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Is it possible for an arcane focus to boost spell attack or damage rolls? To act as a +1/+2/etc. modifier, like stronger physical weapons.

V2Blast
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JT1987
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  • Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already, and check out the [help] for more guidance. – V2Blast Mar 25 '19 at 11:29
  • There is a similar question here: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/143968/if-a-character-can-use-a-magic-weapon-as-a-spell-focus-does-it-add-the-bonus-to which asks about the bonus of a magic weapon implicitly applying to spell attack and damage rolls, the difference to this one being that it asks if it is possible to get magic foci that grant a bonus. – Protonflux Mar 26 '19 at 14:36

1 Answers1

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Absolutely it can!

A wonderful example of this is the Wand of the War Mage, (p. 212, DMG).

uncommon (+1), rare (+2), or very rare (+3)

While holding this wand, you gain a bonus to spell attack rolls determined by the wand’s rarity. In addition, you ignore half cover when making a spell attack.

There are multiple items already built into the game that give Focus’s more power than a traditional Focus normally would.

Examples:
A Warlock (once having taken the Improved Pact Weapon feature) and College of Swords Bard can both use their Melee weapons as focuses for casting spells.

Clerics and Paladins can both use their shields as spellcasting focuses.

All of these items can be magical in nature and potentially give pluses to your spell casting and/or attack/damage rolls.

While every class can have some form of empowered focus or weapon/item that may be used as a focus, not all will empower spells but many can. If there’s something more specific you’re looking for I’d recommend perusing the items currently made within 5E through D&D Beyond, or the core rule books that you have at your disposal.

V2Blast
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BloodySprinkles
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    I’m happy to make this answer more specified but as I didn’t know which class specifically, how Magic rich or poor the game was/is, or how open to searching for magic items your DM is it was hard to get super specific with my answer. If you update the question with more specifics, I will update my answer. – BloodySprinkles Mar 25 '19 at 06:54
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    There aren't 212 pages to the basic rules, but I think your citation was the DMG. I edited that, feel free to change it again if that's not right. If you would include the citation that wands can act as a spell focus, this answer would be a little bit better. FWIW, the Wand of the War Mage is also on the SRD page 249 – KorvinStarmast Mar 25 '19 at 12:16
  • p. 49 and 50 of the basic rules will probably support your answer. – KorvinStarmast Mar 25 '19 at 12:23
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    @KorvinStarmast Your edit is 100% appropriate for correcting somebody who took a page reference off of D&D Beyond. The item is tagged "Basic Rules" and "DMG". For some reason, when displaying it "Basic Rules" takes precedence over "PHB" or "DMG", despite the actual page reference coming from the physical book, rather than the Basic Rules. Go figure. ¯\(ツ)/¯ – T.J.L. Mar 25 '19 at 12:24
  • @T.J.L. As I don't use that resource, I guess I didn't grok the way it worked, thanks for the tip. (I do have a twitch account, I just hardly ever use it). – KorvinStarmast Mar 25 '19 at 12:25
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    A related Q&A here – KorvinStarmast Mar 25 '19 at 12:28
  • @KorvinStarmast fwiw I think it must be a bug because it doesn't make sense to me at least. – Rubiksmoose Mar 25 '19 at 13:00
  • I've asked and answered a question that makes a point about magic weapons not implicitly granting a bonus to spell casting when used as a focus: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/143968/if-a-character-can-use-a-magic-weapon-as-a-spell-focus-does-it-add-the-bonus-to – Protonflux Mar 26 '19 at 14:37