Staff Mastery and Wizard of the Spiral Tower

[SadisticFishing]

"Choose an arcane implement that you specialize in, whether the wand, staff, or orb. You can use a longsword as if it were that type of arcane implement when casting your spells."

I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I searched and didn't find anything useful.

Do you add +1 to AC with a longsword if your Corellon's Implement treats it as a staff?

I'm fairly sure the answer is no. It clearly says "when using your Wizard spells". Is there any reason to believe otherwise?

 

[darkadelphia]

RAW, perhaps not. I would rule, however, that it would grant that bonus--if for no other reason than staff and wand need some love.

 

[Andor]

--if for no other reason than staff and wand need some love.

Freud would have a field day with that sentence.

 

[Kaelkatar]

Intent.
RAW is useful for determining an objective standpoint from which to address a rules question, but when applying it in game it is not always the correct solution. I suggest that regardless of what is written, a player must decided what the actual intent of the rule is. In this situation, I would suggest, that corellon's implement's intent is to confer the powers associated with one implement onto a longsword, thus while the RAW may not allow AC to be permanently increased by 1, I personally would allow it.

 

[Gloombunny]

Yeah, the +1 AC is part of what balances staff against the other implements. I don't know why they would want to sneak in a subtle nerf to wizards of a particular paragon path using a particular implement mastery. That doesn't make any sense.

 

[That One Guy]

I'd say let it work that way. Or, simply hold a staff in one hand and a longsword in the other.

 

[FadedC]

I'd say let it work that way. Or, simply hold a staff in one hand and a longsword in the other.

Well some wizards might want to use the paragon path as a way to wield a staff and use a shield at the same time.

Anyway RAW is obviously no. RAI it seems unlikely that wizards intended this path to work with orb and wand, but not staff. The staff and shield wizard build does have potential to be insanely hard to hit, so you could possibly argue game balance reasons for it not working, although I kind of doubt the game designers thought it through that far.

 

[Gloombunny]

Well some wizards might want to use the paragon path as a way to wield a staff and use a shield at the same time.

Anyway RAW is obviously no. RAI it seems unlikely that wizards intended this path to work with orb and wand, but not staff. The staff and shield wizard build does have potential to be insanely hard to hit, so you could possibly argue game balance reasons for it not working, although I kind of doubt the game designers thought it through that far.

Eh... he's still only +1 AC over a wizard with an orb and shield. +1 AC is more meaningful than it was in 3.5 but it's not that big a deal. Besides, a wizard who wants to blow attribute points on Strength just to get a shield instead of a second implement deserves a bit of AC.

(This is leaving aside the point that I'm pretty sure you can wield a staff implement and a shield anyway because staff implements aren't two-handed unless you're using them as a quarterstaff to make melee attacks.)

 

[Kaelkatar]

For a genasi wizard to obtain the bonuses of a heavy shield, hide armor, and hide specialization a mere 11 in STR (Becomes 13) and 13 in CON, while still being eligible for the magical 20 base INT. (You can even throw in a 12 to WIS to keep your Thunderwave pushin')

 

[SadisticFishing]

My main question is: Why is worded like that if it's meant to work with Shield?

Also, yeah, +1 AC isn't a HUGE deal, but when you start stacking it with everything else wizards get, it starts getting ridiculous. The Iron Man build is one good example.