Simple Harry Potter style wand HR

[Psion]

I was planning a new game for my daughter, theoretically a "wizard academy" sort of affair. Low level D&D characters don't "parse up" as fine as the students at Hogwart's do, but I'm not so concerned about that; class stuff can be handled in the background.

But stylistically, I'd like wands as a tool like they are in the HP series. ID Adventures loot4less volume II provides some wands that are tools that help you casting (which I will almost certainly use at some point) instead of giving you charges of a spell. Bit they aren't really required for casting.

So, how can I make a wand a compulsory implement for student wizards?

My answer: have it replace (un-priced) material components.

Balance wise, it works. The only real game effect of un-priced components is to make the "spell components bag" a virtual focus for the character; a wand works just as well.

If I want it to fit into an otherwise normal D&D setting, I can only have the wand work for 0 and 1st level spells. As a possible "back end" rule, perhaps using material components is a DC (11+spell level) spellcraft check, which means that anyone with any appreciable spellcraft skill (i.e., most existing spellcasters) could simply take 10 and not have to worry about. But beginning students might need the simpler focus that the wand represents until they finish their "components and spellcraft" course.

 

[Nimloth]

My take

Psion, I like your take on wands too. Replace "spell components bag" with a wand, nice, balanced and simple.

I created a Hogwarts style school of magic in my campaign. I believe I let the wands hold certain spells (depending on the wand) which the wizards could then spontaneously cast (using a memorized spell) through their wands. Of course, the wand picks the wizard, so no golf bag full of wands...

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Wizards & Wands, Innate Sorcery

In the Tale of the Twin Suns, magic is very commonplace especially arcane magics. Wizards use wands and sorcerers use their innate power in place of costly materials.

[sblock=The Wizards' Wand]The wizard crafts a wand specifically attuned to her. Regardless of its construction or composition, it has a hardness of 12, 50 hit points, and a break DC of 30. The wands hit points increase at a rate of 2 per wizard level, and the hardness and break Difficulty Class increase at a rate of 1 point per two wizard levels.

If a wizard’s wand breaks, she is stunned for 1d4 rounds. It takes a month and 1,000 gp in materials to create a new one. A wizard can have only one wand attuned to her at a time. If the character finds a new wand she would rather become attuned to, switching wands requires no money. However, it does take a week of meditation.

Should the wizard die or take on a new wand, the old wand becomes normal (unless it had been given other magical properties, in which case they remain). A slain wizard who comes back from the dead can immediately and automatically re-attune to her old wand as a free action.

The wizard uses her wand in place of using costly material components. The wand may be used to substitute material components that have a cost of 10 gp per caster level of the wizard.

At 7th level, the wizard can use her wand to substitute material components that have a cost of 25 gp per caster level. At 13th level, the wizard can use her wand to substitute material components that have a cost of 50 gp per caster level. At 19th level, the wizard can use her wand to substitute material components that have a cost of 100gp per caster level of the wizard, to a maximum limit of 2,000 gp.

If the wizard wishes to cast a spell that has a material component that exceeds a gp value that her wand is incapable of replicating, the wizard must than purchase or seek out the material component.[/sblock][sblock=Innate Sorcery]A sorcerer casts arcane spells which are drawn primarily from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. Her selection of spells is limited. The sorcerer begins play knowing two 1st-level spells of her choice. At each level, the sorcerer gains one or more new spells, as indicated on the “Sorcerer Spells Known” table. These spells can be chosen from the Sorcerer/Wizard Spell list.

Because sorcerers gain their spells from innate, inborn power, they have no need to worry about material components – they are, in essence, their own material components. Spells with costly material components require a little extra personal power on the sorcerer’s part. She does not need to obtain the material component, but she must instead pay a price in experience points for casting the spell. The sorcerer pays 1/25 of the gold-piece cost of the component in XP (minimum loss of 1 XP). Thus if a sorcerer casts stoneskin, which require 250 gp worth of diamond dust, the sorcerer instead pays 10 XP (250 ÷ 25 = 10). Spells that already require an expenditure of experience points are handled normally. Spell with a focus still require the focus.

A sorcerer is limited to casting a certain number of spells from each level per day, but she need not prepare her spells in advance. The number of spells she can cast per day is improved by her bonus spells, if any. For instance at 1st level, the sorcerer Sassra can cast four 1st level spells per day – three for being first level, plus one thanks to her high Charisma. However, she only knows two spells: magic missile and mage armor. In any given day, she can cast magic missile four times, cast mage armor four times, or cast some combination of the two spells a total of four times. She does not have to decide ahead of time which spells she’ll cast.

A sorcerer may use a higher level slot to cast a lower level spell if she so chooses. For example, when Sassra is 8th level and on any given day she has used up all of her fourth level spell slots for the day, but wants to cast another fourth level spell, she could use an available fifth level slot to do so. The spell is treated as its actual level, not as the level of the slot used to cast it.

To learn or cast a spell, a sorcerer must have a Charisma score of at least 10 + the spell’s actual level. The Difficulty Class for saving throws against sorcerer spells is 10 + the spell’s level + the sorcerer’s Charisma modifier.[/sblock]

 

[Psion]

Well, we ended up not playing the wizards academy game. I gave my daughter 3 choices:

1) A Harry Potter type game (which would have tapped TGM's Arcane Quarter
2) A diablo-like game (Castle Whiterock)
3) A final fantasy type game (Shades of Gray or Curse of the Crimson Throne)

She went with #3.

 

[Voadam]

Well, we ended up not playing the wizards academy game. I gave my daughter 3 choices:

1) A Harry Potter type game (which would have tapped TGM's Arcane Quarter
2) A diablo-like game (Castle Whiterock)
3) A final fantasy type game (Shades of Gray or Curse of the Crimson Throne)

She went with #3.

Heh, that's like the options I gave my group for our new D&D game

1) Mystery! "The game's afoot Watson" (Hell Hath no Fury from Imperial Age)
2) Pulp! "Cover your heart Indy!" (Coils of Set)
3) Dungeon Crawl! "Kill things and loot the bodies, for the cause of good!" (Whiterock or Vault of Tszathar Rho)

One vote for Mystery, two for Pulp, one for Dungeon Crawl.