It has bothered me since 1st edition that some first-level caster can pick up a wand and use it flawlessly as long as his class has access to it. Yuck.
But in a larger sense, yeah, I don't care for the current flavor of wands. I think that a Wand should augment, rather than replace, your character's abilities.
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You know, I don't think I've ever played in a game where any character extensively used wands of any type. Most of the disposable healing in games I've played in has been potions...and actually that goes for disposable items in general. I've just never played with people who threw out a lot of wands, scrolls, etc.
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In a world with no wands of cure light wounds, only one class can save the day, and is thus always forced on someone. Coming this fall to a theater near you is Looking For Cleric; the thrilling tale of one party's quest to have a cleric join them no matter what.
In a world with no wands of cure light wounds, only one class can save the day, and is thus always forced on someone. Coming this fall to a theater near you is Looking For Cleric; the thrilling tale of one party's quest to have a cleric join them no matter what.
I don't think the OP meant to make the assumption that all other things remain unchanged. I took the question to be a much larger one. After, lots of other games handle things quite differently.
In a world with no wands of cure light wounds, only one class can save the day, and is thus always forced on someone. Coming this fall to a theater near you is Looking For Cleric; the thrilling tale of one party's quest to have a cleric join them no matter what.
Not as true as it used to be, several classes now have access to a moderate level of healing not as efficient as the cleric but workable.
2 or 3 classes that have healing access basically means the party will be just fine for healing
e.g. 6 man party that can live without cleric or CLW
Witch
Alchemist
Druid
Paladin
Fighter
Wizard
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You could avoid this if magical healing was not so much better than mundane healing.
If you could heal yourself quickly with a not so difficult Heal check and heal lot of damage with a more difficult Heal check, you would not need the spells, and thus the wands, so much.
Basically, if you could regain all your lost HP after a fight through Heal checks, you would not need the CLW wand and the magical healing would take place only in combat through the spells of your healer(s).
First I like Pathfinder a lot and is the only game my group wants to play but this area is where 4E wins.
Wouldn't it be nice to have some form of second wind, healing surge mechanic, get all HP back after a nights rest?
I mean in a game where HP is a representation of combat luck, heroic ability, and not physical health why not get it all back after a short period of time or without magic at all.
Make healing spells in combat only healing.
In 3.5 there were a number of ways to get by without wands of CLW, in fact there was one or two that was more efficient, you can check them here. But most (if not all) of those ways of healing don't exist in pathfinder, so if you remove wands of CLW from the game you either force the players to spent insane amounts of money (and space) on healing scrolls or even worse healing potions, OR even more more worse you force one player to play a cleric (or healing oracle) and you not only force them to play a specific class, you force them into the (very boring to me) role of healbot.
...if you remove wands of CLW from the game you either force the players to spent insane amounts of money (and space) on healing scrolls or even worse healing potions, OR even more more worse you force one player to play a cleric (or healing oracle) and you not only force them to play a specific class, you force them into the (very boring to me) role of healbot.
Again, I don't think the OP was recommending wands simply be removed without other supporting changes. I think most of us realize just removing them would have bad side effects.
I don't think I've seen a single wand of CLW in all our games since 3E began. Last campaign, I was cleric, I took a wand of cure moderate wounds just to make sure I had enough healing power to revive someone from death's door in a shot, but that was it. We ran across potions and scrolls, but I only recall 2 wands: bear's endurance and owl's wisdom. We sold one, the other I used to pay for my raise dead spell.
We functioned without them, but I spent much of my power on healing. Even if I had the money handy, I'm not sure in that game I'd have been spending it on those wands. One fight would have burned up a wand almost every time, and we didn't always have someone handy who could have supplied us. I never got around to learning to craft wands, as I needed my feats for other things.
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It saves a player the ignominity of being stuck as a walking bandaid and enables them to actually USE their spells rather than having to stock up on cures or watch the party trek back to the inn after every fight
Is it really in the spirit of things to carry around 20 healing twigs as a main source of mending? Is it really any fun or how anyone imagines heroic characters?
