Help me design a wand (My Players BEGONE!)

[Torm]

My gaming group is getting ready to resume a low magic campaign I was running for them a while back. The one wizard in the group, whose spells are all weather-themed, had, through one of their combats at sea, managed to acquire the magic stone at the heart of a very minor water elemental creature - very similar to a Water Grue, but not quite the same, and I don't like the powers ascribed to their pearl-like hearts. Anyway, two years have passed in-game, and I'm wanting to give him something neat for the stone, so I've decided it has been set into a wand. I've already decided that instead of charges, the wand can be used once per day. Or twice, but that would kill (break) the stone.

But what I haven't decided is - what should it do? I need something unusual, beyond the PHB/splat book stuff.

The party is 11th level, but that shouldn't necessarily indicate the level of spell power for the item - LOWER would be preferrable. It is a LOW magic world.

Ideas?

 

[der_kluge]

Water manipulation.

There is a show on Nickolodeon called "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or something like that. It's pretty interesting. The shows details this kid who is an "air bender" and he is the reincarnated avatar. In the early episodes, he meets up with the last water bender. The world is at war with the fire people, specifically fire benders. The show has not yet introduced any earth benders yet, though I presume they are slightly more prevalent. The air benders were eradicated, and the water benders only had one small village left, and of those, only one actual water bender, a girl, whose now a major character.

Ok, rambling aside, "water bending" enables the character to basically control water - period.

So, you might require the PCs take a new skill "water bending" with the wand, and if they want to get better at it, they need to allocate more skill points to it.

So, you could turn some water to ice, or boil it off, or move it around, or part the red sea, or whatever. You could outline a whole list of potential things. But, with a skill check system, you could keep it balanced.

I don't know... is that too powerful?
It's certainly *different*.

 

[Benben]

Water manipulation.

Ok, rambling aside, "water bending" enables the character to basically control water - period.

So, you might require the PCs take a new skill "water bending" with the wand, and if they want to get better at it, they need to allocate more skill points to it.

So, you could turn some water to ice, or boil it off, or move it around, or part the red sea, or whatever. You could outline a whole list of potential things. But, with a skill check system, you could keep it balanced.

I don't know... is that too powerful?
It's certainly *different*.

Green Ronin's Blue Rose campaign setting has Water Shaping and Wind Shaping as skill based magics that do some of this. Mostly they control the shape and force of the water/wind without changing its state.

 

[Torm]

"water bending" enables the character to basically control water - period.

So, you might require the PCs take a new skill "water bending" with the wand, and if they want to get better at it, they need to allocate more skill points to it.

So, you could turn some water to ice, or boil it off, or move it around, or part the red sea, or whatever. You could outline a whole list of potential things. But, with a skill check system, you could keep it balanced.

I don't know... is that too powerful?
It's certainly *different*.

This could work - I already have a system in place for allowing the wizard to "push" to create greater than normal magic effects. So normal use of the wand can allow him to control up to a 2.5ft cubic volume of water - including recreating the original little water elemental creature - for a duration of Concentration up to 5 rounds, and within a range of 60 ft. Anything beyond that size, duration, or range will require him to "push" - which can cause subdual or temporary Con damage to him or eat spell slots, and can have uncontrolled outcomes (Spellcraft check).

What do you think? (Consider that the original creature had a challenge rating of 1. )

 

[punkorange]

I like the water bending idea too.


Avatar is a good show, it's on my tivo list

 

[fafhrd]

An eternal wand loaded with the watery double spell(suitably updated for 3x).

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

An Eternal Wand from the ECS might be right up your ally.

Generally, it requires an Eberron dragonshard to create. A gem from the heart of a water creature fits it pretty well.

Eternal Wands can be used by anyone who has arcane spellcasting ability, and work 2x per day, every day.

If you want to make it more interesting, treat it more like an eternal staff. It has two charges per day. There's a list of tricks it can pull off that cost one charge, and there's a single, more sizeable, effect that takes both.