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<blockquote data-quote="Hassassin" data-source="post: 5761373" data-attributes="member: 6675228">Supposing a first level trained user in 3.5 there's still a quite large chance to fail. If you train a normal soldier (a first level warrior) you'd probably only have +2 UMD for a 1/10 chance to succeed - not worth it. So you'd need specialized troops (experts) for this purpose. Let's say Cha 14, 4 ranks, and only 14-20 succeed - about two in three chance to misfire. There's also a 1/20 chance of &quot;jamming&quot; the wand for the day. Even if successful, the attack roll (with scorching ray) may miss.A full fireball wand costs over 11k. Let's say an average of 6k for procuring used wands. Barded heavy cavalry costs 400 (heavy warhorse) + 800 (splint barding) = 1.2k on top of whatever the rider needs. So for the price of five heavy horse you'd get one wand. Not terribly expensive. Actually, equipping each rider costs at least 200 gp, which you'd only pay once for the wandman, so four to one is closer.I don't think scorching ray is worth it, since a CL 3 magic missile wand is half the cost, has no chance of missing the target, has longer range, and is still powerful enough to have a decent chance of killing first level targets. Such wands cost (used) about as much as cavalry.Same goes for wand of cure light wounds, of course. You get more &quot;clerics&quot; by training some soldiers to use wands. Better yet, give one both a cure wand and a fireball wand and you have a versatile wizard/cleric. Since CLW is so cheap you'd be insane not to give one of those to everyone you give a fireball wand. I definitely think these troops should be a part of armies.Yes, wands would have interesting consequences for war. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/ponder.png"&nbsp; class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":hmm:" title="Hmmm&nbsp; &nbsp; :hmm:" data-shortname=":hmm:" />I really wish there was a proper, well thought writeup of what D&amp;D warfare looks like. Or is there? I haven't seen any.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hassassin, post: 5761373, member: 6675228"] Supposing a first level trained user in 3.5 there's still a quite large chance to fail. If you train a normal soldier (a first level warrior) you'd probably only have +2 UMD for a 1/10 chance to succeed - not worth it. So you'd need specialized troops (experts) for this purpose. Let's say Cha 14, 4 ranks, and only 14-20 succeed - about two in three chance to misfire. There's also a 1/20 chance of "jamming" the wand for the day. Even if successful, the attack roll (with scorching ray) may miss. A full fireball wand costs over 11k. Let's say an average of 6k for procuring used wands. Barded heavy cavalry costs 400 (heavy warhorse) + 800 (splint barding) = 1.2k on top of whatever the rider needs. So for the price of five heavy horse you'd get one wand. Not terribly expensive. Actually, equipping each rider costs at least 200 gp, which you'd only pay once for the wandman, so four to one is closer. I don't think scorching ray is worth it, since a CL 3 magic missile wand is half the cost, has no chance of missing the target, has longer range, and is still powerful enough to have a decent chance of killing first level targets. Such wands cost (used) about as much as cavalry. Same goes for wand of cure light wounds, of course. You get more "clerics" by training some soldiers to use wands. Better yet, give one both a cure wand and a fireball wand and you have a versatile wizard/cleric. Since CLW is so cheap you'd be insane not to give one of those to everyone you give a fireball wand. I definitely think these troops should be a part of armies. Yes, wands would have interesting consequences for war. :hmm: I really wish there was a proper, well thought writeup of what D&D warfare looks like. Or is there? I haven't seen any. [/QUOTE]

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