Spirit Wands

[Jack Simth]

The cleric went about the battlefield, healing all the wounded with a single wand he invoked over and over. After the three hundredth time the Cleric did this, the wizard asked "What's powering that thing?" "They are." replied the Cleric.

Spirit Wands
A Spirit Wand acts much like a regular wand, but require Craft Wondrous Item as well as Craft Wand. The big benefit, though, is that they don't use charges. Instead, they draw XP from the user (or the recipient, at the option of the invoker, if the recipient is a willing target for the spell) to power the spell. Each charge costs 2 xp * spell level * caster level, + 1/25th the GP cost of any focus component of the spell, + 1/5th the GP cost of any material component of the spell, plus any XP component of the spell. (0 level spells count as 1/2 a spell level for all purposes of calculations with Spirit Wands). Each Spirit Wand is valued at 1000*spell level * caster level gp (and thus has a cost to create of 500 * spell level * caster level gp, and 40 *spell level * caster level XP).

Thus, a Spirit Wand of Cure Minor Wounds (0th level Cleric spell) at caster level 1 costs 1 xp per use, and heals 1 hp per invocation, and would be valued at 500 gp. A Spirit Wand of Cure Light Wounds at caster level 1 costs 2 xp per use, and heals 1d8+1 damage per invocation, and would be valued at 1000 gp. A Spirit Wand of Bless Water would be valued at 1,000 gp, and would cost 7 xp each time you used it (2 xp for a 1st level spell, 5 xp for the 25 gp material component).



So, any thoughts as to the balance of such wands?

 

[hornedturtle]

I think this sounds cool. It might not be that balanced when you hire a spell caster he charges 5 gp per xp used casting a spell. A charge from a normal wand of cure light wounds uses 25gp worth of gear value, this instead uses xp valued at 10 gp. Also there is a severe case of diminishing returns, Why would someone use a Spirit Wand of cure moderate wounds when a cure light one could do the same thing and save you 10xp. Every Cleric would only need 2 wands for healing with this, a cure light for out of combat healing and a heal for emergency healing in combat. And said cleric would most likely just use his spells per day instead and save the xp (which is only 132xp for heal).

 

[Jack Simth]

I think this sounds cool. It might not be that balanced when you hire a spell caster he charges 5 gp per xp used casting a spell. A charge from a normal wand of cure light wounds uses 25gp worth of gear value, this instead uses xp valued at 10 gp.

A charge from a normal wand of Cure Light Wounds costs 15 gp, not 25 (750 gp for a standard wand, 50 charges per wand = 15 gp per charge). It's the scroll that costs 25.

Of course, the caster also needs to make his investment back (this has a higher base cost than a normal wand), so there will be some charge for that.

But then, the normal price of a 1st level spell at caster level 1 when you have a hireling casting it out of his spells prepared is 10 gp (plus components, if any) - which is, curiously, EXACTLY what the XP cost for invoking this wand comes to. You save exactly nothing hiring a caster to invoke one of these for you.

Also there is a severe case of diminishing returns, Why would someone use a Spirit Wand of cure moderate wounds when a cure light one could do the same thing and save you 10xp.

You mean exactly like how nobody buys wands of Cure Moderate Wounds? For the cost of one charge of Cure Moderate Wounds (15*2*3=90 gp each) for 2d8+3 healing, you can instead get SIX charges of Cure Light Wounds (15*1*1=15 gp each) for 6d8+6 healing.

As that exactly mirrors the existing situation, I'm not going to consider it a problem, in and of itself.

Every Cleric would only need 2 wands for healing with this, a cure light for out of combat healing and a heal for emergency healing in combat. And said cleric would most likely just use his spells per day instead and save the xp (which is only 132xp for heal).

Other than that you can't get wands of Heal (it's a 7th level Spell for Druids, 6th for Clerics, 5th for Adepts - which is over the 4th level limit for Wands - and as these inherit from Wands, you can't get it for these, either), that's also basically the existing situation with standard wands.

