A few Ebberon related questions

[DMDan0076]

I have a few questions regarding the issues regarding my current campaign. We play in Ebberon, and as such have an artificer in the group. The questions that have come up are;

#1 - When an artificer creates a wand, is that wand usable by other spellcasting classes or is it usable only by the artificer? The two sides of this argument are that an Artificer does not fall into either Arcane or Divine, so when he creates an item like a wand or scroll what is it classified as; arcane or divine or nothing?

#2 - Can a personal spell like shield be made into a wand? I belive it can be since to activate a wand you must have the spell on your spell list, so it's not like anyone who couldn't cast it in the first place could use the wand. Others in the group disagree. Which is it?

#3 - Can an artificer create a wand or scroll of one of his infusions? If so what is the casting time on the item if the infusion norammly takes 1 minute to cast?

#4 - The whole issue came about because the warforged fighter in the group took a level of cleric with the magic doamin. He can now use both arcane and divine wands. He asked the Artificer in the group to craft him a shield wand, and that's where all the questions arose from. This last point isn't really a question, but I just wanted to explain why I was asking these questions.

Thanks

 

[Deadguy]

Well, going through:

1. Wands are neither Arcane nor Divine; they just are. Anyone with the spell on their list can use a Wand, regardless of how that spell is on their list.

2. Yes, it can. Why shouldn't it? The only stipulation is a spell that's level 4 or less.

3. No, infusions are specifically called out as not being spells and thus not meeting the requirements to make a wand or scroll. (These items store only spells.)

4. Whilst it does seem egregious, the Warforged has taken a rules-legal step. Of course, he can't absolutely safely use scrolls other than Caster Level 1 scrolls, and there are still wands that he couldn't make use of (e.g. wands of bard or druid only spells). If this is really what is causing the trouble, then this might be the best thing to moderate.

 

[shilsen]

Deadguy got them all in one.

 

[Taraxia]

_Shield_ is nice, but it's not *that* nice. It gives you the same shield AC bonus as wielding a +2 heavy shield (and note it doesn't *stack* with having a +2 heavy shield). So it means your two-handed wielder can bring his AC up to that of a sword-and-board wielder. The fact that -- unless he has time to prepare, which he shouldn't, not in every encounter -- he's using up an action to get the _shield_ is what balances it. Actions are your most precious resource in a D&D encounter, and how fast you are is way more important than the total list of things you can do.

BTW, he'll probably get more bang for his buck making this into an _eternal wand_ rather than a regular wand, at least if he plans to use this regularly. If he wants to sink even more money into this, having a _wand sheath_ is a good plan if he's going to be casting _shield_ on the first round of combat a lot.

Of course, RP restrictions are, as always, the best way to deal with rules abuses. Has this fighter had any recent experiences that make it make sense for him to have suddenly had a religious conversion? Does he have any natural attraction to the worship of Aureon (the only core Eberron deity who grants the Magic domain, other than the evil Shadow)? Can he *explain* to you why his *character* wants to be a cleric, other than the meta/powergamey "I want to cast spells" explanation? Becoming a cleric, unlike becoming any other class, realistically should require a deep personal motivation on the part of the character -- their spells derive from faith, after all.

 

[DMDan0076]

The warforged used to use a shield and weild a bastardsword one handed. After a brief, but effective encounter with an elder black pudding, he was forced to fight with a borrowed greatsword. He instantly liked the swinging two handed aspect and now has decided that he always wants to swing two handed. As well, even with his sheild his AC was around 23, which meant that the bad guys were hitting him all the time anyway. His theory now is to deal out as much damage as possible. But still thinking defensively, he liked the idea of having that shield bonus. He also has the combat expertise feat, so with shield and a full on combat expertise he can get his AC well into the low 30's without any other buffs or items.

The group usually spends the first round of any fight (any fight they are not previously buffed up for that is) casting buffs anyway. The warforged in question has two wand sheaths, one on each arm. In one he carries a wand of repair moderate wounds, and in the other he was going to carry either a wand of shield or a wand of magic missiles. He is almost leaning towards the wand of magic missiles since he has been swallowed whole a few times already and figures the least he can do is inflict a little heartburn on the next guy who swallows him.

The other thing that shield gives him is immunity to magic missiles, which he likes the idea of.

