Staff Wand and......

[Li Shenron]

since they told that you could think of "skull" instead of Orb... I was thinking of something bigger...

Doesn't have to be a human skull... But then hey, what really matters is how it affects the rules in play, and I think it will all boil down to one thing: that it requires one and only one hand to use.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I'm still looking forward to introducing magical implements based on the four suits of the Tarot: swords, staves, chalices and pentacles. Hopefully the rules will be flexible enough to make that and other modifications relatively easy.

I am currently playing a gypsy mystic fortune teller in a pulp Mutants and Masterminds game that derives her powers from a Pentacle, a Cup, a Wand, and - eventually a Sword (of course one of the items has to be missing... if it wasn't, why would she go adventuring?!). It's incredibly fun and adds a lot of flavor to the character because she's constantly reaching for one item or another to make her magic work. It's even more fun because she recently used that magic to help kill zombie Eleanor Roosevelt! Hurrah!

Anyway...

I think the orb is a very fitting wizard's tool. Rods are cool and all, but the orb has a certain mystical element to it that I find very fitting. Rods are more practical things, in my opinion... less magical, more mundane. I mean - they *can* be magical (and, in many cases, has some magical or supernatural ability), but I don't necessarily associate them with wizards/magic users automatically. Orbs, on the other hand, I associate with the mysical and magical. And so, I vote "yes" to orbs in 2008.

 

[Larrin]

For some reason an orb seems like the magic equivalent of a laptop computer to me, and the wizards that use them should be the equivalents of 'nerds' (or whatever term you prefer). I doubt this will be the case, but until i see the actuall mechanics, this image will be stuck in my mind. I can just see the mage in the midst of battle, sitting down, pulling out his orb, booting it up, and start 'coding' a spell to cast, oblvious to the battle around him.

fighter: cast the spell already!
orb wizard: Just a minute, its compiling.... here we go: sudo ./fireball.spl!! (cuz you know all the good wizards would use linux)

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I want there to be arthames - wizard "knives" or "swords." That would be cool.

 

[Wepwawet]

For some reason an orb seems like the magic equivalent of a laptop computer to me, and the wizards that use them should be the equivalents of 'nerds' (or whatever term you prefer). I doubt this will be the case, but until i see the actuall mechanics, this image will be stuck in my mind. I can just see the mage in the midst of battle, sitting down, pulling out his orb, booting it up, and start 'coding' a spell to cast, oblvious to the battle around him.

fighter: cast the spell already!
orb wizard: Just a minute, its compiling.... here we go: sudo ./fireball.spl!! (cuz you know all the good wizards would use linux)

LOL! That's cute!

IMO, the Orb is used mostly for non-combat spells, like divination, for example. So I think it's acceptable to assume an orb-wielder will not be as much interested in combat as a staff-wielder... Like, intellect over strength

 

[PeterWeller]

Rods have always struck me as more of something a Cleric or Warrior (Warlord?) would want to use. They're less spell batteries and more special ability batteries than staves or wands. Also, think about it this way, if the three implements were rod, staff, and wand, it would be kind of lame, since basically you'd get to choose the size of your stick (we're all going to pick staffs then ). With orbs, they capture a wider range of source flavor and do a better job of showing the variety of items that one can make into an implement.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Here is the way I think the wizard implements were selected:

{Group of WotC developers brainstorming the idea]

Dev 1: So, the wizards will need to use some sort of item to focus their powers, like Harry Potter with his wand.
Dev 2: Or Gandalf with his Staff.
Dev 3: So, why not go with Rod, Staff and Wand - it is iconic to older D&D players.
Dev 2: What the heck is a rod, anyway? Can anyone show me an iconic wizard in fantasy literature that used a rod?

[Silence]

Dev4: You know, we are supposed to be trying to make D&D more appealing for female gamers, too. Can we have one non-phallic implement?
Dev 3: Uh..OK. How about the Ball, you know, like in crystal balls?
Dev 4: Great, now we have balls in addition to the phallus...
Dev 2: Well, we could call it an Orb instead.

 

[Patlin]

I've got a miniature of a female mage who's been holding a blue sphere aloft for years. I'm just glad she's finally got a reason to do so!

 

[TwinBahamut]

I bet the main reason Rods are excluded is mainly that having three implements of that type makes them very hard to define as different from each other. With just two, you can define one as a one-handed item, and the other as a two-handed item, at it is quite clear.

Maybe it is just because I have played too much Final Fantasy, but I would prefer it to just be Staff and Rod, and wands (which I always thought were somewhat silly) could be forgotten.

Anyways, I like Orbs (crystal balls, really) and Tomes as magical implements. Too bad Tomes don't seem to have made it to the PHB (but I'm certain they will show up elsewhere).

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Rod, Wand... isn't that a bit... Artificial as a separation, really?


I like that how they took a note from Shadowrun's magic system...