Recharge Battery

[Urklore]

I have a PC who wants his character to be kind of a recharge battery. He is making a 1st level sorcerer and eventually will be going into item crafting with the various item creation feats.

He approached me and asked if we could come up with a feat for him to take at 1st first level where once per day he can bestow 1 charge or daily use to an item that uses charges or has daily uses. Again, this would be usable once per day and the strain would also cause him to suffer 1d3 Charisma damage.

Do any of you think this is overly unbalancing?

 

[Spatzimaus]

It's extremely powerful for some items, mainly those with high-level spells that you always wish you had more of. Losing 1d3 Charisma isn't much when you realize that he'll be doing this at the end of a day to increase his effectiveness on later days, and healing part of the ability damage overnight (1 point per day).

There are really two separate abilities you're asking about:
> Adding one daily use to an item that has daily uses. Does this mean it gets one extra for the following day, or are you talking about a permanent increase? (If it's the latter, then it's utterly, horribly broken, so I'm going to assume it's the former.) Adding one daily use is fine for items that already had three or four uses per day, but it's a HUGE boost to things that only had 1/day.

> Adding one charge to a charged item. If you're talking about a wand or staff, where the item in question is only really usable by someone who has that spell on his class list, then it's not so big of a deal. It's the equivalent of making a scroll, or making a new wand/staff. (One possible limiting factor would be to say that he can't add a charge to a wand unless he has Craft Wand, and the same for staves.)
The problems come in when you consider items that don't require the user to be able to cast spells at all. Let's pretend a hypothetical cleric gained this ability; if he could put more heal spells into the fighter's Ring of Nine Lives, it's a serious increase in power, because the limiting factor of that item is that sooner or later it'll run out, and it'd be very hard to get a new one made. There are plenty of examples of Wondrous Items that reproduce Sorcerer spells (necklace of fireballs), so it's not just a Cleric issue.


In fact, the bottom line seems to be that it's a way to make Scrolls without actually paying the XP and cash for a scroll. After all, what's the difference between having a 20-charge wand of fireballs versus having a 19-charge wand and a separate scroll of fireballs? So no, I simply wouldn't allow it. Now, if he was willing to spend a Feat to get the ability AND the item he was "recharging" was a wand or staff that he already had the appropriate Feat for AND he paid the normal XP and gold, then I'd allow it; it'd just be a slightly different flavor, but with no real change in game effect.

 

[Nifft]

Dibs on the Ring of Wishes!

-- N

 

[Urklore]

Humm,
Now that you think of it you are right. Maybe drop the daily uses and allow him to bestow 1 charge to a charged item per day at the cost of 1d3 Cha damage. I remember in 1st edition there was a spell called recharge item, but that was a level 4th spell I beleive.

 

[Nifft]

All it's going to do is allow extended downtime to recharge all your items, for free.

Do you want extended downtime? Will your player feel cheated if he isn't allowed to take exactly as long "down" as he would like?

I'd allow him to take a feat which allows him to recharge any item by spending gold & XP, even if he doesn't know the appropriate spells (or even have the spells on his spell-list), and which also grants him Use Magic Device as a permanent Sorcerer class skill.

Call it Intuitive Artificer. Here, I'll do a quick write-up:


Intuitive Artificer [Item Creation]
Prereq: Sorcerer level 1
Benefit: You gain Use Magic Device as a Sorcerer class skill.
Additionally, you can recharge any charged item (typically a staff or wand) by paying the appropriate time, XP and GP costs, even if you would not normally be able to craft the item (due to spell knowledge, or even due to spells not appearing on your spell list).
This feat does not allow you to create new wands or staves.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Urklore]

Very nice!

 

[Lorgrom]

Intuitive Artificer [Item Creation]
Prereq: Sorcerer level 1
Benefit: You gain Use Magic Device as a Sorcerer class skill.
Additionally, you can recharge any charged item (typically a staff or wand) by paying the appropriate time, XP and GP costs, even if you would not normally be able to craft the item (due to spell knowledge, or even due to spells not appearing on your spell list).
This feat does not allow you to create new wands or staves.

Cheers, -- N

Nice feat, mind if I use it?

 

[Nifft]

Nice feat, mind if I use it?

This question has always puzzled me.
1/ I can't possibly stop you!
2/ It's rather flattering!

In summary, please enjoy.


@ Urklore: Glad to help. Hope the player likes it, too!

Cheers, -- N

 

[Spatzimaus]

This question has always puzzled me.
1/ I can't possibly stop you!

You COULD send your ninja penguin enforcers to break his knees, even though we all know you're too nice to do that to most of us. Some people aren't quite so civilized, so he's clearly just trying to protect himself.

I like your suggested Feat, although I'd still worry that it's abuseable. If you don't require the recharger to have Craft Wand or Staff, then all they need to do is buy up a bunch of 1-charge wands and they'll never need to craft anything again; they'll just keep recharging the existing ones. One Feat ends up making two others worthless.

A way around that: if they don't have the Feat used to create the item (OR if they don't have the specific spell and can't spoof it with UMD) it costs twice as much GP to recharge (possibly twice the XP too). So, the party will prefer to buy a new wand from an actual wand crafter, but this'll be an acceptable substitute when that's not possible. And, it motivates the person with this Feat to also take the other item creation Feats, if only to reduce the costs.

Also, I'd allow Bards (and maybe even Wizards) to take the Feat. Just make it "arcane caster level 1". In fact, why not let Clerics and Druids take it?

 

[Nifft]

Also, I'd allow Bards (and maybe even Wizards) to take the Feat. Just make it "arcane caster level 1". In fact, why not let Clerics and Druids take it?

I agree with the Bards thing. But no Wizards, Clerics or Druids. Why not? Because those guys already get great value out of Craft Wand, Scribe Scroll, and Craft Staff.

It's Sorcerers and Bards who really get the short end of the charged stick. "I can craft a Wand of any spell I know! Which I can always cast... at full caster level... why did I take this feat?"

Basically, those current Crafting feats allow a Wizard, Cleric or Druid to mitigate their spellcasting style's drawback. This feat is intended to allow a Sorcerer to expend resources to mitigate their spellcasting style's drawback.

Also, from a world-building perspective, I like how it assigns roles to different classes. Need a new item? Get a Wizard. Need an item recharged? Find a Sorcerer. So the Sorcerer is always doing "lower class" work. This creates tension and gives rise to plot hooks.

Finally, the feat is rather strong, so I think it's fair to require an under-powered class as a pre-req (and Sorcerer & Bard are widely regarded as underpowered).

Actually, that was a pre-finally.

Finally, any DM who allows PCs to buy "one charge" wands is already giving the store away. "It's just like a Scroll, but half price! Also, it's easier to use!" No. Just no. You may find wands with fewer than 50 charges, but no-one ever sells them.

Cheers, -- N