Arwend Setting Magic Items -- Part 1

[Wolv0rine]

Rods
A rod appears much like a scepter. Rods can be plain, ornate, fragile, sturdy, or anywhere in between.
Unlike staves and wands, rods manifest effects rather than spells or affecting magical abilities.
Rods require a mana pool to power any active effects they possess, although continuous effects (if any) do not require such powering.
Rods generally manifest a power or set of powers that follow a theme.


Example Rod:
Rod of Law: This rod is 2 ft. long, consisting of a handle of ivory (dyed red), and a rune-covered shaft that terminates in a golden claw gripping a large egg-shaped piece of jade. When the command word is spoken, the bearer of the rod is viewed by all with its radius (30 ft.) as the Final Word on all things while they are in the rod’s radius of effect. Each target may make a Will check (DC: 20) to avoid the rod’s power; success meaning the target may make its own decision concerning the rod bearer’s word. This ability costs 3 mana to activate, and 3 mana per round to maintain.
The Rod of Law has a mana pool equal to half the maximum of its creator at the time of its creation.

 

[Pyrex]

You might not want to use ECL as an acryonym for effective caster level given it already has an in-game defined meaning.

Wands:
Hmm. Effectively the +CL bonus from wands ranges from +1 at 1st level to approximately +7 at 20th level. That's pretty huge; especially for a) penetrating SR and b) spells that compare CL to HD. There should probably be some n/day mechanic or some other balancing factor here.

Rods:
The basic design seems ok, but are they rechargable? You note the amount of mana the Rod of Law has, but don't state any basic guidelines on how much mana they should have in general or how to replenish them.

Rod of Law
You should define the effect more clearly. For someone who fails their Will save, what happens when they hear the following divine pronouncements from the holder of the rod.

"The sky is green!" (Are they deluded into believing the sky is green? Must they respond 'green' when someone asks them what color the sky is?)

"Birds are minions of evil! Anything with feathers must be killed on sight!" (Are they Geas'd to obey orders?)

Basically, which of the following spells can it replicate: Charm, Dominate, Suggestion, Geas.

 

[Wolv0rine]

You might not want to use ECL as an acryonym for effective caster level given it already has an in-game defined meaning.

Wands:
Hmm. Effectively the +CL bonus from wands ranges from +1 at 1st level to approximately +7 at 20th level. That's pretty huge; especially for a) penetrating SR and b) spells that compare CL to HD. There should probably be some n/day mechanic or some other balancing factor here.

Well, in the original version you said you wanted to see a reason why a wizard would ever want or need to replace their wand as they themselves grew more powerful, a reason why you wouldn't have a low-level charatcer (an apprentice, say) craft a cheaper wand for you, and a reason why a wand crafted by a more powerful character would be desirable.
As far as I could tell, if the CL modifier was any smaller, you'd lose almost all sense of gradation between different CL crafters.
I don't know, I've always abhorred n/day mechanics.

Rods:
The basic design seems ok, but are they rechargable? You note the amount of mana the Rod of Law has, but don't state any basic guidelines on how much mana they should have in general or how to replenish them.

Rod of Law
You should define the effect more clearly. For someone who fails their Will save, what happens when they hear the following divine pronouncements from the holder of the rod.

"The sky is green!" (Are they deluded into believing the sky is green? Must they respond 'green' when someone asks them what color the sky is?)

"Birds are minions of evil! Anything with feathers must be killed on sight!" (Are they Geas'd to obey orders?)

Basically, which of the following spells can it replicate: Charm, Dominate, Suggestion, Geas.

Rods are rechargable in the same way all magic items with mana pools are rechargable (see top of first post)
I figured the mana cost with the assumption of Suggestion, but I'm honestly not sure if it really fits the bill. The effect doesn't change the target's perception of reality, they simply accept that the wielder is possessed of The Authority to decree.
So "The sky is green" could convince someone (for the duration of the effect) that the sky is, in fact green. A clever DM (or Player, even) could run with that, and say that the character still sees the color blue, but now accepts by train of logic that is the sky is that color, and the Rod wielder has decreed that to be green, that for the duration of the effect the target could consider all things blue to be green.
"Birds are minions of evil!" The Rod wielder has spoken, the target will believe that all birds are evil. Again, for the duration of the effect. After the Rod stop exerting it's power, the effect is over. There are no 'after-effects'. In fact, a clumsy wielder could create some truely hateful enemies through the Rod's use. A sly wielder will use the Rod in such a way that the targets never question whether or not there was magic influence on them or not.

 

[Pyrex]

Well, in the original version you said you wanted to see a reason why a wizard would ever want or need to replace their wand as they themselves grew more powerful, a reason why you wouldn't have a low-level charatcer (an apprentice, say) craft a cheaper wand for you, and a reason why a wand crafted by a more powerful character would be desirable.
As far as I could tell, if the CL modifier was any smaller, you'd lose almost all sense of gradation between different CL crafters.
I don't know, I've always abhorred n/day mechanics.

Right, wands should definitely be different, but a +CL boost is not the only option. +CL is very powerful and needs to be watched closely.

I'm not that fond of n/day either, but I haven't come up with a better solution for balancing +7 CL either.

Hmm, mabye the Wizard has to expend +1 mana for each additional +CL he wants to use from the wand?

That makes wands an interesting counterpart to staves assuming you rule you can't use both on the same spell.

I figured the mana cost with the assumption of Suggestion, but I'm honestly not sure if it really fits the bill. The effect doesn't change the target's perception of reality, they simply accept that the wielder is possessed of The Authority to decree.

Ahh, ok. At any rate then it should cost more than 3 mana to activate as it's clearly using the 6th level Mass Suggestion instead of the 3rd level Suggestion.