An alternative Spell Trigger item

[Hypersmurf]

I've been thinking about an alternative Wand - not to replace, but to coexist with the existing form.

Expending a charge would allow the caster to swap out a prepared spell (as a cleric spontaneously curing) or use a slot (for sorcerers and bards) of the appropriate level to cast the spell stored in the device.

Advantages: Caster gets to use his own caster level, metamagic feats, attribute bonus, and spell-enhancing abilities on the spell.

Disadvantages: Costs a slot to use, draws AoOs where a normal wand does not, not useable by casters without high-enough-level slots, probably not useable with UMD (since the character might not have a slot with which to cast the spell).

Since the caster level of the item is irrelevant, I suspect pricing would have to be based solely on spell level, and the multiplier would be considerably more than 750gp.

Insights, thoughts, warnings on implementation?

Opinions on pricing?

-Hyp.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

There was a Dragon article on something like this back in the 2nd edition days.

The author had various prices depending on what the wand could do, IIRC.

A wand of fireball casting would use a 3rd level spell slot
A wand of fireball casting +1 would use a 3rd level spell slot, but it would be cast as if it were one level higher than the character's level.