Wand of Accuracy question

[Caliban]

Huh, I was not aware of that... I'll have to make sure our Wizard is aware of this, since there's a lot of times where an enemy Wizard or Sharpshooter might try to take the Wizard out at range with an attack targeting a non-AC defense. So now Staff has an even bigger leg up on the Wand.

Staff of Defense: A staff of defense grants you a +1 bonus to AC. In addition, once per encounter as an immediate interrupt, you gain a bonus to defense against one attack equal to your Constitution modifier. You can declare the bonus after the Dungeon Master has already told you the damage.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

Getting a bit off topic here, but doesn't a Cleric or Paladin who focuses on high Wisdom and Charisma, or a Fighter or Barbarian who focuses on high Strength and Constitution suffer from the same redundancy?

There are a number of builds that focus on a pair of stats that overlap a defense. There will be more as we get more options. I really don't see this as a problem, depending on the role. A Defender who gets slapped around every time his reflex or will is attacked, is not a good design for instance. But with a wizard, I guess I don't see a low defense as a big deal if you have other tools of avoidance (such as teleportation, shield, expeditious retreat) at your disposal.

Having said that, the benefit from an orb is as good as if not better than the wand, so there is some merit in wanting to increase the potency of the wand.

In a word, yes. I'm currently playing a Dragonborn Axe and Shield Fighter, with plans to go for Iron Vanguard as a PP. So, as you can guess, Con is a stat that I'm pumping. It does kind of suck, because my Ref and Will are behind my Fort defense a lot, but this is partially mitigated through my Heavy Shield, which adds a +2 to Ref. Also, I have a 12 in Dex and Wis, which means I at least get an additional +1 to secondary defenses.

I haven't fully decided yet, but I think I'll probably just pump Con up to 18 (it's a 16 now) and then leave it alone and start pumping Dex instead. This would allow me to get something like Scale Specialization later on, and increase my Ref so that hopefully I just have one really bad defense...that being Will.

Even still, again, this gets partially mitigated by having a Heavy Shield, which a Wizard does not have. Additionally, I'll probably mostly be fighting melee and ranged opponents, the Arcane and Divine enemies would (hopefully) be more worried about our Strikers and Wizard. It's precisely because the Wizard is in the back that he actually needs to worry about secondary defenses a bit more. The Paladin and I will hopefully keep the melee enemies engaged, which would mean it was up to the enemies with ranged attacks to hit the back row...which includes the Wizard.

 

[Caliban]

Wand of Accuracy is a free action. Therefore, you must use it before you attack.

I would point out that Elven Accuracy is a free action, and it let's you reroll an attack roll after it's been made...

Free Action:

Free actions take almost no time or effort. You can take as many free actions as you want during your or another combatant’s turn. The DM can restrict the number of free actions in a turn.

Examples: speaking a few sentences, dropping a held item, letting go of a grabbed enemy.​

 

[Tony Vargas]

Getting a bit off topic here, but doesn't a Cleric or Paladin who focuses on high Wisdom and Charisma, or a Fighter or Barbarian who focuses on high Strength and Constitution suffer from the same redundancy?

Yes. And, it's not exactly an inobvious thing. I suspect that in at least some cases, that redundancy has to have been considered in playtesting and design.

For instance, a WIS/CHA Paladin or STR/CON fighter might have little or no call for INT/DEX, and thus have very poor REF - but, they do both get heavy shield proficiency, which boosts REF.

I doubt any such compensation has been perfect or universeally applied to /all/ potential builds facing that problem. It clearly hasn't been extended to the Wand Wizard, who has bost the poorest stat-combo (INT/DEX) /and/ the weakest Mastery benefit. Perhaps, the idea is that, since the Wand Mastery benefit /is/ so weak, the Wand Wizard will put only a 13 (or 15 if he has a racial bonus) and leave it more or less at that in favor of boosting other stats to support his FORT & WILL.

 

[DracoSuave]

Actions are taken in sequential order. So, in order to get the benefit, unless otherwise stated, you have to activate your bonus -before- you use the power that it boosts. There are free actions that can modify a roll already made (Elven Accuracy) however these cases are explicit. Wand of Accuracy is not explicit and therefore do not get this benefit.

