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Pool Strike

Benefit: The magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a standard action to charge his free hand with energy. He can make a melee touch attack with that hand as a free action as part of activating this ability. If the touch attack hits, it releases the charge and deals 2d6 points of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, or fire, chosen when he spends the arcane pool point to activate this ability). He can use this ability with the spellstrike class feature. If he misses with this attack, he can hold the charge for up to 1 minute before it dissipates. At 6th level, and every three levels thereafter, the amount of damage dealt by this attack increases by 1d6.

Pool Strike, Arcing

Benefit: The magus can expend 1 additional point from his arcane pool when using the pool strike arcana. If his attack hits, the magus can target a number of enemies within 15 feet equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 0) with a ranged touch attack as a free action. Those struck take the same energy damage as the primary target of the pool strike, including increased damage on a critical hit.

I've found a not-detailed interaction that could make worth investing in those 2 magus arcana. I need your help in order to understand if it's legit or not.

The pool strike, Arcing, allow him to target "a number of enemies withing 15 feet equal to his intelligence modifier". There's no limitation about how many time your can target the same enemy, neither that you can't target the same enemy the pool strike was aimed at.

A magus lv12 ( with 5 points of bonus int ) with "Pool Strike" deal 5d6 points of energy damage.

He attack a boss , next to 3 low-level enemies ( a,b,c ). First hit on the boss release "pool strike" ( 5d6 damage ) and activate "pool Strike, Arcing". The magus choose to select 2 times A, 2 times B, 0 times C and another time the Boss. Seven mighty arc of electricity burst out from his weapon right to the targeted enemies.

Legit?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ No man, actually that point is covered under this question: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/73707/… I think that the example i've done it's pretty explanatory. Chain lighting says " ..and no target can be struck more than once ". Arcing pool miss this text, so can i hit a target more than once ? \$\endgroup\$
    – okkappa
    Jan 25, 2016 at 17:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ Do you mean "if there are other targets also" or by itself? \$\endgroup\$
    – KorvinStarmast
    Jan 25, 2016 at 19:32

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The rule is well-defined in the question:

the magus can target a number of enemies within 15 feet equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 0) with a ranged touch attack as a free action

That's wholly different from "the magus can make a number of ranged touch attacks equal to his INT mod", which would be required to strike the same enemy multiple times.

So, no, one enemy can't be targeted multiple times by Arcing Pool Strike.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ There's no need for the example, he was pretty clear. Indeed i've found his answer more appropriate than the others, thumb up for you \$\endgroup\$
    – okkappa
    Jan 25, 2016 at 23:25
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No.

Unless specified otherwise, no spell can target the same creature twice. As in, you cannot double/triple-haste to stack the dodge bonus, even though haste says one creature per level.

Spells that allow multi-targeting the same target will say so like Magic Missiles or Scorching Ray.

If you shoot multiple missiles, you can have them strike a single creature or several creatures. A single missile can strike only one creature.

The rays may be fired at the same or different targets, but all rays must be aimed at targets within 30 feet of each other and fired simultaneously.

Spells like the one you describe, or even Chain Lightning would become incredible overpowered if you allow them to attack the same target multiple times in a round. Chain Lightning would deal about 121d6 damage (11 times 11d6 damage) if cast by a 11th level wizard (minimum to cast it).

Other examples (Thanks to @topquark), and note that a few of them has no limit on the number of targets, so if the same creature could be targeted multiple times, you could simply say "i target this guy 50 times, roll a bunch of will saves now":

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I think that haste works the worst as example for my question. Haste actually could be caste multiple times ( even on the same cast ) on the same person, it's just pointless to do that. It's legal, but pointless . And the haste's text stress that ( "Multiple haste effects don't stack"). Even "Chain lighting" stress that ( "..and no target can be struck more than once" ). In this case is straight illegal. Arcing pool miss this rule restriction. I need you to point me to the general rule about " no spell can target the same creature twice" , otherwise we're in the shadowy area of Raw>Rai \$\endgroup\$
    – okkappa
    Jan 25, 2016 at 17:43
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    \$\begingroup\$ Better examples would be: Horrid Wilting, Weird, Mass Hold Person, Mass Daze, Enthrall, Feast on Fear. Each of these allows an unlimited number of targets with no explicit restriction against targeting the same creature multiple times. But if you allowed repeats then Horrid Wilting would turn into "no save, no attack roll, just deal infinite damage". By far the more plausible interpretation is that they're effectively AOEs that don't deal friendly fire. \$\endgroup\$
    – Topquark
    Jan 25, 2016 at 18:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ There are lots of examples that qualify, thanks for sharing those. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowKras
    Jan 25, 2016 at 20:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @okkappa just because haste states that it doesnt stack, that does not make every other spell in the game stack unless that text is there. Pathfinder assumes you CANNOT do something unless the text says you can. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowKras
    Jan 25, 2016 at 20:42

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