If a character with the Enlightened Fist prestige class (from Complete Arcane, p.34) comes from a class that casts spontaneously (such as a sorcerer), then is it possible for her to use the Arcane Fist special ability to cast a spell enhanced with metamagic, given that it would itself take a full-round action?
1 Answer
Yes.
For Spontaneous spellcasters, metamagic effectively increases the casting time of a spell. For instance, the SRD states:
If the spell’s normal casting time is 1 standard action, casting a metamagic version is a full-round action for a sorcerer or bard. (This isn’t the same as a 1-round casting time.)
However, the Arcane Fist ability ignores the casting time of the spell you cast with it, and overrides it with its own action type:
Beginning at 3rd level, an enlightened fist can spend one of her daily stunning attempts to cast and deliver a touch spell as part of an unarmed full attack action. She can choose to deliver the touch spell with any single unarmed strike attack she makes during the action.
Many similar abilities (e.g., the Dusklbade's Arcane Channeling) limit the spells you can channel according to casting time - but not Arcane Fist! This isn't even limited to the mere full-round casting times of metamagic'ed Sorcerer spells - you could use Stunning Fist to bypass the 10-minute casting time on Resurrection if you knew the spell. Punch them back to life!
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1\$\begingroup\$ That is an awesome interaction I hadn’t noticed before. \$\endgroup\$– KRyanDec 16, 2016 at 22:06
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\$\begingroup\$ It is, but unfortunately there aren't many good touch-range spells with long casting times :( . My first thought was Geas, but it turns out that's close-range. I think the real winner for tricks of this type is Imbue Arrow + Glyph of Warding. \$\endgroup\$– A_S00Dec 16, 2016 at 22:11
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\$\begingroup\$ But what is such a glyph of warding protecting, exactly? I mean, a glyph "harms those who enter, pass, or open the warded area or object." What is the poor dude who's shot with an arrow with a glyph on it trying to do to that arrow (enter it? pass it? open it?) that'd set off such a glyph? \$\endgroup\$ Dec 17, 2016 at 2:20
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\$\begingroup\$ Yes it is quite a pity that there are so few interesting touch spells, especially in the mid levels... I take that was a wanted limiting factor. On a subsequent level though the enlightened fist also gets to use rays as touch spells, which means you get to hold charge on your disintegration, should the first touch miss \$\endgroup\$ Dec 17, 2016 at 9:35
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\$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan According to the second paragraph of the spell description, "You set the conditions of the ward," with some supporting text including examples of conditions you can use to trigger it. I interpret this to mean you could set the conditions to be something like "always target any creature inside the area of the glyph," but reasonable DM's may disagree. \$\endgroup\$– A_S00Dec 19, 2016 at 19:19