Using Wands

[Hypersmurf]

'Cause scrolls are cheaper?

Not per charge, they're not

-Hyp.

 

[Staffan]

Scrolls are "Spell completion" items, while wands are "spell trigger" items. With scrolls, you actually have to finish the spell up yourself, which is why it can go wrong if the spell is too complicated for you. Wands are pretty much "fire and forget".

 

[AuraSeer]

Not debating the rules. Just wondering if anyone can find the logic in scrolls having a chance of failure if too high level, but not wands.

It's cheaper, faster, and easier to make a scroll than it is to make a wand. Plus, wands are limited to 4th level spells.

I could imagine some balance problems if scrolls were unrestricted. Some parties would consist entirely of multiclass Wiz1/Something19, plus a single Wiz17 who spends all his XP on scrolls.

DM: "Okay, you guys win initiative, what do you do?"
PC 1 (fighter): "I read a scroll of meteor swarm."
PC 2 (monk): "I tumble through enemies to reach the BBEG, and read a scroll of temporal stasis."
PC 3 (cleric): "I read a scroll of time stop, and then cast my buffing spells."
PC 4 (ranger): "I read a scroll of prismatic sphere, so I have a safe place to fire arrows from."