Part of the benefit of these specializations is the powers of the items themselves. In the case of wands, it's additional access to direct powers, or constant meta-magic that affects your continual abilities (see the AV).

 

[Caliban]

Part of the benefit of these specializations is the powers of the items themselves. In the case of wands, it's additional access to direct powers, or constant meta-magic that affects your continual abilities (see the AV).

An orb or staff specialist (or Warlock for that matter) can use most of wands from the AV just as well as a wand specialist.

 

[LightPhoenix]

While agree with all of the arguements that state WoA is relatively weak, I also think that the intention of the power has been by and large lost. WoA seems to be designed to help with AoE powers, such as Shock Sphere. I think the intention is that you roll to hit for each enemy, and you can utilize the power "real-time," as it were, to turn a miss into a hit. That way, you can't waste it, and it's actually useful for maintaining the Wizard as a Controller. It's a Free Action for this reason; it can be used whenever in the attack sequence.

 

[Syrsuro]

While agree with all of the arguements that state WoA is relatively weak, I also think that the intention of the power has been by and large lost. WoA seems to be designed to help with AoE powers, such as Shock Sphere. I think the intention is that you roll to hit for each enemy, and you can utilize the power "real-time," as it were, to turn a miss into a hit. That way, you can't waste it, and it's actually useful for maintaining the Wizard as a Controller. It's a Free Action for this reason; it can be used whenever in the attack sequence.

To muddy the waters further....

From the infamous Customer Service:

Page 157, Wand of Accuracy Answered by John K

Q: Can I use the Wand of Accuracy implement mastery after I see my attack roll, or does it have to be declared before rolling?

A:. Most of the time powers that allow you to use the "additional value" to a roll calls out if you can use it after the roll. Wand of Accuracy ideally should be declared before you are using your attack. Your DM may rule otherwise, but everytime I have seen it used it was when you "really needed to land" a power such as an important daily or a big spell that needed to hit a lot of

Consolidated Customer Service Answers - Wizards Community

But then we have the contrary (although later) CS response:

Response (Support Agent) 10/28/2008 10:52 AM
Ringrose,

You can use the power after the attack, you can even use it after the DM has told you the power would miss.
...
Josh
...

Customer (Ringrose) 10/28/2008 07:04 AM
Hello,
Question on how Wand of Accuracy works. Can you choose to use the ability either before or after you roll the attack. Not really clear wording on how the power works.

Note: Someone from CS already replied...but since he had an error in the reply (referring to hitting enemies when the power only allows an increase to one attack roll) I was hoping for another reply to clarify this...Maybe an author could way in?

WAND OF ACCURACY
Once per encounter as a free action, you gain a bonus to a single attack roll equal to your Dexterity modifier.

Thanks

Ringrose

http://forums.gleemax.com/showpost.php?p=17141995&postcount=30

For now, I will be ruling that it applies a constant +1 to wizard implement powers (when a wand is used) and a one time bonus that is applied after the roll but before they are sure whether or not it hit. This seems to solve its overall wimpiness without making it too powerful.

Carl

 

[DracoSuave]

While agree with all of the arguements that state WoA is relatively weak, I also think that the intention of the power has been by and large lost. WoA seems to be designed to help with AoE powers, such as Shock Sphere. I think the intention is that you roll to hit for each enemy, and you can utilize the power "real-time," as it were, to turn a miss into a hit. That way, you can't waste it, and it's actually useful for maintaining the Wizard as a Controller. It's a Free Action for this reason; it can be used whenever in the attack sequence.

Exactly. Before the attack roll, but you -can- use it midpower.

And yes I know that's contradicting what I said earlier.

 

[DracoSuave]

An orb or staff specialist (or Warlock for that matter) can use most of wands from the AV just as well as a wand specialist.

Yes, but a orb or staff specialist is probably more likely to be using an orb or a staff than a wand specialist.

Also, those who have benefits from heavy blades tend to use them more than other weapons.

It's hardly a mental stretch.