I prefer Wand of Infernal Healing... but that's beside the point. :)
You have a choice:
1) 5 Minute Day: Wait and recover for days between encounters. This was often the case for home games back in the 80s. I can tell you from experience, it was fun at first but got pretty boring after awhile. The worst thing was having a challenging encounter and barely winning, only to lick your wounds for 3 days. Hardly heroic, maybe more realistic, not that fun.
Often with a 5 minute day group, you have one PC who is 100% dedicated to healing. Honestly, how is this fun? Some people way like it (and make their groups viable without wands of CLW), but in general, yuck.
2) Healing Surges: Healing Surges is the 4E mechanic for healing, which ensures non-healer groups are viable, eliminates the need for items like a wand of CLW, and allows groups to have more than a 5 minute day, while also placing limits on it. For me, HS is the best part of 4E (I'm not a fan o/w). I actually playtested a version of it for PFS and it went very well, so well that it's a house rule in AP home games now.
3) Wands of Cure Light Wounds / Infernal Healing: This is the PFS solution to the 5 minute day, and can help make non-healer groups viable. Wands of IH can be used by Sorcs and Wizards, and all wands can be used with UMD (for awhile anyway).
So pick your poison. Personally, I think a mechanic like Healing Surges works the best (in my experience), but wands of CLW also do the trick.
For the most part my group never relied on wands for anything.
On the other hand, magic wands are a staple of fantasy. I don't see anything strange about having them in game.
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The benefits of not having to have a player dedicated to healing far outweigh the awkwardness of using wands for healing IMO.
-I always play 12 hours rest heals all HP damage. But the 12 hours of rest must be in an inn, or other 'civilized' location. Simply making a camp or sleeping in the dungeon provides rest benefits as per normal.
-Diseases, and ability damages are treated as normal.
It would be like the old days when you had WANDS OF FIRE that actually did other stuff besides cast the same spell over and over and over...
PCs would whip out the potions of extra-healing and the tins of Keoghtom's Ointment (remember that stuff?).
Now it's the Tinkerbell after combat ritual of;
"Three taps for you!"
"One tap for you!"
"Four taps for you!"
"And seven taps and an Attaboy for you!"
Lame, but meh, what other options are there left?
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These topics where someone asks "Is it possible to play the game without X, or is it just too deeply ingrained" always amuse me. Because 90% of the time, I've never bothered with X in any game I've ever played in. Like I said before, I've never played in a game where wands were overly stressed, and I don't think I've EVER seen a wand of CLW. And it didn't slow us down any.
Maybe I just have a different concept of an adventurer than most. But the majority of my characters have a motivation that keeps them going even after they've suffered a hit or two, even if that motivation is only a love of adventure. From most of the stuff I see posted here, many people play on a vastly conservative scale. If the odd are not overwhelmingly in their favor, they just aren't going to bother. I guess if it works for them that's fine, but I personally would find it intensely boring.
If you refuse to go adventuring without a sackful of healing wands, the "big six", all the magical items that so many of deem absolutely necessary, and an Oort Cloud of ion stones circling around your head, and retreat at the first sign that a battle might actually drain a substantial amount of your resources, then you aren't an adventurer, you're a somewhat cowardly glory-hound.
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@Drake_rocket
If you follow the link i gave above you will see that in 3.5 there was no reason to play a healer (meaning a char that it's main purpose is to heal damage), you had better things to do, and while pathfinder doesn't have most of those things the case is still true. Keep in mind that nobody said that having a purely support cleric is unneeded, but that cleric isn't a healbot, yes he will do the occasional emergancy healing in combat but most of his time he will be removing conditions, buffing his allies and debuffing his enemies and between combat he will use wands of CLW to heal the damage of his allies because after UM even his channels might be more benefit for him in-combat.
In 10 years of playing the game with about 6 different groups, I don't think I've ever seen a wand of cure light wounds show up.
Though I am not even sure if I ever saw any wand being used in a game.
In 10 years of playing the game with about 6 different groups, I don't think I've ever seen a wand of cure light wounds show up.
