This thread is filled with so many bad ideas it seems like every one suffered a severe head trauma simultaneously...
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-Darkness
And this poll options are lacking, what about 2e style of wands and staves? Every one keeps going on about 3e and 4e and ignoring previous editions.
I don't like wands and staves as implements because that suggest non flat math, I also don't like 3e way of dealing with those mainly because of the item creation rules that caused players to go around with a quiver of 1st level wands (not in my games, I put my foot down on that).
I like the idea of wands, staves and rods being artifact of magical power. Back in 2e days, when you had a cap on the number of known spells per level and had to roll each time you tried to learn a new spell, finding a wand of a spell you didnt knew was a big thing, finding a named stave was bigger, especially if you used the rules for activation words.
I agree that wands shouldn't be single spell devices, they should be special and evocative like this:
Wand of Frost: A frost wand can perform three functions that duplicate wizard spells:
• Ice storm: A silvery ray springs forth from the wand and an ice (or sleet) storm occurs up to 60 feet away from the wand holder. This function requires one charge.
• Wall of ice: The silvery ray forms a wall of ice, six inches thick, covering a 600-square-foot area (10' x 60', 20' x 30', etc.). Its initiative modifier is +2, and it uses one charge.
• Cone of cold: White crystalline motes spray forth from the wand in a cone with a 60-foot length and a terminal diameter of 20 feet. The initiative modifier is +2, and the effect lasts just one second. The temperature is -100 degrees F and damage is 6d6, treating all 1s rolled as 2s (6d6, 12-36). The cost is two charges per use. Saving throw vs. wands is applicable. The wand can function once per round, and may be recharged.
This is no minor magic item, this baby packs a punch. Here is another one:
Staff of Curing: This device can cure disease, cure blindness, cure wounds ( 3d6+3 hit points), or cure insanity. Each function drains one charge. The device can be used once per day on any person (dwarf,elf,gnome,half-elf, halfling included), and no function may be employed more than twice per day(i.e., the staff can function only eight times during a 24-hour period). It can be recharged.
Those are interesting magical items, I don't understand why people wants to lower those to a small bonus to what ever, how can having a +1 wand be more evocative than a wand of Frost? Why the hell must all staves add a defensive bonus? Why should I care about my stave if it's somthing as mundane as an implement? I had players going through hell and high water (literally!!) recovering a Staff of the Magi stolen by a bunch of imps and the player only new three of the staff command words.
My point is that magical items should be magical, they should be hard to acquire and offer clear benefits that makes the character better and more powerfull, even if in a small way.
I had a DM that didn't had a problem with player made scrolls, in fact we had an house rule saying that if you have a spell of a higher level than you can currently cast you can try and make a scroll out of it, the catch was that it cost you XP to make a scroll so we didn't run around with 10 scrolls of knock or spider climb.
Warder
