ring of hotek and focus familiar

[Ahrmak]

ok not sure if this was brought up already but if a scorceress is using focus familiar and miscasts, would it be centered on the 'familiar' IE 6" away from the scorceress?

I thought about a scorceress on a flier with the ring of hotek and focus familiar flying around behind the enemy lines. Focusing the familiar as close to units as possible, then casting as much as she can until she miscasts (ergo damaging the enemy and not herself) not to mention pooching nearby casters as well

Still new to fantasy but is that viable?

[Timz]

I think the ruling is probably "No."

The Focus Familiar states the specific occasions where you get to ignore the normal requirements.

"She may use this position when determining range and line of sight for her spells, and whether she counts as in combat or not."

Her location does not change at all by using the familiar, just her range, line of sight, and combat-status. It does not say "She counts as being at that position during the magic phase" or anything such as that, just that she uses that spot's LoS.

Thus, when the miscast result says you must Place the template over the Wizard, there's nothing to support placing the template over the familiar instead of over her (after all, SHE is the wizard by the rules.)

[Masterofdarkness]

the focus familiar allows the wizard to cast spells from a different position on the battle field. and also it says when determining range for her spells as in range for casting or in this case range from ring of hotek

[Killerk]

I must agree with Masterofdarkness, first sentence in the description of the item is pretty clear (or at least that's how I understand it).

[Timz]

the focus familiar allows the wizard to cast spells from a different position on the battle field. and also it says when determining range for her spells as in range for casting or in this case range from ring of hotek

(
It says it lets her "cast spells from a different position on the battlefield. Place a marker at the start of each Dark Elf magic phase within 6" of the Sorceress and at least 1" away from enemies. She may use this position when determining range and line of sight for her spells, and whether she counts as in combat or not."

The miscasts say to Place the template on top of the wizard or whatever. The wizard is located inside of the unit, herself. It doesn't say that the focus familiar casts the spell for her or something.

If it said "She counts as being at that position" rather than "cast spells from there" then there'd be no argument.

The miscast doesn't say "Place a small blast template over the location where the spell was cast from" rather it says to place it on the Wizard. I think that's why I don't buy the position argument.

There are certainly multiple somewhat valid interpretations.

A) That she "casts spells from that point." But her actual location is not that point either way. So miscast and her actual head explodes.
B) That "from a different position" means her body teleports outside of the unit and the misfire happens somewhere else.
C) That just the following conditions are done by the Focus Familiar. She "uses the position when determining range and line of sight for her spells, and whether she counts as in combat or not." So it lets her cast the spell at the enemy, but she, the wizard, is hit by the misfire because that is the wording of the miscast chart.

I hope we can agree that it is somewhat ambiguous.

As a DE player, I guess either ruling would be fine to me. If I wasn't the person playing DE, and he used that argument as an excuse to say he's immune to half the miscasts, I would not enjoy playing that person.

[Setomidor]

I agree, the Focus Familiar only alters the position to draw range and LoS from, and the sorceress is still "the Wizard" on which the templace is centered.

Similarly, the Focus Familiar does not work when casting for example Purple Sun, as the spell clearly states "put the template in base contact with the wizard". It does, however, allow the Sorceress to count as having another facing (as the center of the template has to be placed within LoS), and cast the Purple sun sideways or backwards.

[Killerk]

I thought of this the other day, but didn't get a chance to verify it.

As Timz noticed, the bottom line is, it doesn't matter where your casting form, since the miscast templates are placed over the wizard .