Though I am not even sure if I ever saw any wand being used in a game.
How do the players heal themselves after combat?
Because in every DnD game i have played (sure they aren't a lot) there was either a healbot (i was one in one game, it wasn't fun) or use wands of CLW or the DM dropped an insane amounts of healing potions.
Is it really in the spirit of things to carry around 20 healing twigs as a main source of mending?
In a word: Yes.
(longish, somewhat tangential rant/musing spoilered)
DnD/PF is a high-power, high-magic, very abstract/low resolution game. Contrast damage in PF with damage and healing in MERP. In MERP, you had "concussion hits", which worked mostly like nonlethal damage in PF. Taking lots of "hits" could kill you, but that was not the common way to go. Mostly what killed you (or got you an early retirement) were "criticals", which did such nasty things as chop an arm or a leg off, or poke an eye out, or crush your skull to pulp. Hits were easy to heal with rest, low-level magic and herbs; the effects of crits were possible to undo in principle, but required extremely powerful and rare magic, in practice unavailable to all but the very rich or powerful; a PC would need to be near the top of the level scale. At that point you were on a par with Aragorn.
Now look at 3.x/PF. The power level starts out high and takes off like a rocket. At what point are you on a par with Aragorn? I'd say around level 5/6 (this has been discussed quite a bit around here, I've read some of the old threads and essays, I know I risk restarting that discussion but that is not my intention, please don't). At level 5, a cleric can cast Water Walk and Create Food and Water. If a real-life priest/prophet did that, he'd have religious tracts written about him that'd be considered the religious tracts by a significant proportion of the poulation 2 000 years later 8-)
The 3.x level progression was explicitly assumed to make you twice as powerful with every two levels you advanced. (Probably not quite true in PF, but close). Now if our friend the 5th level cleric advances to 19th level he will go through 7 power doublings and be 128 times (TIMES, not percent!) more powerful.
He's not God Almighty quite yet, but by my rough judgement he left the Norse gods and the Greek demigods behind at level 10-15 somewhere. He's like something out of the wilder parts of Indian or Chinese mythology/religion. He's beyond epic (lvl 3-6), beyond heroic (lvl 7-11, "hero" = greek demigod), beyond mythical (lvl 12-16). He's divine in any reasonable sense of the word.
The point. Ah yes, the point!
The first point would be that the fact that no game mechanic can make you lose an arm or an eye is far more of a stretch for me than ubiquitous CLW wands. Once you manage to suspend disbelief on the Hit Point system, CLW wands make perfect sense, really. And I do not consider the hit point system to be lacking in any way, but an intrinsic part of the DnD family of games, a defining feature that make them distinctly DnD. It does make the game a bit cartoonish, yes, and there are times when I find that less satisfying than, say, MERP. However it's much easier to recruit DnD/PF players than MERP players, and I suspect the cartoonishness is an important reason it is that way.
The second point is that high-level PF characters are beyond mortal ken anyway. Them having amounts of stash that seems ridiculous to a low-level expert (for instance, a PF player/DM) is to be expected. In fact, I think the "ridiculous" line in the sand is passed well before level 10, but that's just me.
Edit to add: I guess my position could be summed up as "It's not a bug, it's a feature".
It's funny I've been playing D&D for about 25 years now and ever since 3rd edition came out every game I've been in has had a ton of wands of CLW in the party for after combat healing.
I don't understand how you could get through multiple encounters in a day without them the way the game is set up.
Sure at low levels you can get by with potions but as soon as the party fund gets the gold the number one item to buy is a wand of CLW.
At higher levels sure you need to almost drain a whole wand after a fight but that is why you have a bundle of them in a bag of holding. They are the most cost effective way of healing.
I guess different groups have different styles but yeah for those who don't use them often or ever, what do you use? How do you not have only one or two fights a day? Does someone always have to play a cleric and only use spells to heal?
I am interested because the next game I want start up was going to only allow the creation of potions and scrolls but the idea of the party carrying hundreds or thousands of potions is a bit silly.
