Which spells do you usually imagine linked to an orb, staff or wand? (Tome optional)

[RangerWickett]

Wow. Them playtesters work quick these days.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Without trying to remember the article:

Orb: Divination, caster-centered area-protection effects
Staff: Big, flashy, violent displays
Wand: Small scale targeting effects, surgical and tactical
Tome: Uh, hmm... information based spells, but that falls under divination, doesn't it. Perhaps conjuration?

Just so. Though I'd put many spells under tomes. By current school:

Orb: Divination
Staff: Evocation, Abjuration
Wand: Universal, Illusion, Enchantment
Tome: Transmutation, Conjuration, Necromancy

But personally here's how I'd work the mechanics:

Choose two wizard focus items (orb, wand, staff, tome). Select two schools for each of your two focus items; you must use the focus item to cast that school of spell, and you get a bonus (spellcraft, attack, save, whatever) when using a magical focus to cast a spell ... hence the use for +6 wands. And every witch or wizard can customize.

So Wiz1 might have staff (evocation & abjuration), tome (conjuration & divination) for example.

Specialists might give up a single focus item (or school) for greater power with the remaining item (or school).

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I think this is one of the dumbest ideas I've seen come out of 4E yet. Harry Potter anyone? :\

 

[netnomad]

I have a feeling that the three type of implements match the three uses of Arcane power. I’m just guess but it could be something like this:

Wands– At will or Arcane Strikes
Staffs – Per encounter or Power Words
Orbs – Per day or Spells.

-NetNomad

 

[breschau]

Orb is straight up divination and distance communication. Yes, just those spells. Anything that enhances your senses or adds news senses, or extends your senses. Anything that allows you to converse or otherwise communicate over distance. Gandalf and the palantir.

EDIT: you could expand the orb to include illusions as it fiddles with other peoples' perceptions and communication.

Staff is the big power, the howitzer. Broadsword. Per/encounter spells. Gandalf on the Bridge with the Balrogg.

Wand is for the beginner stuff, the more fine tuned and controlled spells. Scalpel. At/will spells. Harry in the school lifting feathers.

Tome is for the extremely powerful spells. Something like once/day spells. You still need to refresh on a few points of the ritual, because it's new to you. Cramming for a test.

 

[GreyWanderer]

Tool Spells

In the stuff I wrote, I created spells that specifically enhance a shamans or witches Tools, giving them melee abilities or repairing damage - I wonder if anything like that will be included in the PH?

Grey

 

[drothgery]

I think this is one of the dumbest ideas I've seen come out of 4E yet. Harry Potter anyone? :\

** boggle **
Using a flavor element reminiscent of the most popular current fantasy series by far is inherently a bad thing??

 

[breschau]

I have a feeling that the three type of implements match the three uses of Arcane power. I’m just guess but it could be something like this:

Wands– At will or Arcane Strikes
Staffs – Per encounter or Power Words
Orbs – Per day or Spells.

-NetNomad

I can see that. But in my estimation, tome should replace orb there as orbs have always been specifically tied to scrying and scrying alone.

 

[breschau]

Doing a quick wiki check of the sources for these kinds of magic tools, something interesting caught my eye.

The first magical wand featured in the Odyssey: that of Circe, who used it to transform Odysseus's men into animals.

So what about the implements (the original four) dividing up the schools?

Wand: transmutation, enchantment.
Staff: conjuration, evocation.
Orb: divination, illusion.
Tome: necromancy, abjuration.

This way you can have the "+6 wand" that grants a bonus to trans and enchant spells.

Going even further, if you take these as stand ins for the major/minor comment in the silos blog posts you could...

Pick an implement first: then choose one of its schools to be your major (i.e. extra spells or bonus), the other is your minor; or,

Pick a school first: then determine the implement (and minor school) from that.

Or, if we go with the original pairing of implements you could...

Pick one implement to be your major: another implement is your minor (two major schools, two minor schools).

 

[Driddle]

... +X wand ... at-will abilities ... bonus spells ... game mechanics ...

Nice points. Very valid.
But thank you for sticking with the original topic. Those other issues are being covered ad nauseum in the bigger-overview thread about Wizards. I was trying to avoid thread-cloning.