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This is a work in progress of mine. I'd appreciate all kinds of comments and critique about it, especially in order to raise potential issues that I have not (yet) perceived...
I don't like stat boosting spells and stat boosting items, especially in the "mental stats" departments, mostly for aesthetics reasons (see spoiler below for my half-rational reasons as to why I dislike them)
I don't like how stat boosting spells require a temporary re-calculation of a bunch of things. Granted, they're not hard re-calculations, but it adds-up with the 20 other re-calculations that are encountered on a roundly basis. Also, my dislike of mental boosting items are partially due to R-P implementations (or lack thereof). I'm always at lost when determining the reaction of NPCs toward a player with a CHA of 26, or frustrated about the lack of freakin' common sense of a 24 WIS cleric etc.
I'd rather see items that grants bonus to ranks in knowledge or social skills for example, or that directly boost the spell DC than a strait increase in INT, WIS of CHA.
On the other hand, I'm well aware of the shift in relative power that PCs take if I simply deny stat boosting items. This has been bugging me for a long time, and I've been grudgingly including headbands of intellect and whats-nots in my games simply not to be a jerk...
I also happen not to like wands. Actually, I should say that I don't like what 3E/Pathfinder made of wands because otherwise, I LOVE the whole channeling focus or spellcasting implement mojo (or whatever you want to call it) concept of wands, and their importance in many myths concerning magic (alongside magical staves). As it stands, my dislike of wands have much to do with the "meh" effect of magic items.
As many will point out, magic items are only as "meh" as you make them. But wands, like potions and scrolls, are harder to make sound cool as they are merely "spell slots in a stick". IMO, scrolls and potions convey that concept better and have a more consistent history as alternatives to prepared spells.
Staves on the other hand are much more unique and thematic, therefore much easier to make sound "cool" and "magical". I wouldn't mind wands to be like that. Perhaps its the 2E nostalgic in me that speaks, but IMHO, wands should be in the staff/rod/wand "family" of magical items, not in the scrolls/potions/wands "consumables".
So I decided to attempt to kill these two "issues" with one stone by re-designing wands to be more like magical staves. Basically, the two would become essentially the same thing:
- A wand or staff is to a spellcaster what a magical weapon is to a melee character. They come in variety of +1 enhancement bonus to +5 enhancement bonus (although I have a feeling that I should be careful about anything above +3)
- Both wands and staves confer this bonus to the spell DC of its user. The spell DC of a spell cast with a +2 wand is therefore increased by 2.
- Wands differ from staves in that this enhancement bonus can also be applied to ranged touch attacks (and potentially to touch attacks, I'd have to give more thoughts about this). Staves are more direct weapon, granting this enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls instead.
- Both wands and staves are spell storing items, akin to the way a magical staff currently works in Pathfinder. I like special abilities that do not come at the cost of a charge, and I like uses of charges that do not result in a spell. I'd be tempted to make a list of special abilities that would be symmetrical to magic weapons special abilities (like keen or flaming etc.)
- Since I'd deprive spellcasters of some low-level spell slots by denying stat-boosting items (remember wands would come as a replacement for those), I don't think it would be out of line to give them a daily spell-like ability or two as well.
- I also like the thematic of staves, and would definitively attempt to encourage that in wands creation as well.
As I said, any comment is welcome.
'findel
It sounds like a good idea, though it would mean most wands become quite a fair bit more expensive unless there are +0's too (if you want to keep the current power level of stat boosters).
A short suggestion on how to make limited use items more interesting is swapping the charges for a dice; if you want ~20 charges, start the wand at 1d8, which is rolled when the wand is used, and a roll of 1 reduces dice size by 1. when it reaches 1d1, there's only a single charge left.
DC bonus of a +6 headband of intelligence- +3.
DC bonus of a +5 wand- +5.
Beware the power creep- spellcasters do not need it.
Indeed! I've been having a feeling form the get-go that enhancement bonus should be capped at +3...
