Sage Advice's ruling on staves

[Bad Paper]

Dear Sage,
Can a magic staff hold only one spell?
--Nelson

A: Yes.

Even though all the staffs presented in the Dungeon Master’s Guide contain multiple spells, the rules don’t expressly ban you from crafting a staff with only one spell (and what’s more, it’s not significantly unbalancing to do so).

I have seen people try to break Craft Staff by having, say, two copies of fireball in it, to pretend that they are somehow different spells, in order to load a staff with only one spell. And now ... stealth errata?

Does this rub anyone else the wrong way?

 

[nute]

I don't see anything in the SRD that says a staff must have multiple spells in it. Effectively a staff is just a wand on steroids: can hold multiple spells, spells of higher level, be used as a weapon on its own, etc.

 

[Hypersmurf]

And now ... stealth errata?

What do you consider the definition of 'several' to be?

-Hyp.

 

[Patlin]

*Boggles*

It never even occurred to me that their might be a rule against a staff having only one spell. If you feel the Sage is wrong on this one, what rules text are you relying on?

 

[blargney the second]

What's wrong with having only one spell in a staff?
-blarg

 

[Hypersmurf]

Well, there are two points.

1.
STAFFS
A staff is a long shaft of wood that stores several spells.

If it doesn't store several spells, it's not a staff. Which is why I ask - how do you define 'several'?

2.
Unlike wands, which can contain a wide variety of spells, each staff is of a certain kind and holds specific spells.

Strictly, you can't create a staff of 'any spell you know' like you can with a wand. You can only create staffs which are 'staffs of certain kinds', and the spells are determined by that kind.

So while it's clear that you can Craft a Staff of Charming or a Staff of Life, if you want to craft a staff that contains Enervation and Magic Missile, you'll need the DM's permission to invent a new 'staff of a certain kind' that contains those specific spells, and then craft it.

-Hyp.

 

[molonel]

You know, I'm a pretty big fan of the rules as written, and all that, but this is just one of those times when I feel like one of those medieval exegetes out of The Name of the Rose arguing over whether or not Jesus owned his clothes.

If a player took Craft Staff and wanted to put a single spell in it, I'd let the player do that.

Looks like the Sage agrees with me. I don't know quite how to take that.

 

[Patlin]

If it doesn't store several spells, it's not a staff. Which is why I ask - how do you define 'several'?

I suppose that I'm willing to define it, in this context, as "one or more" for the sake of my own games, but now I understand Bad Paper's point.

 

[Pyrex]

Well, there are two points.

1.
STAFFS
A staff is a long shaft of wood that stores several spells.

If it doesn't store several spells, it's not a staff. Which is why I ask - how do you define 'several'?

Arguably, 50 Chain Lightning charges is 'several'.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Arguably, 50 Chain Lightning charges is 'several'.

"A wand is a thin baton that contains a single spell of 4th level or lower. Each wand has 50 charges when created, and each charge expended allows the user to use the wand’s spell one time."

A wand contains a single spell, and 50 charges. A staff contains several spells, and 50 charges.

-Hyp.