor--therefore presumably the weapon must reach the thrower manually (again, presumably--although this goes unstated in the spell's description--by flying (but burrowing would be hilarious))--is there a limit to the distance the wielder can move between throwing the weapon and the weapon's inevitable return?

No, because the spell doesn't say there is. That can also lead to goofy situations like the weapon going at warp 1 on it's way back to you, but hey. Magic doesn't obey the laws of physics, and the spell is explicit in when it returns to you. I do find it an odd omission, since Returning does say how it gets back to you.

As for the teleport subschool, it doesn't apply. That applies to spells that teleport something, which are conjuration spells. This is transmuting the weapon (hence transmutation school), and if it gave the weapon the ability to teleport back to you, that wouldn't necessarily need to have the teleport subschool. (It doesn't mean that it is teleporting or that it isn't teleporting, just that you can't rule it out by the lack of the subschool.)

Answer 2

1. At the start of your next turn, like a returning weapon.

The hurl spell was originally printed in 3.0, specifically in Dragon Magazine #275 back when WotC was running the magazine. Really early stuff, that. Back in 3.0, they used "your action" as verbiage for "your turn." This is also why standard actions were "partial actions" back then. Over time they stopped using this language because it is, frankly, deeply confusing in a game with a bunch of different other things called "[noun] actions."

Nonetheless, the argument that it brings it back at the start of the next action you take, rather than the next turn you take, isn't strictly RAW. It's also not strictly RAW. It's ambiguous, since while they did not update the wording for 3.5 when they ported hurl from Dr275 to the Spell Compendium, they also didn't unambiguously excise this type of wording from 3.5 in the 3.5 update back in 2003.

We can see vestiges of it in stuff like the Dodge feat:

During your action, you designate an opponent and receive a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class against attacks from that opponent. You can select a new opponent on any action.

The Combat Expertise feat:

When you use the attack action or the full attack action in melee, you can take a penalty of as much as -5 on your attack roll and add the same number (+5 or less) as a dodge bonus to your Armor Class. This number may not exceed your base attack bonus. The changes to attack rolls and Armor Class last until your next action.

The Stunning Fist feat:

You must declare that you are using this feat before you make your attack roll (thus, a failed attack roll ruins the attempt). Stunning Fist forces a foe damaged by your unarmed attack to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + ½ your character level + your Wis modifier), in addition to dealing damage normally. A defender who fails this saving throw is stunned for 1 round (until just before your next action).

And, in a phenomenal way to illustrate why this wording fell out of favor, in the delaying and readied action rules:

Initiative Consequences of Delaying

Your initiative result becomes the count on which you took the delayed action. If you come to your next action and have not yet performed an action, you don’t get to take a delayed action (though you can delay again).

If you take a delayed action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round.

Anyway, throwers need to be thrown (heh) a bone, they're awkward and janky in 3.5. Nonetheless, the spell's wording does not strictly imply that it would return at any point before your next turn; if you take the "your next action" language to mean "any action you take" it makes hurl a lot better, but also breaks other things in the system if you're to apply that ruling with any consistency. It's absolutely a valid houserule to apply here, but at that point I'd probably just make all stuff that works like returning cause the weapons to return instantly, just to make life easier for thrown weapon builds.

2. Like a returning weapon, there's no limit to the distance.

This is because like many super early-3.0 things, they really just didn't think that element through.

Answer 3

1) Yes! But only in certain circumstances. You can take certain free actions out of turn or even in the middle of other actions (like talking). Since the action type is unspecified in the spell description any action will work, like you have said. You may thus make iterative attacks, but only if you interrupt your full attack with a free action after each attack but the first.

2) There is no such limit. Indeed, the ability even functions across planes or in areas where teleportation is rendered inoperative. It probably can't enter antimagic fields or dead magic planes, though.

Answer 4

To answer your question you will first need to understand a few laws of magic:

A spell does not do more then it is asked to do.

An action that is magical in nature is less restricted by physical sciences.

When Thrown, the weapon will "return" or teleport to the one who threw it last, at the beginning of the wielder's next action, you do not need quick draw to grab it and throw it again the following round. The weapon dose not strike things on its path to the target and dose not strike things on its return path to the target. If the target is behind something that blocks line of effect you may not select it as a target to throw at, and if something happens during your turn as an immediate action that blocks the item thrown it will still return to whoever threw it last.

You can throw your weapon at a target within range, grab it when it returns and make a melee attack with it to the person next to you, provided you have enough attack actions in the round to do so based on your "Base Attack" but you will provoke an attack of opportunity for making a ranged attack while threatened.

You may make multiple thrown actions in the same round provided you have enough attack actions to make them. Nothing short of an anti magic field will stop this return effect unless great powers intervene such as gods or more powerful magics.

The only distance that the weapon should not be able to return from is if the original owner in the time before his next action is not on the same plane as the weapon.

Warning! if you rule that the weapon fly's or burrows its way back to the owner you have made the magic more powerful and it will heavily effect your game.