duel wielding wands?

[Armadon63]

Can you duel wield wands? I was thinking of like a gunslinger type character so that the wands would be like guns. Can you fire two wands at once? Something like 2 magic missle wands each in a different hand. Would they need to be the same command word for them to work? Was just wondering if any of this would work for DnD. thanks.

 

[dcollins]

No. You can certainly hold a wand in each hand for convenience. But triggering a wand is a standard action (see DMG Magic Item chapter, or PHB Combat chapter), and you only get one of those each round.

 

[Kemrain]

dcollins beat me to it, but, whatever...

Can you duel wield wands? I was thinking of like a gunslinger type character so that the wands would be like guns. Can you fire two wands at once? Something like 2 magic missle wands each in a different hand. Would they need to be the same command word for them to work? Was just wondering if any of this would work for DnD. thanks.

The short answer: No.

The long answer: No.

Wands are Spell Completion items and you must spend a Standard Action to use one. They are not weapons and do not function as such. You can't Full Attack with wands, or Rapid Shot, or Dual Wield. Even if you had 2 of the same wand in your hand you could only fire one of them per round, even if they had the same command word.

That said, it's not difficult to see a wand as a weapon, dealing energy damage with a ranged touch attack, usable in a full round action, applicable with ranged combat feats... It's a little high powered, but, so what? A wand that did 1d6 points of Fire damage wouldn't be terrible, now would it? You couldn't stick scaling spells into it, or AoE spells, but a ray would work nicely. My gM's included these lovely things in his game, and it hasn't been TOO unbalanced yet...

Please note that the rules above are off the top of my head, because I have no book with me.

- Kemrain the Hypersmurf Wannabe.

 

[Cyberzombie]

Design a feat that allows you to do that. Require Weapon Focus (Ray) and a certain BAB (maybe +4). Ask your DM if you can use the feat. Wands aren't really that powerful, after all.

/me sits back and waits for the "You're breaking the game!" Police.

 

[Darklone]

I saw some level 5 wizard who wanted to dual-wield wands of scorching ray... I got nothing against dualwielding them, but you can still only use one per round

And these pesky Sunder attempts by the opponents would really make me worry about my money.

 

[Oscar carramiñana]

You can wield any wands in hand but you can only use one per round because activate one of them are a standard action

 

[Armadon63]

Ah bummer. thanks for the reply guys.

 

[Hypersmurf]

/me sits back and waits for the "You're breaking the game!" Police.

Heh. The thing you'd need to watch out for is the Sor1/RogX with his ultra-cheap wands of Ray of Frost, making full sneak attacks as ranged touch...

-Hyp.

 

[RuminDange]

What about one wand of Quicken Magic Missile and one wand of Magic Missile...would that let you fire both in one round?

Just had to say it...as I've got players that would try it if given the chance.

RD

 

[Hypersmurf]

What about one wand of Quicken Magic Missile and one wand of Magic Missile...would that let you fire both in one round?

Actually, no.

A scroll of Quickened Magic Missile and a wand of Quickened Magic Missile would work.

With a Wand of Quickened Magic Missile, you've got two problems.

1. Wands can hold spells up to 4th level. Quickened Magic Missile counts as a 5th level spell for purposes of storage in a device. But let's call it a Staff instead.

Which brings us to 2...

2. The general rule is that the casting time of a spell is the same time required to activate the same power in an item, unless the item description states otherwise. The item description for wands and staffs says it's a standard action - or longer if the spell has a longer casting time.

Since Quickened Magic Missile does not have a longer casting time, it requires a standard action to activate.

(This is why a Quickened scroll works - since the item description for scrolls does not 'state otherwise', the casting time of the spell is the same time required to activate the scroll...)

-Hyp.