Fun with Quickened Wand

[lukelightning]

Ok, here's the deal: you can make a wand with a quickened spell, but since quickened spells are 4 levels higher, you can only make wands of quickened 0 level spells. Assuming you are a powerful spellcaster with lots of money, what kinds of quickened wands would you make?

My ideas:
Guidance. Hold it in your hand, get a +1 to an attack or skill check at will.
Daze: daze an enemy each round as a free action
Ray of frost: give it to a rogue for an extra sneak attack

any others?

 

[hammymchamham]

Activation
Wands use the spell trigger activation method, so casting a spell from a wand is usually a standard action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. (If the spell being cast, however, has a longer casting time than 1 action, it takes that long to cast the spell from a wand.) To activate a wand, a character must hold it in hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for nonhumanoid creatures) and point it in the general direction of the target or area.

Since it takes a standard action to activate a wand (even a "quickened" wand), I think its a waste to make one.

 

[AGGEMAM]

Since it takes a standard action to activate a wand (even a "quickened" wand), I think its a waste to make one.

Nope.

Posted by kreynolds

DMG, page 241, Creating Magic Items...


quote:
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Using metamagic feats, a caster can place spells in items at a higher level than normal. For example, a caster could heighten a spell's level to increase its effectiveness, or quicken a spell to allow it to be used as a free action, placing it within an item at the higher metamagic level.
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...granted, for Wands and Quicken Spell, you're limited to 0-level spells, such as ray of frost, but you can do it.

 

[smetzger]

Ok, here's the deal: you can make a wand with a quickened spell, but since quickened spells are 4 levels higher

Quickened Spells are _not_ 4 levels higher. They merely take up higher level slots to cast them.

 

[delkain]

You find a Wizard with Quicken, Craft Wand, and 8 levels in Icantatrix (MoF) for the Improved Metamagic ability and then you can have your Quickened Wand of Magic Missiles as Improved Metamagic reduces the feat level cost by one.



Smetzger is right as the feat does not change the level of the spell. I had a lapse there...

 

[AGGEMAM]

You find a Wizard with Quicken, Craft Wand, and 8 levels in Icantatrix (MoF) for the Improved Metamagic ability and then you can have your Quickened Wand of Magic Missiles as Improved Metamagic reduces the feat level cost by one.

Improved metamagic feat can even be taken multiple times ...

Smetzger is right as the feat does not change the level of the spell. I had a lapse there...

No, but it does change the spell slot level which is the important thing in crafting wands.

 

[Destil]

Per the rules as written I don't think it would work that way. Much like a sorcerer trying to quicken a spell... As was shown above, spell trigger is a standard action or longer. It says nothing about an exception for spells with a shorter cast time. Though, at the same time, the meta-magic rule you mention may over-come this, since the quicken spell description simply says you may cast the spell as a free action, it does not alter the original cast time....

But, at the same time, I think it's very much in the spirit of the rules, and I'd allow it. It's unclear if the letter of the rules do, though.

 

[Caliban]

Per the rules as written I don't think it would work that way. Much like a sorcerer trying to quicken a spell... As was shown above, spell trigger is a standard action or longer. It says nothing about an exception for spells with a shorter cast time. Though, at the same time, the meta-magic rule you mention may over-come this, since the quicken spell description simply says you may cast the spell as a free action, it does not alter the original cast time....

But, at the same time, I think it's very much in the spirit of the rules, and I'd allow it. It's unclear if the letter of the rules do, though.

DMG, page 175, Using Items, 2nd paragraph, "Activating a magic item is a standard action unless the items indicates otherwise. However, the casting time of a spell is the time required to activate the same power in an item, wether it's a scroll, a wand, or a pair of boots, unless the item descriptions specifically states otherwise."

So a wand of identify takes 8 hours to activate, and a wand of Quickened Ray of Frost is a free action to activate.

 

[smetzger]

No, but it does change the spell slot level which is the important thing in crafting wands.

Not sure if I am doing it correct, but this is how I do it.

Barring, Heighten, I use the metamagicked level for the cost of the wand but _not_ for the level restriction.

 

[James McMurray]

As per the quote from the DMG above, you're doing it wrong.