@Stringburka:
Good point about +0. I'm not sure to what extend I want to keep an equivalent of status-quo for wands. Scrolls do more or less the same thing. Need more thoughts.
As for charges, I need to ponder on that too. I trust my players that they can make difference between in-game knowledge and metagaming, but I don't like the "charge meter" effect of ticking charges off your character sheet.
Why limit wands to just a fixed bonus to all spell DCs? You could give a small bonus to all spells and an extra +1-+3 to one spell school. This allows for a higher bonus but limits the range of application. In the same vein, you could have an elemental fire wand listed as +1 to all DCs, +2 to Fire spells or a divine focus giving +2 to good spells.
Be wary though. The save or suck spells rely on spell DC to function and any wizard who uses these kind of spells will become much stronger as a result.
Why limit wands to just a fixed bonus to all spell DCs? You could give a small bonus to all spells and an extra +1-+3 to one spell school. This allows for a higher bonus but limits the range of application. In the same vein, you could have an elemental fire wand listed as +1 to all DCs, +2 to Fire spells or a divine focus giving +2 to good spells.
Yes, that's indeed what I had in mind for some of the "abilities". Kind of like your equivalent to a +1 sword, +3 against lycanthrope etc.
Be wary though. The save or suck spells rely on spell DC to function and any wizard who uses these kind of spells will become much stronger as a result.
Very true, but the bonus to spell DC from a +2 wand (or staff) would be the same as from a headband of intellect +4, which is considered a must-have as far as the "big 6" go and would not exist in this set of houserules.
What it Does mean however is that a +2 wand is a more powerful item than a +2 weapon...
I like the idea of these wands/staffs. Let me know what you decide. One thing you could do to limit the power a bit is to make the DC bonus not stack with the Spell Focus feats. I also think it would be a nice addition to the Arcane Bond ability of a wizard/sorcerer.
In literature, wands are mostly used as a focus for spellcasting. Maybe have wands grant a bonus to Concentration? That's far less powerful than spell slots though. That would be really handy if Concentration were harder and the consequences were more dire.
Personally, I don't really see a thematic necessity for rods. Maybe dump rods and have wands do rod stuff. That makes them more of an enhancement to caster spells rather than extra spell slots like you're going for.
Would not an obvious redesign for wands be a ranged weapon doing some sort of elemental damage? Say, damage 1d6 fire, crit 20/x2, range increment 20'.
I know this is in an old thread, but still.
My primary concern: do spells DCs and touch attacks actually need a boost? I don't believe that they do. 4th ed D&D more or less did what you want to do, but it was the intent from the beginning and so the target numbers were designed around them. Depending on a player's level of system mastery, this could be easily abused. You are granting a new bonus that was not intended to be used.
I like the idea of storing a spell, but you would want to put safeguards in place. For example, maybe you require a spell slot to be provided by the user so he has a "rollover" from the previous day. Maybe if its a +3 wand then it can hold 3 spell levels. One 1st level and one 2nd level, for example. Should it use the +3 of the wand instead of the user's ability modifier?
If you go your route then maybe restrict it to one school of magic or some other category, such as fire spells or fear spells. Or, allow bonuses higher than +3 but require that the wand's bonus be used in place of the user's ability mod. This would be a boon to someone who dipped into a class and has a low mod, but of no use to the wizard with 24 Int.
Maybe with the players in your group, these concern are unwarranted because they are casual enough gamers. The only way to really know is to introduce it into your group and see how it goes. If you do, report your findings.
There can be wands that grant a bonus to concentration if there is a somatic component.
Possible HB wand randomizer
1: Standard charged wand. 50 charges.
2: Permanent wand that grants a bonus to concentration.
3: Permanent wand that grants a bonus to hit for combat spells.
4: Permanent wand that grants a bonus to spell DC.
5: Rechargeable wand, 25 max capacity.
6: reroll an extra time, ignoring repeats
I would allow higher level spells with less total charges, perhaps 10 total.