A Staff of True Power

[Tequila Sunrise]

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice but bear with me while I explain the situation. I'm creating an epic caster who can cast both 9th level cleric and wizard spells. He has the Craft Epic Staff feat, so obviously I want to give him an impressive staff of his own construction. He also has Ignore Material components which makes my first question: is it reasonable to assume that he can put spells with costly components into his staff without the usual extra gp cost of doing so? I figure hey, he can already cast such spells without worrying about gp, so what's the difference in his staff? If the PCs manage to get hold of his staff, it might rock their world until it runs out of charges; at which point they will either trash it or recharge it without the benefit of Ignore Materials. But I could be missing something.

My second request: from the PHB only, what are your favorite utilitarian spells? I'd like to focus this Staff of True Power on spells that do not involve saving throws; as much fun as it is to cast empowered/maximized/quickened/enhanced fireballs at 1 charge a pop, the DC 17 save would suck! My NPC would much rather memorize such spells himself as he makes them much more potent.

Thanks a million!
TS

[Thanis Kartaleon]

Tequila Sunrise wrote:

Is it reasonable to assume that he can put spells with costly components into his staff without the usual extra gp cost of doing so?

The rules do not appear to cover that particular case, but my interpretation indicates that you are correct.

Tequila Sunrise wrote:

My second request: from the PHB only, what are your favorite utilitarian spells? I'd like to focus this Staff of True Power on spells that do not involve saving throws; as much fun as it is to cast empowered/maximized/quickened/enhanced fireballs at 1 charge a pop, the DC 17 save would suck! My NPC would much rather memorize such spells himself as he makes them much more potent.

The DCs for staves are set by either the staff or the wielder, whoever is more potent.

The SRD wrote:

Staffs use the wielder’s ability score and relevant feats to set the DC for saves against their spells. Unlike with other sorts of magic items, the wielder can use his caster level when activating the power of a staff if it’s higher than the caster level of the staff.

So your super-staff can indeed have 1 charge empowered maximized quickened enhanced fireballs with awesome DCs if you want. Do you still want utilitarian spells?

[ericthecleric]

Tequila, when you referred to “Ignore Materials”, I thought you initially meant “Eschew Material Components”, until I looked it up in the Epic-Level Handbook. That’s a powerful feat- no gp costs”! Thanis is when he says “The rules do not appear…”.
I can’t tell if you’re the DM or one of the players. If you’re a player, the DM has the right to still have the component costs included in the staff. Don’t forget also that epic items are very expensive, because of the x10 multiplier (which only applies to the magic cost element, not to component cost); I guess this is because PCs have way too much wealth in comparison to NPCs.
I’ll proceed on the basis that you are the DM though. If your wizard/cleric is an NPC, he doesn’t have to have a fully charged staff when the PCs find him (ie, it might only have 5 charges when the PCs encounter him). Certainly, if the PCs do find the staff (and want to recharge it), unless one of them has the “Ignore Materials” feat, they would have to pay component costs if recharging. Although, the ELH does say that epic staves can’t be recharged, so it might crumble to dust after the last charge is used.
Regarding the save DC thing, don’t forget what the 3.5 rules did. Your spellcaster can use his own caster level (in place of the staff’s, if it’s higher), and use his ability score modifier and relevant feats to set the save DCs! Look at page 243 of the DMG.
As for spells that don’t have save DCs, here’s a few: blasphemy/holy word (etc.), enervation, energy drain, Evard’s black tentacles, ray of enfeeblement, waves of exhaustion, the various fog spells. (Ok, energy drain doesn’t have an initial save, but it does after 24 hours, but not initially which is what you were after.) Evard’s black tentacles and the fog spells don’t even allow spell resistance (!), but Freedom of Movement completely allows you to ignore them. Remember also that negative levels stack. Personally, I like the combination of stinking cloud and Evard’s black tentacles...
Three points though: (1) Presumably, you’re not trying to kill off the PCs, so be careful. (2) Once you use these nasty tactics, remember that the PCs WILL use such tactics against your NPCs in the future! And you won’t be able to grumble about it…
(3) As another thread has discussed this, give your spellcaster some minions. He can only cast two spells per round, at most, and the PCs have a stack of actions. If your NPC is CR 25, say, give him minions worth a combination of CR 23, because CR 25 + CR 23 = CR 26. Three pit fiends are CR 23, for example. I’m sure you can come up with other minion ideas.
I hope this helps.

[Tequila Sunrise]

Thanks for all the help! I always wondered why the DMG staff of power has so many offensive spells...now I know. Anywho, I'm dissapointed to have the fact pointed out that staves can't be recharged according to ELH. I thought maybe that this was another discrepency between 3.0-3.5 so I went looking for recharge guidelines in DMG and PH, but couln'd find a jot on the subject! Am I hallucinating again (damn those shrieker doobies!) or can wands/staves simply not be recharged? I'm certain that I've seen mention of recharging them somewhere...I was thinking about making this staff intelligent and it would suck to have to trash a companion staff just because you've used it 50 times.

TS

[Craig Clark]

There are house rules that involve recharging wands and staves. To be fair and to fall within the wealth guidelines for characters most of them simply divide the cost of creating the staff or wand from scratch by the total number of charges it would hold. (Which means making a brand new wand/staff is more cost effective unless the character is restricted by a game-time limitation that wouldn't allow this.)
You also run into the very strange quirk of requiring a small amount of gold and XP when someone recharges the staff or wand.

In Complete Arcane, the Master Wand and Master Staff feats allow a wand/staff user to sacrifice a spell slot without using a charge. I would think a feat that requires that feat as a prerequisite would be a cool feat to allow wand recharge without expending experience and lowering the GP cost...just a thought. I don't think I would ever just allow a player to cast spells into his staves and wands during down time to recharge them, but when you are talking Epic level that would be peanuts compared to some feats.

[Jon O'Guin]

In regards to the recharging problem, just have it also function as a rod of absorbtion-esque item, and have it gain back charges based on the levels of spells it absorbs. Obviously not 1-for-1, probably something like 8 or 9-for-1.

[Tequila Sunrise]

Well, a staff being one's trusted (intelligent) companion would certainly be a great in-game reason to recharge it rather than just make a new one. As for the absorbtion idea, I love it! I think I'll make it a 10 for 1 ratio just because I like round numbers. Thanks all; my PCs will rue the day they decided that this follower of Boccob was a BBG!

[Thanis Kartaleon]

Dragon 338 has an awesome article on using staves in place of familiars, and it includes a "Recharge Staff" feat. It allows you to recharge your personal staff for only the cost of a few spell slots.

As for the staff being intelligent, they technically can't according to the rules:

The SRD wrote:

Only permanent magic items (as opposed to single-use items or those with charges) can be intelligent.

That being said, your game, your rules.