Quote Originally Posted by Breccia View Post
My issue is the +1 to DC, which is normally something applied because of a magic focus, which rangers can't use. The bow acting as a focus is a much more minor issue to me, because grabbing a material component from a belt pouch in one hand and holding the bow with the other seems completely fine to me.

Maybe this will work better: can an Eldritch Knight use a wand of the war caster? Because the PHB desc does not say they can use wand as a focus, unlike wizards and sorcerers, my answer is "no". Therefore they cannot benefit from the wand's bonus to spell attack rolls. The bow is granting a bonus that rangers are blocked from by the standard rules. Yes magic items can bypass rules like that, yes this item is a perfectly valid one, no I don't think such a "rule break" is an uncommon item. I think it has to be higher rarity to be fair.
Alright, I’m seeing your reasoning a little more clearly. I disagree with it and I’ll explain why.

The Staff of Power. Is a staff, but makes no mention of being allowed to be used as a focus, it clearly can be, it can also be used as a magic quarterstaff. In 30 years of playing I’ve never seen a DM rule that a Wizard staff can’t be used to just cudgel someone as a quarterstaff, though I think the Focus concept wasn’t formally introduced and normalized until 4th edition.

And yet the Staff focus has no listed damage or reach and costs 5gp while a regular quarterstaff which does have those mechanical rules is 2 sp.

Rules as written a spellfocus staff would be an improvised weapon and a regular quarterstaff can’t be used as a focus.

You have inferred that save DC bonuses are tied to focus items. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe the Rod of the Pact Keeper (the item I think parallel’s most closely) functions as an actual focus RAW because it doesn’t explicitly say it does and, as established RE: staves not every staff = staff for casting.

It’s not an unreasonable inference, but it is, in ly opinion, unnecessarily restrictive in light of the fact the problem can be ignored for 50gp, a negligible 1 time investment, whether you buy a component pouch or a Ruby of the War Mage (which explicitly turns an item into a focus but does not require a focus feature, merely the ability to cast spells to employ).

But we’re into a completely subjective and academic distinction at this point.

You feel it’s a hard rare but can see going the other way.
I feel it’s uncommon.

Rarity is only relevant to the player of there’s some kind of rarity limit tied to tier. As a +1 weapon for a primarily martial class it’s clearly tier 2, some DMs might balk at the thought of a level 5 pc having a Rare item.

Best of luck to the DM, I wouldn’t worry about the rarity, I think consensus is it isn’t overpowered.