Used wands?

[Quidam]

Do you, as DMs, allow used wands to be purchased in your games? They're found as treasure often enough, but how do you handle the used wand market?

 

[Nifft]

Nope.

IMC, used wands are "married" and sold at full capacity. The process for doing this is mysterious, but all merchants seem to do it.

Cheers, -- N

 

[nittanytbone]

Sure, I'd allow it. It might require a Gather Info check for a rare spell, and the seller would be randomly generated, so you might not be dealing with a paragon of virtue...

Perhaps that wand of CLW used to be used by an evil cleric to heal his minions, but the cleric just bit it on the last adventure and his fighter buddy is selling off the gear, for example.

If sold in a "magic shoppe" then I might add a small surcharge (perhaps 10-30%) over the book price. Still cheaper than buying a wand full of charges, but less efficient in the long run.

 

[frankthedm]

Do you, as DMs, allow used wands to be purchased in your games? They're found as treasure often enough, but how do you handle the used wand market?

No open market purchase for wands in the first place, but they can be obtained sometimes through barter and from those who happen to have them them in used condition. Crafting* a wand without all charges, ruins the wand or increases materials and XP cost.

*IMG it also takes longer to make a wand. The crafter has to expend 50 casting of the spell. So if the caster could cast the spell 5 times a day, the creation time takes at least 10 days.

 

[Elethiomel]

In my games, I allow it for newly created characters that are level 3 or higher, as these characters have already adventured and could hence have bought a wand earlier and then used some charges. Merchants don't sell partially depleted wands.

 

[Pinotage]

Depends largely on the type of game I'm running. Generally, yes, I'd allow no less than half the amount of charges to be found/purchased, but only if I can see that those charges are actually going to see use throughout the game. Too often wands are effectively 'unlimited' because the nature of the game means all the charges are not going to be used, and hence buying less charges means you get the same (fully charged) item for free.

Pinotage

 

[darthkilmor]

Yes, from 1 change left to fully charged. Anything else seems like too much meta-gaming.

 

[Claudius Gaius]

Sure - but if you want an actual guarantee on the number of charges rather than a guess and a surcharge, you'll usually have to pay for the identify spell in advance. No refunds.

 

[Cbas_10]

Absolutely!

Actually, if anyone is purchasing a wand, they will ALL be used, partially depleted wands. The only time a new wand with all 50 charges creeps into PC hands is if they make it themselves or if they have one commissioned to be made (costly!). As far as charges go, I have introduced a zero-level spell that allows a caster to roughly judge the number of charges in a wand or staff if the caster already knows what kind it is (spell reveals if the item has 20%, 40%, 60%, etc of its original charge).

Then again, I have a homebrew feat that allows a caster to create a wand with fewer than 50 charges (to save on cost) and another feat to recharge wands.

 

[green slime]

Yes, but they aren't available at player demand.

And they are relatively speaking more expensive per charge than a fully charged wand.

I generally stat up wands, potions and other consumables before the game, to make them available should the party decide to go shopping around for items.