Bonus for Spell Attacks?

[Xorn]

When building a magic item, the bonus is added to attack rolls and damage--but there's nowhere to apply the bonus from a wand/rod/etc. When you open the spells section to set your casting attribute and proficiency, if there as a "Bonus" field (or we could even just have the + control on the corner of the attribute) then we could give a bonus to attack rolls! As it stands, I have to manually set up each spell attack to give them the bonus.

[Zacchaeus]

Indeed. However I wonder about a global bonus and it's effects on some spells that do damage but where the caster would not be able to actually have the wand in his hand. For example burning hands requires the caster to hold his hands in a certain way making it impossible to carry the wand at the same time. It would be incorrect then to apply any bonus damage to the roll.

This may, however, be exceptional and it might be easier to fiddle with those kind of spells to remove any bonus manually. The majority of cast spells most likely can be cast "through" the wand and so the bonus would apply.

It would certainly be handy to have a bonus box for wands etc.

[epithet]

Any item you use as a spellcasting focus can be incorporated into your somatic component.

[Larac]

Aye, my wife's focus is a monocle.

Used the trinkets table to find something not so common.

She just has to touch it, as it main use is to keep from having to carry mats it works well.

Hers has no lens that will be found or made later in the game then I will deal with Xorn's issues.

Can you set an Effect to do it I wonder.

[Zacchaeus]

Any item you use as a spellcasting focus can be incorporated into your somatic component.

Xorn's post (and my reply) concerns specific magic items such as a Wand +1 rather than a spell focus, which is an entirely different thing I would venture to say.

[Nylanfs]

Isn't a wand a spell focus of a type?

[Zacchaeus]

Isn't a wand a spell focus of a type?

Yes, it is. It is used, or can be used, to replace certain (non costly) material components. I am perhaps being pedantic, but in the spell I mentioned I can't see how the caster could hold anything in his hands whilst casting the spell give it's very specific description. "Holding" the wand is a requirement of being able to use a magic Wand.

And the post above which suggests that a focus can replace or be incorporated into the somatic component is incorrect (or at least doesn't do anything) I believe. Larac's use of the monocle would be the correct use of a spell focus.

[epithet]

...

And the post above which suggests that a focus can replace or be incorporated into the somatic component is incorrect (or at least doesn't do anything) I believe. Larac's use of the monocle would be the correct use of a spell focus.

No, you clearly are able to perform whatever somatic component is required with your focus in hand. Per the "Sage Advice" on the WotC web site:

If a spell has a material component, you need to handle that component when you cast the spell (see page 203 in the Player’s Handbook). The same rule applies if you’re using a spellcasting focus as the material component.

If a spell has a somatic component, you can use the hand that performs the somatic component to also handle the material component. For example, a wizard who uses an orb as a spellcasting focus could hold a quarterstaff in one hand and the orb in the other, and he could cast lightning bolt by using the orb as the spell’s material component and the orb hand to perform the spell’s somatic component.

[rhammer2]

It is a long established tradition that you can cast with one free hand. You can hold most non-bulky items in your other hand.

[MTS]

Wait... that's it? There's no resolution to this question?

[kylania]

Which question in particular?

The OP was wanting a place to add some generic attack and damage bonus to spell attacks from using a wand, like a +1 sword would do. This functionality seems to have been added to FG as within the spell effects on the character sheet there is a Bonus field which you can add the +1 to the spell attack and damage macros.

Granted, you have to manually add the bonus to each spell on your Action Tab, but you don't have to create powered up versions of each spell to get this focus based bonus to take effect. Even the item Wand of the War Mage from the DMG doesn't automatically do this.

As for the "hold a wand while casting a spell with specific somatic components" question, I'd say the Sage Advice answer clearly states that you can indeed do that.

[Zacchaeus]

Which question in particular?

The OP was wanting a place to add some generic attack and damage bonus to spell attacks from using a wand, like a +1 sword would do. This functionality seems to have been added to FG as within the spell effects on the character sheet there is a Bonus field which you can add the +1 to the spell attack and damage macros.

Granted, you have to manually add the bonus to each spell on your Action Tab, but you don't have to create powered up versions of each spell to get this focus based bonus to take effect. Even the item Wand of the War Mage from the DMG doesn't automatically do this.

Since the OP there has indeed been a box added to allow for additional attack bonus in the Spell Power Group. Adding a figure in there will add the bonus to all spells in the group so there isn't a need to do anything to the actual spell. As far as I know there isn't anything which adds to a spell's damage (a wand for example only adds to attack rolls) so, again there wouldn't be a need to adjust the individual spells. But I am prepared to be further educated on this matter :)

[kylania]

Indeed! I keep forgetting Groups have that little eyeglass thing for options too. So yeah, you can easily add a +1 to Attack for all spells of a specific level with a single edit. Doesn't look like there's a Damage option there though.

[Zacchaeus]

Indeed! I keep forgetting Groups have that little eyeglass thing for options too. So yeah, you can easily add a +1 to Attack for all spells of a specific level with a single edit. Doesn't look like there's a Damage option there though.

There isn't. But does anything give a bonus to damage for spells? I can't think of anything off hand but there likely is something. Some of the Cleric things give bonuses to healing but I'm not sure about damage.