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It's funny I've been playing D&D for about 25 years now and ever since 3rd edition came out every game I've been in has had a ton of wands of CLW in the party for after combat healing.
I don't understand how you could get through multiple encounters in a day without them the way the game is set up.
Sure at low levels you can get by with potions but as soon as the party fund gets the gold the number one item to buy is a wand of CLW.
At higher levels sure you need to almost drain a whole wand after a fight but that is why you have a bundle of them in a bag of holding. They are the most cost effective way of healing.
I guess different groups have different styles but yeah for those who don't use them often or ever, what do you use? How do you not have only one or two fights a day? Does someone always have to play a cleric and only use spells to heal?
A combination of things:
1. Potions
2. Clerics using healing magic and/or channelling, paladins using healing magic and/or lay on hands, witches using healing magic and/or healing hexes, etc.
3. Not feeling afraid to enter an encounter with less than 100% hit points.
I am interested because the game I start up was going to only allow the creation of potions and scrolls but the idea of the party carrying hundreds or thousands of potions is a bit silly.
But you don't consider using a wand of CLW 20+ times after every combat equally as silly?
You know, I don't think I've ever played in a game where any character extensively used wands of any type. Most of the disposable healing in games I've played in has been potions...and actually that goes for disposable items in general. I've just never played with people who threw out a lot of wands, scrolls, etc.
Have you never played with anyone who had CLW as a spell on their class list or did no one you play with ever bother to calculate that wands are remarkably cheaper than potions.
Healing has been a role for a very long time across virtually every scope of fantasy gaming. Now you might combine it with something else to add a bit more flavor, but it is as tried and true an idea as a fighter or a wizard is. But both in 3.5 and now in Pathfinder, we find this concept being boiled down to a twig because, frankly it does the job better than any class.
False. CLW wands are used because otherwise you are causing a drain on the class resources of the character who would otherwise be casting it. A caster casting the spell is always going to be better than a wand because wands are generally found or created at the lowest caster level possible and most of their healing coming from the +4 Caster Level bonus.
But you don't consider using a wand of CLW 20+ times after every combat equally as silly?
Compared to carrying several hundred potions of CLW? No. Do you actually have a suggestion as to how to fix using CLW 20+ times after combat? Make CLW automatically give you back full health?
3. Not feeling afraid to enter an encounter with less than 100% hit points.
3. Be idiots.
Entering any remotely serious combat with less than 80% hit points is foolish, possibly suicidal.
I personally do not use them in my campaign, it adds too much to the christmas tree effect of magical items I think.
It hasn't actually come up since we are pretty much old school players in general and rarely craft magical items or buy them from the magic shop, but if I was to use wands I would set a minimum level of 3 on wands which is the level required to craft wands.
potential houserules :
The healing skill should enhance magical healing in some way, or vice versa, a bit more synergy between magic and skill use would be welcome, this could make healing easier without having to rely on a standard magical item resource pack. Possibly maximizing cure spells and other healing abilities with a succesful check and an additional full round of casting.
Considering an ammount of damage equal to the constitution score to be treated as non-lethal damage, which makes recovering easier and stimulates in combat healing, since it heals an equal ammount of non-lethal damage.
Allowing cure spells used to be recast on the same target the next round without using an additional spell slot.
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Have you never played with anyone who had CLW as a spell on their class list or did no one you play with ever bother to calculate that wands are remarkably cheaper than potions.
Part 1: Yes, of course I have. Part 2: No, because we play it as an adventuring game. Maybe playing Accounting and Accrual is appealing to you, but it isn't to everyone.
Compared to carrying several hundred potions of CLW? No. Do you actually have a suggestion as to how to fix using CLW 20+ times after combat? Make CLW automatically give you back full health?
But you don't consider using a wand of CLW 20+ times after every combat equally as silly?