As for the level of cleric, the player was tired of not being able to heal himself. The clerics in the party are a selfish bunch and the Artificer is usually off doing other things, or unconsious at the end of the fight, so the warforged player was going to take a level of sorceror, just so he could use arcane repair wands. In the intrest of min-maxing the clerics in the group convinved him to take a level of cleric with the magic doamin. As for domains, he choose Magic and Travel. Now true, there is no single Ebberon deity that grants those domains, but the current DM (I'm currently on DM vacation and getting a taste of the otherside) allows a worshiper of the entire soverign host to take any two domains that any of the deitys in the host have, allowing a great range of mis and match. This group also has absolutely no "Roleplay" abilty and we (myself and the other 2 guys who have taken turns DMing) have given up enforcing any roleplay issues many many years ago.

Anyway thanks for the input. Much appreciated.

 

[DMDan0076]

Oh, and one other thing. THe reason Iasked about the infusions being made into scrolls and wands was because of the description of infusions out of the Ebberon Campaign setting;

page 31 "Like a spell, an artificer can apply item creation feat ans metamagic feats to his infusions. Like a sorcerer, an artificer can apply a metamagic feat to an infusion spontaneously, but doing this requires extra time. An artificer can craft alchemical items as though he were a spellcaster."

Reading this paragraph made me think that an Artificer could make a scroll, wand, ring or even a wondrous item out of his ifusions.

 

[Glyfair]

Oh, and one other thing. THe reason Iasked about the infusions being made into scrolls and wands was because of the description of infusions out of the Ebberon Campaign setting;

page 31 "Like a spell, an artificer can apply item creation feat ans metamagic feats to his infusions. Like a sorcerer, an artificer can apply a metamagic feat to an infusion spontaneously, but doing this requires extra time. An artificer can craft alchemical items as though he were a spellcaster."

Reading this paragraph made me think that an Artificer could make a scroll, wand, ring or even a wondrous item out of his ifusions.

The Eberron Errata states:

In the Infusions class feature, the first sentence of the eighth paragraph should read as follows:
Like a spellcaster, an artificer can apply metamagic feats he knows to his infusions.

Note the removal of all references to item creation feats.

As a side issue to your first question, while it doesn't matter whether a wand is divine or arcane, scrolls are another matter. The errata has this to say:

Magic items created by an artificer are considered neither arcane nor divine.

(Even if Andy Collins ignored this in his latest Sage Advice Column).

 

[Taraxia]

Well, if you're already playing a fairly powergamey campaign, and this isn't going to get the character to be any more powerful than anyone else -- especially with selfish clerics who aren't pulling their weight in terms of support -- then it sounds fine. A greatsword wielder who needs the _shield_ to get into the low 20's for AC isn't going to be breaking the game. And using Combat Expertise to bump up AC is, after all, its own tradeoff. (Spending a round with full Combat Expertise so that you survive without doing any damage is not only not unbalanced, it's almost always a bad idea. Actions are everything.)

The _shield_ will almost always be more worthwhile than the _magic misisle_ wand, by the way. _Magic missile_ is for people who can't actually fight. You don't want to waste time giving the creature "heartburn" if you've been swallowed anyway -- if you're a fighter, you want to be doing that damage as *slashing or piercing physical damage*, which will actually get you free. Just have him keep a light weapon on him for those situations.

 

[DMDan0076]

Thanks for the replys.

So as Glyfair pointed out there was clarification in the errata, which I missed apparently. But I am still not clear on issue. As I see it now, an artificer can make a wand and anyone can use it because wands are neither arcane nor divine. If an artificer makes a scroll, only he or other characters with use magic deivce can use it since it is neither Arcane or Divine? Am I correct with this assumption now?

Thanks again.

 

[Glyfair]

So as Glyfair pointed out there was clarification in the errata, which I missed apparently. But I am still not clear on issue. As I see it now, an artificer can make a wand and anyone can use it because wands are neither arcane nor divine. If an artificer makes a scroll, only he or other characters with use magic deivce can use it since it is neither Arcane or Divine? Am I correct with this assumption now?

That's correct. If a wand has cure light wounds. a bard can use it as well as a cleric or a ranger. A divine scroll of cure light wounds can be used by the ranger and cleric, but not the bard. An artificers scroll fo cure light wounds can't be used by any body, so you need your Use Magic Device skill to activate it.