Spell Trigger: This is the activation method for wands and staffs. Activating a spell trigger item requires no gestures or spell finishing, but you must speak a single word, and you must hold the item in your hand (or what passes for your hand).
To use a spell trigger item, you must have the spell that is stored in the item on your class spell list. You can use the item even if you're not high enough level to cast the stored spell (or even high enough level to cast any spells at all). It doesn't make any difference if the stored spell is arcane or divine, and your ability scores don’t matter.
See the Player's Handbook (or other appropriate rulebook) for your class spell list. If you have a prohibited school of spells (if you're a specialist wizard, for example), the spells from that school aren't part of your class spell list. If you have access to clerical spell domains, the spells in the domains you've chosen are on your class spell list (spells from domains you could have chosen, but did not, are not on your class spell list). If you're multiclassed, you can use a spell trigger item that stores a spell that is on at least one of your class spell lists.
If a spell trigger item stores more than one spell (for example, a staff), you may find that you can use only some of the item's functions.
Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If the spell stored in a spell trigger item has a casting time other than 1 standard action, that is its activation time.
Command Word: This is the default activation method for rings, rods, and wondrous items when the item description doesn't mention another activation method. To use a command word item, you speak the command word and the item activates. You need no other special knowledge, but you must hold or wear the item as appropriate for that item (see Part One).
Activating a command word magic item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If a command word item produces a spell effect and that spell has a casting time other than 1 standard action, that is the item's activation time.
A command word usually is some seemingly nonsensical word, or a word or phrase from an ancient language no longer in common use. Sometimes the command word to activate an item is written right on the item. Occasionally, it might be hidden within a pattern or design engraved on, carved into, or built into the item, or the item might bear a clue to the command word.
As noted in the Dungeon Master's Guide, the Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (history) skills might be useful in helping to identify command words or deciphering clues regarding them. A successful check against DC 30 produces the word itself. If you fail that check, succeeding on a second check (DC 25) might provide some insight into what the word might be. For example, a successful check to gain insight might indicate the sort of word the command might be, such as an ancient word for "fire" or a rhyming couplet related to the item's function.
You could possibly pick up a command word when you witness the item being used. I recommend a DC 15 Listen check. Subtract 5 from the DC if the area is fairly quiet and add 5 to the DC if the area is very noisy (such as a typical battle). Also apply the DC modifiers from the Listen skill description. If you have at least 5 ranks in the Spellcraft or Knowledge (arcana) skills, you get a +2 bonus on the check.
Remember that a command word item is pretty easy to use. These tricks won't help you figure out how to use a spell completion or spell trigger item.
The spells identify and analyze dweomer both reveal command words, as noted in the spell descriptions.
Some command-activated items use a command thought or other nonverbal command instead of command word (if so, the item description will say so). Such items work just like command word items in play, except that you can't make a Listen check to learn the command word. You might, however, pick up the command using a detect thoughts spell at the right moment or by making a Spot check, as appropriate for the item in question.
The Use Magic Device Skill
The Use Magic Device skill allows you to activate magic items even when you could not normally do so. For example, you can use it to activate a spell trigger item even when you don't have the spell it stores on your class spell list. You also can use the skill to activate a command item when you don't know the command or decipher the writing on a scroll and then activate the scroll (or other spell completion item) even when you otherwise could not.
Some people think that you need the Use Magic Device skill to activate any item, but that's not so. The Use Magic Device skill merely provides a sort of last resort when you want to use an item that you otherwise cannot activate.
The DC for a Use Magic Device check depends on the kind of item you're trying to use, as noted in the skill description. Here are a few additional notes for using the skill:
Blind Activation: You can use the "activate blindly" option with any kind of item. You can even use it to activate a command item when you don't know the command (or even what the device does). If you succeed, you activate the item somehow. Successful activation does not necessarily reveal the command to you, but you do get a +2 bonus on further attempts to activate the item blindly.
As an unofficial rule, you might allow a character who has activated an item blindly an immediate Knowledge check (see the section on command activation) with a base DC of 25. Give the character a cumulative circumstance bonus of +2 for each for time the character has previously activated the item blindly. The character gets only one check for each blind activation. If the character doesn't have the appropriate Knowledge skill, the character makes an Intelligence check (with the previously noted circumstance bonus) instead.
The skill description doesn't say so, but there's no reason why you could not use blind activation when you don't know a spell trigger item's function. To use this unofficial rule, you must aim the item somewhere. If you aim at the wrong place, you might simply waste a charge from the item, or you might have a disaster on your hands (depending on what the item's effect is and exactly where you aimed). If the spell trigger item produces a visible effect, you probably can surmise what the spell is. Otherwise make a DC 25 Spellcraft check to determine what the spell is. If the effect is visible and your DM decides you might not know what it is, the check DC is only 20.
