Use per day Staffs instead of charges?

[MerricB]

One of the best bits in Weapons of Legacy was the Legacy Staff of Power.

Instead of being a charged item (50 charges, cannot be recharged), it had uses per day of each spell.

So, the 5th level power was 3 magic missiles/day, cast at your caster level.
By 20th level, you were getting empowered lightning bolt* 1/day, plus uses of all other abilites. (IIRC, I don't have the book with me. It might have been another good power).

I liked that *so* much more than the regular staff of power. 200,000+ gp for an item with only 50 charges? No thanks!

Wands are great as they are- they should have charges.

However, in 4e, I'd prefer to see my staffs (or staves) being able to use their spells a limited number of times per day (at my caster level).

That'd be great. What do you think?

Cheers!

 

[2WS-Steve]

Yah, charges for staffs seems to suck. I've never seen any of my players build or even keep one. Rods, OTOH, are quite cool and I've considered simply eliminating rods altogether and simply making them staffs.

 

[Supaida]

It'd probably be harder to balance, but personally, I always tend to think of staffs (staves? Is that a special saving throw only spelling?) as amplifiers for magicians, focuses that made their magic a bit stronger, not separate "fireball guns". You never see a wizard in a book or a movie go, "Stand back, I'm going to have my staff cast a spell," or, "Hold on, I need to cast a spell, let me put my staff down," do you? Every time a wizard has a staff, they use that staff for everything. Maybe they just want to look cool.

(Hey, second post!)

 

[Pinotage]

Presumably you can do something like that within the rules currently existing? Remove the charges by doubling the price of the staff, and then apply the 'charges per day' limitation to it, dividing the price depending on how you want to construct it. It might be easier to build it up from scratch though. Say, a 1st level spell in a staff at 10th CL costs 7500 gp, 15000 gp for unlimited use, or 3000 gp for 1/day. Then tack on all the other abilities using the staff pricing guidelines of full ability price, 3/4 ability price etc. Then you have your staff. In theory supported by 3.5e, but it's not something I've seen around.

Pinotage

 

[Turjan]

One of the best bits in Weapons of Legacy was the Legacy Staff of Power.

Instead of being a charged item (50 charges, cannot be recharged), it had uses per day of each spell.

However, in 4e, I'd prefer to see my staffs (or staves) being able to use their spells a limited number of times per day (at my caster level).

That'd be great. What do you think?

That's like in the good old "Baldur's Gate" days

I like that. If you have to pay XP for a magic staff, it's only fair that you get something like a level ability as exchange. Then the growling of the wizard will be much quieter .

 

[JustKim]

I tried giving staves charges per day, 3 was what I arrived at I think. I can't tell you how it worked out because I still could not get anybody to keep and use staves. Their market price is simply not justifiable.

 

[Turjan]

I tried giving staves charges per day, 3 was what I arrived at I think. I can't tell you how it worked out because I still could not get anybody to keep and use staves. Their market price is simply not justifiable.

That doesn't surprise me . In AE, they are much more popular !

 

[MerricB]

The Legacy Staff of Power has abilities something like:

+2 luck bonus to AC and saves
3/day - magic missile
3/day - continual flame
3/day - ray of enfeeblement (heightened to 5th level)
3/day - levitate
2/day - fireball
2/day - lightning bolt
1/day - cone of cold
1/day - hold monster
1/day - wall of force
1/day - globe of invulnerability.

(I don't have the book with me at the moment).

Cheers!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

A better application for "traditional" fantasy staves (staffs?) is to have them grant the free use of metamagic feats, or be able to accelerate metamagic feats (instead of metamagic rods).

So a non-artifact staff of power might instead allow the wielder to cast up to X spells per day as empowered spells, without an increase in casting time. You could create an entire range of choices from the various metamagic feats, with different combinations and uses per day.

For more flavor, the staff might only apply to specific types of spells. For example, the staff of eldritch flame allows the wielder to cast any spell with the [fire] descriptor as an empowered spell, and any non-fire spell as an energy-substituted fire spell (X times per day, or without an increase in casting time, or whatever).

Hmmm ... sounds like a promising pdf.

 

[Silveras]

Actually, Fantasy Flight Games' "Path of Magic" included the Eldritch Staff as a variant staff that grew in power with the Arcane Caster. The caster paid spell slot costs to continually improve the staff as s/he gained levels. As I recall from reading it back in, oh, 2002 when it came out, it felt a lot more like the staves carried by mages in literature (as Supaida mentions).