Wands Using Caster's Caster Level

Kmart Kommando · Dec 7, 2006

StreamOfTheSky said:
How about if the user sacrifiices a spell slot of the same level as the wand's spell (maybe possible with a UMD check, too? or is that broken?) level and gets to use his caster level and abilitiy mod to affect parameters and save dc? That way, the wand would be useful if the higher-level character can't cast the particular spell (sorcerers could use the help...) or if the wizard neglects to prepare it, he can use the wand as contingency. "Oops! Didn't think I'd need Resist Energy today! I'll just use the wand and burn some spells (along with the wands charges, as normal) to give the max resistance (30)" Perhaps not what you were looking for, but I think it'd make wands a lot more useful at high levels. And really, they can only hold up to 4th level spells, so they'll never be outstandingly good at level 20.

I thought about something like that for a caster variant swordsage. Having a wand attuned to a particular spell, and then dumping a spell of equal or higher level through it spits out the attuned spell. On paper, it looks balanced for the per-encounter resource management found in Tome of Battle. Maybe give wands less charges, like 10, and no charges are spent if they burn their own spell slot. There is still the emergency usage, but the caster has to think, 'is it worth it to dump my scorching ray to make the rogue invisible?' Limited on-the-fly casting helps someone not feel completely useless as well.

airwalkrr · Dec 8, 2006

Giving up a spell slot is an interesting way of managing that. I'll have to think about it. Has anyone actually tried it in their campaign?

Claudius Gaius · Dec 23, 2007

Thre's a much-extended section on spell storing devices in Eclipse, along with a selection of options for using your own abilities to augment devices. The Practical Enchanter has a fair amount of that sort of thing too.

Kmart Kommando · Dec 23, 2007

airwalkrr said:
Giving up a spell slot is an interesting way of managing that. I'll have to think about it. Has anyone actually tried it in their campaign?

I would, but I'm running Iron Heroes.
There was a ring somewhere that imbued the wearer with the knowledge of one spell, like it was on their list, so sorcerers could use one spell beyond their spells known. Dunno where it's from though.

Mustrum_Ridcully · Dec 23, 2007

airwalkrr said:
I want wands to use the caster level of the caster, not the wand. I want wands to be a little cooler and not treated so haphazardly at high level, particularly the notion of the "happy stick" (wand of cure light wounds, a cheap, easily renewable healing source). I also don't think a 10th level party should think a wand of magic missile (CL 1) is utterly useless. Wands are just too limited when they have a set caster level IMO. No arguments about how this is a good thing, please. I simply don't want that kind of environment in my campaign.

Staves already do this to an extent (I want to standardize their costs a bit too, but I'd rather do it with wands first and base staves on them). Any ideas on costing wand creation? My initial thoughts would be 2,500 gp for a 1st level wand, 5,000 gp for a 2nd level wand, 7,500 gp for a 3rd level wand, and 10,000 gp for a 4th level wand.

Well, D&D price balancing always assume quadratic increases in price (spell level x caster level might be slightly hidden, but it is in effect). I think staffs are bypassing this rule a bit, since the caster level is actually variable.

By RAW it appears as if Staffs have to hold more than one spell, which makes them more expensive then one might to want.

Wands as "spell prepared"-giver make a lot of sense to me, but note that adjucating a "fair" value is difficult. For spontaneous casters like Bards and Sorcerors these are equivalent to a feat (Extra Spell Slot). Since wands are effectively slotless items, this can be a problem if you allow unlimited uses. Maybe they should be charged, similar to Rods of Metamagic (n uses per day).

Cbas_10 · Dec 23, 2007

For using a wand at the user's caster level instead of the wand creator's, I think I would come up with a feat for the wand user. I don't have my books at hand, but I'd call for Craft Wand as a prerequisite for this feat. When using the wand (as it originally appears in the DMG), compare the difference between the wand's CL and the weilder's CL. The difference in level would be the number of additional charges used. Thus, a 9th level wizard using a 1st level wand of Magic Missile would burn 8 extra charges to throw 5 missiles at once.

This would allow you to use your caster level idea without any sort of major overhaul, and automatically has a built in set of balances that allows the players the choice when they need it.