Thoughts on wands being overpowered in 5E

[Mistwell]

I didn't see anywhere that the number of charges was supposed to be hidden information, so at worst, that's going to vary by table. But in general, yes, the players will go out of their way to avoid using the last charge whenever possible.

DMG (I think page 141). "The number of charges an item has remaining is revealed when an identify spell is cast on it, as well as when a creature attunes to it. Additionally, when an item regains charges, the creature attuned to it learns how many charges it regained."

So if you are attuned you do know. It would be one of the three magic items you can attune.

 

[Satyrn]

Has anyone else experienced problems with these wands feeling overpowered and what did your group do about this?

I have. My solution - as a player - was to just not use the wand of lightning bolts, except as a prop until it didn't feel like it was overshadowing everybody and everything we could do. It was my best offensive, damage dealing option as a druid, by significant margins.

That was at 5th and 6th level. It was starting to feel almost okay at 7th, and I was planning on trying it out for an adventuring day, but last session we found a staff of serpents (or something like that) that was far more thematically fitting for my druid, so I handed the wand of lightning to the tempest cleric.

 

[Jonathon Robinson]

Well, you don't generally cast 7 of them. If you cast the 7th, it might kill the wand. And each day it might only regenerate 2 charges (you don't really know what its recovered each day). So to be safe, you usually would cast no more than 2-4 fireballs. That's basically 5th (2) and 6th (4) level.

That said, fireball is the most powerful offense spell anywhere around that level of spell. I can see why it would throw your game off. A wand of Slow for example probably wouldn't be as disruptive.

Actually, the average recharge for the wand is 4.5. After just two days it will typically be fully recharged (only 17% chance it isn't recharged). Three days of non-use guarantee it will be recharged. Since it can take 2-3 days to travel it will usually be fully charged at the start of any given dungeon.

Huh. I always had the player roll the recharge so they knew exactly how many charges there were. I actually thought about rolling behind the screen to recharge but tossed that idea as the party would simply rest an extra day to ensure the wand was fully recharged.

 

[Satyrn]

I had a similar discussion about a month back, and someone pointed out that if you roll for magical items - or say, use the table ad a guide to how rare a particular item is, about 1/3 parties will find a single wand from level 1-20 (note: I didn't check the math).

You might say "oh but some wand are "merely" rare or even uncommon, how can this be?" So let's look at the wand of magic missile for example. On average, a party will get (from level 1-20), 8 uncommon items. Uncommon items are mostly on table F (this is where the wand of magic missile is). Your chance of getting a magic missile wand is 2% on that table, and you have 8 rolls.... so odds are you probably won't be getting one.

Anyway, the conclusion of the discussion was that the wand in question (lightning bolt, *not* fireball) was going be quite impact-full but not insanely so. I also decided to reduce the number of charges from 7 to 5, and lower the recharge rate accordingly (1d4/day). It should still be quite useful to the party.

That still looks like a good solution to me.

The intriguing thing I got out of that conversation was that the wands of fireball and lightning bolt are probably overwhelming before 7th level, and rather ho-hum by 11th. I guess like everything, there's a sweetspot for them.

 

[Jonathon Robinson]

I love wands. They give a caster a chance to shift their prepared spells for something else. If a wizard has a wand of fireball then that frees up a preparation slot for something spells they may have not have considered otherwise.

So in the particular group I mentioned, I was the party wizard with a Wand of Fireballs. I actually felt less useful. Sure, I had a bunch of free spell slots, but instead of using them to cast spells I wanted the party wanted me to "just cast fireball" instead as it is so much more powerful than any spell 3rd or even 4th level spell a wizard can prepare.

I chatted with the DM about this - I wanted to trade for a Ring of Spell Storing instead so I could have one more casting of Greater Illusion instead. He said no because that ring is very rare and the wand is rare. I did manage to get an Ioun Stone which I put a charge if Invisibility into.

 

[Oofta]

So much of this depends on the campaign and the DM. In games I run a wand of fireball may not be as useful as in other people's campaigns. Fireballs are dangerous in many situations, causing all sorts of unintended fires and damage. Sure it's a great spell once in a while, but it's not going to be very useful in a typical town with thatch-roofed buildings or if you're in the woods during the middle of a drought unless you want to be trapped in the middle of a forest fire. In addition, bad guys tend to come in waves or from different directions.

But it's also why I think about magic items before handing them out. I want PCs to have cool and awesome abilities, but they also shouldn't be defined by one single item.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I have found that the wands seem too powerful in 5E for their rarity.

In particular, Wand of Fireball and Wand of Lightning Bolt. A wizard can't cast 7 fireballs in a day until 9th level., so having just one of these wands is like having an additional level 9 wizard in your party (who is particularly combat focused).

Nod. Back in the day, those wands were pretty awesome until your own fireball or lightning bolt started doing significantly more damage.

They also had up to 100 charges, so in some cases, you could really cut loose ...

In any case the decision to place any item in 5e is entirely in the DMs hands, so if you have any doubt about an item, don't place it, or place a consumable version that won't be around long to see how it goes.

A wand like that might be just the thing if it could be placed in the hands of a PC who was languishing for want of flashy combat potential, for instance.

 

[5ekyu]

I wonder how many items if acquired almost immediately at the "lrvel" where they "might be found" will also seem to skew the power level too far, and then slowly diminish as well?

I mean, have we seen any fireball wand OP thrrads which started with "my q1th level party finds wand of fireball too good?"

Didn't we know at a glance as soon as the wand was mentioned we were talking early tier 2 play?

 

[jgsugden]

I had a similar discussion about a month back, and someone pointed out that if you roll for magical items - or say, use the table ad a guide to how rare a particular item is, about 1/3 parties will find a single wand from level 1-20 (note: I didn't check the math)...

It was good. I checked it when I did it.

The conclusion was that an average party should find about 6 non-consumable magic items per PC over their career in hordes if you follow the DMG guidance. About half will be attuned. Beyond those, PCs will get enough money to buy items, but what they can find to buy (or trade for) is totally up to the DM.

If you follow the probabilities and tables from the DMG guidance, the chance the PCs find one of those rare wands is about 1 in 3 *over their career*... and that could be fireball, paralysis, slow...

Another thing to consider: Whena wizard can first cast fireball at 5th level, the DC is likely to be 14 or 15. It is likely to climb at levels 8, 9 13, and 17 - and will end up around 19. The DC of the wand is always right there at 15. By 11th level, the damage is about that of a cantrip when the save is made.

 

[Jonathon Robinson]

I wonder how many items if acquired almost immediately at the "lrvel" where they "might be found" will also seem to skew the power level too far, and then slowly diminish as well?

I mean, have we seen any fireball wand OP thrrads which started with "my q1th level party finds wand of fireball too good?"

Didn't we know at a glance as soon as the wand was mentioned we were talking early tier 2 play?

It's a great question which is why I brought up wands specifically. I can't think of any other magic item which seems overpowered for its level / rarity. Necklace of Fireballs is rare, but is a consumable (consequently it shows up on the consumables table in the DMG). Staff of Fire starts showing up at 11th level and can only cast 3 fireballs between recharges (yes, it doubles as a ring of resistance, but seems under-powered when compared to the wand).