Well, for one thing, we tended to use potions based on the higher-level cure spells, so they would be more concentrated in their effectiveness. Every group I've played in has also ignored the "potions are only good for up to 3rd level spells" rule, if only for healing potions. I really doubt this is as abnormal as I'm sure you'll make it out to be, since I never suggested it to any of the groups, it was always just how they were doing it when I joined.
It's not accounting it is good sense. I mean a high level cure spell potion is just a waste of gold. I mean price does matter.
This seems strange to me that anyone would have more than one emergency cure serious wounds potion at high level play.
Something I have never seen is a wand of cure anything other than light wounds because it makes no sense to waste the gold.
The only solution I can see is to have short rests like in 4e and some kind of recovery mechanic. I checked out Trailblazer and not sure if I like what they have done but something should be done to fix it.
Maybe just make an item that is cheap and grants fast healing or regeneration?
Part 2: No, because we play it as an adventuring game. Maybe playing Accounting and Accrual is appealing to you, but it isn't to everyone.
Really? Really? I like to spend my party money on stuff that is actually beneficial. Clearly, this makes me the fool.
Well, for one thing, we tended to use potions based on the higher-level cure spells, so they would be more concentrated in their effectiveness.
And even less bang for your buck since the cost of the potion is based on its level instead of its effectiveness. A Cure Moderate Wounds potion will heal, on average, twice as much HP as a Cure Light. While costing 6x as much. A Cure Serious Wounds potion will heal, on average, three times as much HP as a Cure Light. While costing 15x times as much.
Never mind that a Cure Light Wounds wand with 50 charges of Cure Light Wounds costs as much as 15 potions of Cure Light Wounds (or one Cure Serious Wounds potion!)Every group I've played in has also ignored the "potions are only good for up to 3rd level spells" rule, if only for healing potions.
I presume you are also ignoring the costs of potions as well because potions are exorbitantly expensive.
Hiya
It has bothered me since 1st edition that some first-level caster can pick up a wand and use it flawlessly as long as his class has access to it. Yuck.
Quick FYI...in 1e (DMG pg 119), there is a section called "Command Words". ...
"In order to use a rod, staff or wand, it is usually necissary to know the command word."
I think the "anyone can use" came into play at 3rd edition. That said, Basic D&D (BECMI) it *was* class based...but not all wands could be used by MU's, not all rods by clerics, etc...there were some 'special rod/staff/wand' restrictions to particular classes.
...Carry on...
:)
^_^
Paul L. Ming
You know, I don't think I've ever played in a game where any character extensively used wands of any type. Most of the disposable healing in games I've played in has been potions...and actually that goes for disposable items in general. I've just never played with people who threw out a lot of wands, scrolls, etc.
+1
These topics where someone asks "Is it possible to play the game without X, or is it just too deeply ingrained" always amuse me. Because 90% of the time, I've never bothered with X in any game I've ever played in. Like I said before, I've never played in a game where wands were overly stressed, and I don't think I've EVER seen a wand of CLW. And it didn't slow us down any.
Maybe I just have a different concept of an adventurer than most. But the majority of my characters have a motivation that keeps them going even after they've suffered a hit or two, even if that motivation is only a love of adventure. From most of the stuff I see posted here, many people play on a vastly conservative scale. If the odd are not overwhelmingly in their favor, they just aren't going to bother. I guess if it works for them that's fine, but I personally would find it intensely boring.
If you refuse to go adventuring without a sackful of healing wands, the "big six", all the magical items that so many of deem absolutely necessary, and an Oort Cloud of ion stones circling around your head, and retreat at the first sign that a battle might actually drain a substantial amount of your resources, then you aren't an adventurer, you're a somewhat cowardly glory-hound.
+100
+100These topics where someone asks "Is it possible to play the game without X, or is it just too deeply ingrained" always amuse me. Because 90% of the time, I've never bothered with X in any game I've ever played in. Like I said before, I've never played in a game where wands were overly stressed, and I don't think I've EVER seen a wand of CLW. And it didn't slow us down any.
