Staves and Quarterstaves (or If a staff is a staff is a staff, are all staves the same?)

[Whale_Cancer]

The magic item section on staves describes "[a] typical staff is like a walking stick, quarterstaff, or cudgel. It has AC 7, 10 hit points, hardness 5, and a break DC of 24."

The equipment section describes a quarterstaff as "[...] a simple piece of wood, about 5 feet in length."

Assuming a quarterstaff is a hafted weapon, it has hardness 5 and 10 hp (i.e. the same as a staff [magic item]).

Can I use a staff as a quarterstaff?

If a staff is my bonded item, can I enchant it as a quarterstaff or (and?) a magic staff?

[warren Burgess]

Yes yes you can. ;)

[Sean H]

Yes to all of those things! Staves are fun, if terrifyingly expensive for what they do.

[Mitch Mantei]

If I bond as a level one wizard to a Staff-(Magic Item) how does the staff then work? or in other words is it a quarter staff? Is it a staff-(magic item) with one spell included then to expand it I have to spend the equivalent of +1 magic weapon cost to add a spell? since it is not a weapon does it just allow me to cast my spells without provoking attack (the way it would with spells built in it)? do I still need to charge it? and if I do need to charge it how do I apply it to spells?

[Mike Franke]

I believe the actual answer to this questions is sometimes. :(

All quarterstaves are staves but not all staves are quarterstaves.

Thus you have to look at the description of each magic staff to see if it can be used as a weapon and if so if it is a quarterstaff or a cudgel, a walking stick is not a statted weapon as far as I know.

Thus if you make a bonded weapon staff you would have to designate it a kind of staff that can be used as a weapon if you want to make it a weapon.

Easy see.