Question about casting with a bonded item (wand)

[Anthony Law]

A player in my campaign took the wand as his wizard's bonded item. My question is does the wizard cast all of their spells out of the wand? Because, if so, a) all spells no longer require somatic components and b) casting spells would no longer require concentration and never provoke AoOs. This is because wands use the spell trigger activation method.

I'm thinking that the wand needs to be wielded but the wizard still needs a free hand to cast spells.

[Arazyr]

No, your second paragraph is correct. The wizard must be wearing or wielding/holding the bonded object to cast spells (or make a concentration check), but the spellcasting is otherwise as normal.

[Arazyr]

That said, as a flavor item, I would allow someone to use the hand holding a wand or staff as what they use for the somatic components. They just adjust it to be a wiggle of the wand or waving the staff. (I'd even allow that to extend to a weapon.)

But, it still provokes AoOs (sans casting on the defensive).

[M P 433]

Anthony Law wrote:

My question is does the wizard cast all of their spells out of the wand?

Negative.

Per the "arcane bond" description, the item acts like a modified pearl of power (allows 1/day use of spell in spellbook), and can itself be enchanted. Spellcasting still comes from the player, though, and they still must have the butter handy for a grease spell, the sand for a sleep spell, etc. The method you have listed would be near god-like in practice.

Your player may be confusing the description that the wizard must have the Wand in hand to cast spells. This does not mean the wand itself is casting any spells at all, though. [Also, you're right, rules say the wand must be wielded else you can only cast making the Concentration check. Casting with a Somatic component requires a free hand, to make the necessary runes and motions in air. It'd be arbitrary as to whether you think the wand hand is capable of doing those actions.]

In short, an arcane bond wizard with a wand is not Harry P*tter who can only cast from a wand. But the wand does become a necessary part of them once bonded.

[udalrich]

One way of thinking of it is that all the wizard's spell gain an addition component: a focus which is the bonded item. The focus does not do the casting, it is just a required part of the casting.

(The analogy is not exact, since you can cast without the bonded item while you can not cast a spell without a normal focus.)