Re: Staffs

[Venator]

Re: Staffs

Im fairly new to the game and im having a hard time figuring my way through how staffs work.

In the DMG pg.243 it says:

A staff has 50 charges when created.

Where my confusion sets in is the descriptions of some of the standard staffs... For instance:

Abjuration: Usually carved from the heartwood of an ancient oak or other large tree, this staff allows use of the following spells:
* Shield (1 charge)
* Resist energy (1 charge)
* Dispel magic (1 charge)
* Lesser globe of invulnerability (2 charges)
* Dismissal (2 charges)
* Repulsion (3 charges)

Every last one of them falls WAY short of the 50 charges mentioned earlier. As written it seems to me that staffs are massive wastes of money, treasure, character value, ect. Where am i going wrong here?

 

[starwed]

Where am i going wrong here?

The parenthetical comments tell you the cost of using that ability. They all share the same pool of 50 charges.

 

[Venator]

Ah ha! Is that supposed to be implied, or am i just retarded and somehow missed that?

 

[starwed]

Oddly enough, I can't find an explicit mention of this in the SRD (not sure about the PHB). ^_^ So don't feel bad.

However, it is alluded to in this passage in the Creating Staffs section:

If desired, a spell can be placed into the staff at only half the normal cost, but then activating that particular spell costs 2 charges from the staff.

 

[Venator]

awesome. thank you very much good sir. /bow

 

[Piratecat]

And remember, the cool thing about staves is that they use YOUR ability score to figure out the saving throw. If you had an 18 intelligence and cast fireball out of a staff, the saving throw DC would be DC 17 (10 +3 from the spell level + 4 from your int). Other items don't do that!

 

[kenobi65]

And remember, the cool thing about staves is that they use YOUR ability score to figure out the saving throw. If you had an 18 intelligence and cast fireball out of a staff, the saving throw DC would be DC 17 (10 +3 from the spell level + 4 from your int). Other items don't do that!

Exactly right. Other items (such as wands), by default, are created at the "minimum" needed to create the item in question. That's both caster level, and ability score.

To continue PC's example, with a wand of fireball...such a wand will "assume" a caster ability score of 13 (the minimum Int needed for a wizard to be able to cast a 3rd level spell), and so, the DC on the save versus the wand would only be 14.

 

[Paladin]

Exactly right. Other items (such as wands), by default, are created at the "minimum" needed to create the item in question. That's both caster level, and ability score.

To continue PC's example, with a wand of fireball...such a wand will "assume" a caster ability score of 13 (the minimum Int needed for a wizard to be able to cast a 3rd level spell), and so, the DC on the save versus the wand would only be 14.

You can take the non-epic Enhance Item feat from page 114 of the ELH. It allows any item you create to use your ability score to determine DCs, just like staves.