Wand Questions

I have a Level 5 Elf Sorcerer with the ability to craft wands. And I have a curious question about the rules. As it is known you require 50X the material components to make a wand. Does Eschew Materials cover that as well? I figure since wands only go up to 4th level the majority do not require expensive material costs. Also as a minor question. Since wands can have a pass phrase or word is it possible to have 2 separate wands with the same word activate at the same time thus allowing duel wielding?

1. No. Eschew Materials only covers material components with a listed price; if the spell has no expensive material components, you don't need Eschew Materials (because you don't pay for them), and if it does use expensive materials, Eschew doesn't cover them.

2. No. Activating a wand is a standard action at least.

Thanks ^.^. Also Whats the general rule for materials that have no real value in general. Take spiders for instance. Would it just be assumed I went around collecting a bunch of spiders or other insects for an hour then started making the wand? Or is there some kind of bulk cost of them all costing an amount of gold in order to buy a jar of them or something.

If you're a sorcerer with Eschew Materials, you don't need spiders at all because they have no listed value (you ignore components costing 1gp or less).

If you are a wizard, you buy a material component pouch and assume you have whatever valueless components you need, whether it's bat guano, live spiders, or devil's blood. It's a simplification so you don't have to track every separate component.

So basically when creating a wand I only use that 50X thing for stuff that actually has a price for it like gold or gems and what not?

Exactly. Small stuff like bat guano etc, that are mentioned without a price are just assumed to be covered by the price for the wand.

That's right.

As for activating multiple wands at once, it does work insofar as I can tell, but it clearly isn't the intent of the rules. If you tried it, I'm sure someone would argue you don't have enough standard actions to pull it off at the very least.

Take a +1 acrid flaming frost shock weapon where all of said abilities are activated with the same word. That would absolutely work if you ask me.

As a GM, I'd be much more hesitant to allow that with wands and similar items though.

In short, the Rules As Written (RAW) is ambiguous, but the intent is clear.

Ya after reading the Password rule I just kinda realized that meant they would both activate at the same time and thus only require one standard action.