Grappling and Wands

[Quasqueton]

Can a character use a wand while in a grapple?

SRD under grappling:

Activate a Magic Item: You can activate a magic item, as long as the item doesn’t require a spell completion trigger. You don’t need to make a grapple check to activate the item.

SRD under wands:

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. A wand may be used while grappling or while swallowed whole.

From what I can find, there is a difference between "spell completion" and "spell trigger" activation. But the grappling rules prohibit "spell completion trigger". And the errata "rules" suggest that PHB text trumps DMG text. The first rule above comes from the PHB, and the second from the DMG.


Also, on the subject of grappling: do you have to win a grapple check to make an attack on your opponent (at -4 attack)? This is the only option in the SRD without a note as to whether a grapple check is necessary or not.

Quasqueton

 

[youspoonybard]

Also, on the subject of grappling: do you have to win a grapple check to make an attack on your opponent (at -4 attack)? This is the only option in the SRD without a note as to whether a grapple check is necessary or not.

Quasqueton

Nope. Light weapon, though.

 

[Hypersmurf]

From what I can find, there is a difference between "spell completion" and "spell trigger" activation. But the grappling rules prohibit "spell completion trigger". And the errata "rules" suggest that PHB text trumps DMG text. The first rule above comes from the PHB, and the second from the DMG.

It means spell completion. They're not using "trigger" in the sense of the technical term "spell trigger", but rather as an English synonym for "method of activation".

Agreed, it's a poor choice of word

So you can't use scrolls, but you can use a wand... unless you're pinned.

-Hyp.

 

[hong]

This reminds me of something from last session IMC, actually. The party druid and her ranger cohort got swallowed whole by a hungry ghost (think No-Face from Spirited Away, if you've seen that film) and were slowly being drained to death. The druid tried using a CLW wand to zap her way out, but it fizzled against SR.

So then the ranger tried to use his horn of blasting to blast his way out. Unfortunately it too fizzled against SR (I wasn't entirely sure of this -- see here -- but we let it go). This being the 2nd time that day he'd used it, we rolled to see if it exploded in his face instead. And yes, it did, and not only that, it blew a huge gaping hole in the hungry ghost's belly as well, freeing the two of them.

Not that that helped the ranger, who was on something like 2 hp beforehand. However, his sacrifice meant the druid was able to use the Plot Device [tm], the orange stone of Sacrifice, to stop the huge Boss Monster [tm], the fiend of corruption, from mulching the rest of the party.

Most bloody battle I've run yet. In addition to the ranger, the mage had previously been taken from full hit points to -40 in one round. Very satisfying, though.