What's the Deal with Staves?

[Nail]

no kidding, it is obvious the rest of us aren't

Word.




...ooops, here comes my boss!

 

[Nail]

Ok, that is a major difference, but most staves have charges and not "per day" charges. That really mimimizes their utility.

How?

How so, given that wands, scrolls, potions, some rods, some wondrous items, etc also use charges, rather than uses per day?

 

[Jdvn1]

Ok, that is a major difference, but most staves have charges and not "per day" charges. That really mimimizes their utility.

Well, they're much better than wands, we can see that. With 50 charges, though, they'll last a while.

 

[Nail]

The issue, I'm assuming, is that eventually "you'll run out". True enough. So make sure that your wands/staves/etc are:

• filled with a spell or spells that you don't use all the time,
• cheaper than buying a continuous-use item, or
• there is no such thing as a continuous use item for that spell (like Cure Light Wounds).

For example, a Wand of Lesser Vigor is a great idea. A Wand of Magic Missile isn't. A Staff of Break Enchantment is a great idea. A Staff of Greater Dispel Magic isn't.

As an excerise: What are the best (and worst) spells to put in a Stave?

 

[ThirdWizard]

Make a "Staff of Fireballs", CL 5th Market Price: 11,250gp

Except for:

The caster level of all spells in a staff must be the same, and no staff can have a caster level of less than 8th, even if all the spells in the staff are low-level spells.

But the staff is still better.

 

[Nail]

Except for:.....

Gotcha! Good catch.

So: Staff of Fireball: 3*8*750=18,000gp, Max 10d6 damage

and: Wand of Fireball: 3*5*750=11,250gp, Max 5d6 damage

 

[scrubkai]

For example, a Wand of Lesser Vigor is a great idea. A Wand of Magic Missile isn't.

Nail I hate to disagree with you, but personally a Wand of Magic Missle is a must.
Maybe it's just our campaign, but when you run into three or four fights in a single day it's not all that uncommon for my wizard to run out of attack spells in the last fight.

Having one backup wand of magic missiles that you can fall back on when you are out of spells has been useful more times then I can count. It's normally not more then a round or two that you need it, but 90% of the time I grab my wand rather then trying to attack with a ranged weapon.

 

[darkelfo]

How?

How so, given that wands, scrolls, potions, some rods, some wondrous items, etc also use charges, rather than uses per day?

Well wands have 50 charges and are very cheap. The staves I've seen only have a handful of charges and are really expensive. I'm not sure that the extended duration and raised DC is worth the extra gp, exp and time to create. But I would like to hear from the more experienced players what spells they prefer to put into staves as suggested above.

 

[Jdvn1]

I think Nail's idea was a good one, though. Staves are handy for spells you don't want to prepare. Are you really going to have Knock ready all the time when you're higher level? You don't use it all the time. Might as well have a scroll or wand that can do it for you. The same concept goes with the higher level spells. Staves are for must-have spells that you don't want to prepare. You can use them for extra casting power (more attack spells), but I think spell slots do that better, with metamagic feats.

 

[JimAde]

Well wands have 50 charges and are very cheap. The staves I've seen only have a handful of charges and are really expensive. I'm not sure that the extended duration and raised DC is worth the extra gp, exp and time to create. But I would like to hear from the more experienced players what spells they prefer to put into staves as suggested above.

A staff has 50 charges when it's created, just like a wand. Doesn't it?