wf bard arcane failure chance?

[miceelf88]

Hi I am using the warforged chanter build. My impression was that bards ignore 5% of the chance to fail arcane spells. And yet my chanter has to roll and fails on 5%. Any ideas as to what is causing this, or am I misreading the rules?

[Wutinni]

I noticed this too and think its a bug. If you cast cure light there is no roll because its a cleric spell. The rolls only occur on arcane spell types. I would submit a bug report.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Are you using a shield? Bards cannot ignore ASF from shields. Or are you casting or reading a scroll? I assume Composite Body from 5% ASF, but tell us more about what's happening and I'll gladly help you figure it out.

[miceelf88]

But I am using a great axe, no shield (on occasion when I use a shield, the arcane failure chance is the same).

it's from casting. I get the same failure chance from using a scroll (which was a real pain in the butt trying to solo the tomb of the crimson heart with summon scrolls).

I don't have any warforged body feats or modifications.

Docents don't do this, do they?

[Mad_Bombardier]

No, it's not the docents. And scrolls are a separate issue as they always have ASF (even for Clerics ). Both Composite and Mithral Body are light armor, so should not be incurring ASF from Bard spells. Do you bychance have a Wizard or Sorc splash level? Or is it just Bard spells? Specifically, which spells?

[WeaselKing]

I have a WF warchanter with the Mithril body feat and he gets no asf when casting spells (unless he has a shield). Is it possible that the asf from the Mithril body is ignored because it is treated as light armor and bards get no asf from light armor and that the composite body still causes asf for bards since it is not considered light armor (considered as not armor) but has asf attached anyway? This is probably an oversight in programming, if true, related to something like (for bard; if wearing light armor, set asf=0; if not light armor, asf unchanged) [please excuse my halfazzed codespeak]. It would be an easy oversight to make and if there is only one line of code involved it would be relatively simple to change (I think). Well thats my 2 cp.

[Mad_Bombardier]

This was just posted by Eladrin in another thread.

Composite Body does not count as wearing armor for the purpose of feats and abilities.

Unlike Adamantine Body and Mithral Body, which specifically state that they count as wearing heavy or light armor for the purpose of class abilities, Composite Body does not. (Though Bards can ignore the arcane spell failure incurred from Composite Body as if it were light armor.)

It's a little confusing.

Maybe Composite is forcing ASF checks because it's not properly coded as None or Light Armor?

[miceelf88]

I have only bard levels and thus only bard spells.

Will test out carefully tonight when I get home which spells trigger the check, but my recollection (could be wrong, hope I am) is that even CLW is causing the check. blur definitely causes it, as does heroism.

[miceelf88]

If I am right, will bug report of course. But would posting in the development forum also get attention?

[Mad_Bombardier]

I have only bard levels and thus only bard spells.

Will test out carefully tonight when I get home which spells trigger the check, but my recollection (could be wrong, hope I am) is that even CLW is causing the check. blur definitely causes it, as does heroism.

You need to look at the spell description in your character sheet. Only spells with Somatic Component are subject to ASF.

CLW has Somatic component, could be.
Blur is Verbal only, should never have ASF, even in Full Plate.
Heroism has Somatic component, could have ASF.

If I am right, will bug report of course. But would posting in the development forum also get attention?

Maybe, but it's not really about attention. Submitting a detailed bug report is the best you can do.