The Arcane Archer fighter (XGtE, p. 28-30) gains two features at 7th level. The first is Magic Arrow:
At 7th level, you gain the ability to infuse arrows with magic. Whenever you fire a nonmagical arrow from a shortbow or longbow, you can make it magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage. The magic fades from the arrow immediately after it hits or misses its target.
The other is Curving Shot:
At 7th level, you learn how to direct an errant arrow toward a new target. When you make an attack roll with a magic arrow and miss, you can use a bonus action to reroll the attack roll against a different target within 60 feet of the original target.
Curving Shot can redirect a missed shot with a magic arrow. Magic Arrow gives a normal arrow magic properties, but when it hits or misses the target, it becomes a normal arrow again.
Does Curving Shot apply to the Magic Arrow class feature, or only to magic arrows (+x arrows and Arrows of Slaying, for example)? Would any nonmagical arrow shot from a magic bow be able to do a Curving Shot?
Best Answer
Curving Shot can potentially be used every round thanks to Magic Arrow
Jeremy Crawford, official 5e rules designer, clarifies the interaction of the two features here on Twitter:
As you point out, the Magic Arrow feature lets any nonmagical arrow fired by the Arcane Archer from a shortbow or longbow be treated as magical during the attack. Curving Shot lets you use a bonus action to reroll a miss with a magic arrow to attack a different target within 60 feet of the missed target.
Together, this means that as long as you're shooting a longbow or shortbow and miss, you can use your bonus action to reroll that attack against a different target within 60 feet of the first.
If Magic Arrow's magic fades from the arrow immediately after it hits/misses, does that mean it stops being magical before the second attack?
Since you're "rerolling" the missed attack, I would personally interpret it as if the miss never actually missed, so the magic doesn't fade until after the rerolled attack is resolved. In universe, you're basically shooting at one target but your shot goes wide, and then the same arrow veers toward another target and either hits or misses.