See, a normal wand of Cure Light Wounds costs 750 gp to purchase, or 375 gp and 30 xp to craft. It has 50 charges - if you Craft that wand, each charge costs 7.5 gp and 0.6 xp. If we convert the XP cost of the standard wand of Cure Light Wounds to gp at the hireling spellcasting conversion rate, that's 3 gp, for 10.5 gp's value per charge. If we just go with the market purchase price, it's 15 gp/charge. If you Wish up the materials for Crafting the Wand of Cure Light Wounds (25,000 gp in materials per Wish, for 5,000 xp, means 5 gp/xp - so that 7.5 gp materials cost and 0.6 xp cost becomes 2.1 xp cost, when done in bulk this way, then calculated for individual charges).

The Spirit Wand Costs 10 gp value each time you invoke it (2 xp) - but it's also got a 1,000 gp up-front cost (or 500 gp and 40 xp), that you don't recoup.

If you price out the 2 xp per invocation as 10 gp (assuming a first level spell at caster level 1 - but they scale EXACTLY the same, so the comparison at spell level 1 is the same as the comparison at spell level 4), then that 1,000 gp Spirit Wand, compared to standard 750 gp wands, means you need to run through 200 charges before you hit break even (at 3,000 gp - 1,000 gp for the wand itself, 2,000 gp for 200 charges at 2 xp = 10 gp/charge; vs. four standard wands of Cure Light Wounds at 750 gp each).

While it's got some mild advantages in extreme, from a cost angle, it's actually about the same.

The practical advantages....
1) In the case of beneficial spells, you can have the recipient pay the XP for the charge (it's an option in the casting; so the Fighter pays for his own healing - as do the Wizard and Rogue in the party) rather than just draining the Cleric's resources (although one person will generally end up paying the up-front costs of the Spirit Wand).
2) If you're actively adventuring, they don't really "run out" - you don't need to track charges, just your XP (which you're tracking anyway).

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Have you checked out the Eternal Wand?

Eberron Campaign Setting (pg. 265)?
Magic Item Compendium (pg. 159)

Also, you might want to check out my Spirit Casting feats.

 

[Jack Simth]

Have you checked out the Eternal Wand?

Eberron Campaign Setting (pg. 265)?
Magic Item Compendium (pg. 159)

Yes, but they're limited to 3/day.

Also, you might want to check out my Spirit Casting feats.

Eh, they just get rid of the physical component costs, replacing them with XP costs - handy for the Vow of Poverty caster, or those who want to spend a lot on material components without tracking them.

 

[hornedturtle]

Jack you are right, my figures were a little off.

Would you require a specific feat for a character to be able to make these? Beyond the two crafting feats. This just seems like it could be a little over the top especially if you let arcane spell casters make them. A wizard could make one for every utility spell below 4th level. They can do the same thing normal wands but then they at least have to occasionally restock.

 

[Jack Simth]

Jack you are right, my figures were a little off.

Would you require a specific feat for a character to be able to make these? Beyond the two crafting feats. This just seems like it could be a little over the top especially if you let arcane spell casters make them. A wizard could make one for every utility spell below 4th level. They can do the same thing normal wands but then they at least have to occasionally restock.

A standard wand has 50 charges (and costs less). If you invoke them when they're reasonably needed, they'll generally only come up about once or twice per level. If you have to spam it over yourself and three other party members each time (4 invocations per time), and assume it'll come up twice per level (for 8 times per level), you'll get through six levels before needing to buy a new one (and that's with standard wands). For combat spells (which take a standard action, generally), assuming you have three-round combats and 13 combats per level, and you use the wand every round of every combat, you'll need a new one slightly under once per level.

Wands don't run out very often anyway.

About the only time these are useful is when you're spamming for whatever reason (you've got 200 soldiers that need a Cure Light Wounds or a Mage Armor, you've got a "signature spell" you want to use all the time, et cetera) ... and even at that, you're going through four regular wands before the cost on these (assuming 5 gp per xp is a reasonable conversion) before you hit break even with these.