Spell point magic system and Staves

[Fauxargent]

Does anyone have any suggestion on the best way to combine the 3.5 Staff rules and the UA SP system.

eg. Take a 15th level wizard with a Staff of Frost. Would the cone of cold from this staff inflict?
1) 15 dice cold damage (Wizard's caster level)
2) 9 dice of cold damage (base for a 5th level spell)
3) 9 dice with the option to spend 6SP to upgrade this to 15 dice

(Obviously this question only applies to spells with level based damage.)

 

[Necrohazard]

Does anyone have any suggestion on the best way to combine the 3.5 Staff rules and the UA SP system.

eg. Take a 15th level wizard with a Staff of Frost. Would the cone of cold from this staff inflict?
1) 15 dice cold damage (Wizard's caster level)
2) 9 dice of cold damage (base for a 5th level spell)
3) 9 dice with the option to spend 6SP to upgrade this to 15 dice

(Obviously this question only applies to spells with level based damage.)

I would say it depends on how powerful you want your staffs to be in your campaign, if you go by (2 or 3) you really make the staff as a magic item much more weak then what it was tended to be in the first place, and it looses the its special ability above most other magic items to scale with the user. So in my campaign I would pick (1) and say that staffs do not truly contain all the SP that one seems to draw upon to cast a given spell, but instead taps into some greater over all magic force, whatever that may be in your own campainin but in a very specialized ways, and the staff can tap into the source of magic depending on the ability of the spell caster himself.

If you go with the other two then that would be like having a wizard using the spell slot system to burn spell slots of prepared spells just to call upon what the staff should do on its own.

If you want to go that way with it then I would think on maybe bringing the cost of staffs down in your campaign, but that does go along an idea I have had going about in my head, of a type of magic item or items that are like scrolls in a way, except that they dont just burn away, but instead are used as a conduit for SPs that bring about a set type of spells or spell without having to know that spell, but can scale its power along with the user, much like the staff, except that it does use the spell casters SPs vs. any SPs itself.
And also items that instead of taking SPs to make a set type of spells it is instead taped by the spell caster as a SP pool, to help fule a given spell or meta magic affect. But limiting it to so much SPs and its burned up to so many SPs a day, anyways. Sorry got off topic about the staffs. But any thought you may have on any of this would be great. I hope I have helped you at least a little.

 

[Geoff Watson]

My suggestion is to give the staves a certain amount of 'spell points' instead of charges, and the staff uses any number of spell points between the minimum and the wielders level to power a spell, as the wielder chooses.

Geoff.

 

[Staffan]

Use the rules for psicrowns, which are basically psionic staves (though in the form of headbands rather than sticks). Basically, the item has 50 PP (or spell points) per built-in manifester (caster) level. When using a power (spell) from the item, you can use any number of PP from the minimum to activate the power up to either the item's or your own manifester level.

So, let's say you have a fiery ruin psicrown that holds the powers energy ball, energy cone, energy missile, energy stun, and fiery discorporation, and has manifester level 15 and starts with 750 PP. You want to use energy cone, which is a 3rd level power and thus costs a minimum of 5 PP. If you're 15th level or below, you can then have the psicrown manifest energy cone using 5 through 15 PP, inflicting 5-15d6 of damage. If you're above 15th level, you can expend more of the crown's PPs. Note that you can't supplement the crown's PPs with your own, and once they're spent they're gone.