Completely new to DND (New to playing, been tinkering with character ideas for awhile), planning a character for a friend's campaign group and saw the ability to grab Magic Stone as a Druidic Warrior Ranger. The wording kind of cut me down halfway through planning a spellcasting Ranger, trying to combo ranged attacks. I've seen some other threads about Magic Stone but I don't believe in exactly this fashion.
I was thinking of using Magic Stone + Hail of Thorns (Or other things down the line, looking at the Ranger Spell List) to try and build a character concept of utilizing one pebble to become a storm of pebbles, etc. Spend a turn boosting a big ranged attack, then following up with the set-up combination on the next turn. Then I saw that Magic Stone is a Ranged Spell Attack, and all of the fun projectile multiplication/enhancement spells only apply to Ranged Weapon Attacks.
So my question is, this concept with Magic Stone is kind of dead in the water? Did anyone else have a similar character idea that might mechanically work with the specific wording around these kinds of spells?
Yep! The Druidic warrior fighting style is definitely a fun and effective way to play Ranger.
If you pick shillelagh and magic stone, you have a ranged and a melee option. And since those both scale off of your wisdom, you can leave your dexterity at 14 for medium armor and prioritize increasing your wisdom sooner than other rangers. And with high wisdom, you can pick up spells like entangle, cordon of arrows, and eventually conjure barrage without worrying about a low spell save DC like most rangers do.
And while magic stone doesn’t work with hail of thorns unfortunately, it has some fun synergy with beastmaster ranger and swarmkeeper ranger.
For beastmaster, your beast companions (whether they’re actual beasts or running/swimming/flying spirits) don’t normally have ranged attacks and have to be in melee to hit things. But with magic stone, you can hand them a rock to throw assuming your flavor of beast has hands like a primate. Your beast’s melee attacks also scale off of your wisdom modifier if you’re using the Tasha rework, so having higher wisdom will be great.
And for swarmkeeper, all of its rider effects are on a successful attack, not specifying between weapon or spell. So if you throw a magic stone at someone, you can push/pull, do extra damage, or move yourself. (Bonus points if your swarm of spirits are animate pet rocks). Additionally, the saving throws for your swarm effects are higher thanks to you having more wisdom than your typical ranger.
Generally, you can only cast 1 spell a round and, while its possible to have a concentration spell up and next round cast a nonconcentration spell, their effects don't normally synergize (on purpose). That doesn't mean a druidic warrior ranger can't be fun - it just ensures that it can't be overpowering.
Magic stone is a “ranged spell attack,” but if you use a sling to hurl it it becomes “a ranged spell attack using/made with a ranged weapon.” Since the sling is involved, you technically meet the criteria for it to synergize with Sneak Attack as that class feature reads “The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon.” Note, it does not specify that it must be a “weapon attack.” So the fact that the attack to hurl a magic stone is a ranged spell attack is irrelevant as with the a sling you did “use a ranged weapon” when you make the attack.
The same applies to the last bullet point of the Sharpshooter feat which reads “Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack's damage.” Again, it does not specify that it must be a “ranged weapon attack,” so the attack being a spell attack is irrelevant, and again since a sling is involved it technically meets the criteria as “you make an attack with a ranged weapon” as long as you are proficient with a sling as I believe every PC is.
So a rogue with the Sharpshooter feat and access to the magic stone spell can be quite the damage dealer.
Completely new to DND (New to playing, been tinkering with character ideas for awhile), planning a character for a friend's campaign group and saw the ability to grab Magic Stone as a Druidic Warrior Ranger. The wording kind of cut me down halfway through planning a spellcasting Ranger, trying to combo ranged attacks. I've seen some other threads about Magic Stone but I don't believe in exactly this fashion.
I was thinking of using Magic Stone + Hail of Thorns (Or other things down the line, looking at the Ranger Spell List) to try and build a character concept of utilizing one pebble to become a storm of pebbles, etc. Spend a turn boosting a big ranged attack, then following up with the set-up combination on the next turn. Then I saw that Magic Stone is a Ranged Spell Attack, and all of the fun projectile multiplication/enhancement spells only apply to Ranged Weapon Attacks.
So my question is, this concept with Magic Stone is kind of dead in the water? Did anyone else have a similar character idea that might mechanically work with the specific wording around these kinds of spells?
Yep! The Druidic warrior fighting style is definitely a fun and effective way to play Ranger.
If you pick shillelagh and magic stone, you have a ranged and a melee option. And since those both scale off of your wisdom, you can leave your dexterity at 14 for medium armor and prioritize increasing your wisdom sooner than other rangers. And with high wisdom, you can pick up spells like entangle, cordon of arrows, and eventually conjure barrage without worrying about a low spell save DC like most rangers do.
And while magic stone doesn’t work with hail of thorns unfortunately, it has some fun synergy with beastmaster ranger and swarmkeeper ranger.
For beastmaster, your beast companions (whether they’re actual beasts or running/swimming/flying spirits) don’t normally have ranged attacks and have to be in melee to hit things. But with magic stone, you can hand them a rock to throw assuming your flavor of beast has hands like a primate. Your beast’s melee attacks also scale off of your wisdom modifier if you’re using the Tasha rework, so having higher wisdom will be great.
And for swarmkeeper, all of its rider effects are on a successful attack, not specifying between weapon or spell. So if you throw a magic stone at someone, you can push/pull, do extra damage, or move yourself. (Bonus points if your swarm of spirits are animate pet rocks). Additionally, the saving throws for your swarm effects are higher thanks to you having more wisdom than your typical ranger.
Magic stone and shillelagh also work with the crusher feat!
Generally, you can only cast 1 spell a round and, while its possible to have a concentration spell up and next round cast a nonconcentration spell, their effects don't normally synergize (on purpose). That doesn't mean a druidic warrior ranger can't be fun - it just ensures that it can't be overpowering.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Magic stone is a “ranged spell attack,” but if you use a sling to hurl it it becomes “a ranged spell attack using/made with a ranged weapon.” Since the sling is involved, you technically meet the criteria for it to synergize with Sneak Attack as that class feature reads “The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon.” Note, it does not specify that it must be a “weapon attack.” So the fact that the attack to hurl a magic stone is a ranged spell attack is irrelevant as with the a sling you did “use a ranged weapon” when you make the attack.
The same applies to the last bullet point of the Sharpshooter feat which reads “Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack's damage.” Again, it does not specify that it must be a “ranged weapon attack,” so the attack being a spell attack is irrelevant, and again since a sling is involved it technically meets the criteria as “you make an attack with a ranged weapon” as long as you are proficient with a sling as I believe every PC is.
So a rogue with the Sharpshooter feat and access to the magic stone spell can be quite the damage dealer.
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