This item should not be confused with the wand rifle from "Entombed with the Pharoahs", since it should act in a totally different way.
I am starting my Golarion campaign in the more sci-fi influenced parts of the world and wanted to have the following item, for which I could need some help with the pricing. Thanks for any comments.
Wand Pistol
You can load this pistol with a wand containing at least a 1st level spell (loading is a move action).
The caster/spell level of the created effects is the same as the caster/spell level of the wand.
Once loaded you can activate it as a standard action and it fires one ot more magical missiles, each activation drains one charge. You need to make a ranged touch attack for each of these missiles and they deal 1d4 points of damage. The missiles are a force effect. The range is 25 ft. plus 5ft./2 caster levels and you may fire each missile at different targets, if they are all within 30 ft.
For each two caster level above 1st you may fire one additional missile. For each spell level above 1st you may also fire one additional missile.
You gain a bonus on your ranged touch attack equal to half the level of the spell on the wand.
Example: If you load the thing with a 9th level spell wand with a caster level of 19, you could generate 18 magic missiles (1 + 9 (CL 19th) + 8 (spell level 9th)) each requiring a ranged touch attack and gaining a +4 bonus on the attack roll.
You can't create wands with spells over 4th level.
This item should not be confused with the wand rifle from "Entombed with the Pharoahs", since it should act in a totally different way.
I am starting my Golarion campaign in the more sci-fi influenced parts of the world and wanted to have the following item, for which I could need some help with the pricing. Thanks for any comments.
Wand Pistol
You can load this pistol with a wand containing at least a 1st level spell (loading is a move action).
The caster/spell level of the created effects is the same as the caster/spell level of the wand.Once loaded you can activate it as a standard action and it fires one ot more magical missiles, each activation drains one charge. You need to make a ranged touch attack for each of these missiles and they deal 1d4 points of damage. The missiles are a force effect. The range is 25 ft. plus 5ft./2 caster levels and you may fire each missile at different targets, if they are all within 30 ft.
For each two caster level above 1st you may fire one additional missile. For each spell level above 1st you may also fire one additional missile.
You gain a bonus on your ranged touch attack equal to half the level of the spell on the wand.Example: If you load the thing with a 9th level spell wand with a caster level of 19, you could generate 18 magic missiles (1 + 9 (CL 19th) + 8 (spell level 9th)) each requiring a ranged touch attack and gaining a +4 bonus on the attack roll.
This item is grossely overpower for all but high level campaigns.
May I suggest you in stead use a pistol shaped reloadable wand of least force orb?
This item is grossely overpower for all but high level campaigns.
May I suggest you in stead use a pistol shaped reloadable wand of least force orb?
Do you need to have the spell in the wand on your spell list, as with normal wand usage? If not, that is a significant power up, since you're now allowing rogues to make sneak touch attacks for the cost of a wand, but without a high UMD skill or dipping into a caster class.
You also don't say if it is affected by spell resistance. I would say that it should be.
If you need to be a spell caster (or to fake it with UMD), I'm not certain it's overpowered. Let's first assume we put a first level wand and compare it with just using a wand of magic missile.
For caster level 1-10, the differences are in damage (1d4+1/missile vs 1d4/missile, MM wins) and hitting (automatic vs. ranged touch, MM wins unless you have sneak attack or similar). Clear advantage to MM except when wielded by rogues.
For caster levels 11-14, the MM wand is still winning, since the +1 damage per missile keeps its damage higher. The pistol gains a slight advantage in that you can attack even more targets. However, spreading around your damage is rarely a good strategy.
At caster level 15 and higher, the pistol does more damage, assuming all the missiles hit. (That will likely be true, given that it's targeting touch AC.) Once the players can afford this (the wand costs over 11k), I don't think it will be unbalancing to allow a player to do 7d4 of damage with a standard action. For the same cost, he could use a wand of fireball and do 5d6 to everyone in an area.
Now lets look at what happens with a 4th level wand. The minimum caster level is 7. I'll compare it with Orb of Force, Orb of Fire and Empowered Scorching ray.
Orb of Force: 7d4 damage (ave 17.5), hit touch AC.
Orb of Fire: 7d6 damage (ave 24.5), secondary effect, hit touch AC, possibility of fire resistance
Empowered Scorching Ray: 2x(1.5x(4d6)) damage (ave 42), hit touch AC twice
Pistol: 7d4 damage (ave 17.5), hit touch AC 7 times with +2 to hit
Empowered scorching ray appears to be the clear winner here, unless the target has fire resistance 10+ or such a high touch AC that the extra +2 significantly increases the chance to hit. The pistol is more consistent in it's damage, since, while natural 1 will happen more frequently (since you're making more attacks), they're less painful (since each one only costs 1d4 damage).
If we bump the caster level to 15, we get the following.
Orb of Force: 10d4 damage (ave 25), hit touch AC.
Orb of Fire: 15d6 damage (ave 52.5), secondary effect, hit touch AC, possibility of fire resistance
Empowered Scorching Ray: 3x(1.5x(4d6)) damage (ave 63), hit touch AC thrice
Pistol: 11d4 damage (ave 27.5), hit touch AC 11 times with +1 to hit
The pistol barely beats the Orb of Force, which stopped improving 5 levels ago. Orb of fire is notably better and the Empowered Scorching Ray is still the best, despite not improving for 4 levels.
If you're concerned about a Rogue 15/Wizard 1 firing 11 missiles and doing 1d4+8d6 damage with each one, I'd apply the standard ruling that only the first attack from a spell gets sneak attack damage.
In summary, if the spell has to be on your spell list and SR applies, this looks like it is balanced to underpowered. If you want anyone to be able to use it, I'd have it drain two charges if the user couldn't use the wand directly. Assuming a CL 1 wand, that makes the cost of 50 rounds 1500 gp, which is close to the cost of an item that allows anyone to cast Magic Missile at will (2000 gp).