Maybe I just have a different concept of an adventurer than most. But the majority of my characters have a motivation that keeps them going even after they've suffered a hit or two, even if that motivation is only a love of adventure. From most of the stuff I see posted here, many people play on a vastly conservative scale. If the odd are not overwhelmingly in their favor, they just aren't going to bother. I guess if it works for them that's fine, but I personally would find it intensely boring.
If you refuse to go adventuring without a sackful of healing wands, the "big six", all the magical items that so many of deem absolutely necessary, and an Oort Cloud of ion stones circling around your head, and retreat at the first sign that a battle might actually drain a substantial amount of your resources, then you aren't an adventurer, you're a somewhat cowardly glory-hound.
-101
One of these isn't a bad option, either: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/wondrousItems.html#phylactery -of-positive-channeling
In terms of efficiency, and use of the cleric's time.
One of these isn't a bad option, either: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/wondrousItems.html#phylactery -of-positive-channeling
In terms of efficiency, and use of the cleric's time.
Erm, thats the same cost as 14 2/3 wands of cure light wounds. If we assume each wand is worth 275 average healing (4033.33 total healing for the 14 2/3 wands), you'd need to use the phylactery 576 times on average for it to give you more healing than the wands would.
As thats unlikely to happen, its the very definition of inefficient.
One of these isn't a bad option, either: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/wondrousItems.html#phylactery -of-positive-channeling
In terms of efficiency, and use of the cleric's time.
Erm, thats the same cost as 14 2/3 wands of cure light wounds. If we assume each wand is worth 275 average healing (4033.33 total healing for the 14 2/3 wands), you'd need to use the phylactery 576 times on average for it to give you more healing than the wands would.
As thats unlikely to happen, its the very definition of inefficient.
576 times on one person, in a 4 person party only 144 times. If you use channel 5 times a day, it pay's off in less then 30 days. Plus the fact that channel heals quite a bit on its own.
576 times on one person, in a 4 person party only 144 times. If you use channel 5 times a day, it pay's off in less then 30 days. Plus the fact that channel heals quite a bit on its own.
144 times assuming that everyone in range benefits fully for every one of those five channels. Thats a big assumption with the way damage generally gets handed out.
And 30 days of adventuring, where each one meets the previous conditions? Thats a lot of sessions.
The wand, at least, is modular. Less wasted healing, and you can buy them as they are needed for the most part.
It all depends on the group. There is one member of my group who is now more or less inactive that loves playing the walking bandaid. For everyone else, no one wants to spend their actions in game healing. It just isn't fun for us. So while we often have divine casters, 'healer' is not a role we make use of. Divine caster is, and sometimes that calls for a heal spell now and again, but as the primary thing you are doing, healing isnt much fun for us. A player would much rather summon a monster or rain down fire then cast a cure spell in an encounter.
If the cleric or other divine caster has to be the 'healer' then he is not only spending spells, but ACTIONS, on healing. The concept of 'proactive healing' in the form of stopping the monster before it hurts your allies further is key here. It is for me at least a far more fun way to play a divine caster. But then again, my group has since made 3.5 magic item compendium healing belts a must have, and its one of the most common 3.5 items to remain in our game. We just dont like having to worry about someone being the 'healer'. So we find a way around it.
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I hate the flavor of wands. They just seem so poncey.
I hate the post-encounter ritual of burning x number of wand charges to heal y number of HP. It glosses over everything that was cool about HP loss and being wounded, while retain all of the needless paperwork.
My solution is twofold:
First, ban wands. Not 50-charge spell-trigger items, but slender sticks that you wave around like a conductor's baton. In my campaign, no spell trigger item is in "wand" form, they are re-skinned as something cool. If the players want to buy or make a wand, I demand they come up with a better flavor for the deplete-able spell-trigger item.
Second, I use a special HP rule where all "abstract" damage is healed between encounters with a short rest. Crits, failed saves, and the hit that brings you below zero HP are all "literal" damage, and those must be healed with magic or treatment. This is a radical departure, and it completely changes the gold-HP ratio that makes wands so necessary. It doesn't, however, change the balance of combat encounters within the initiative cycle, so I really don't care.
It was never practical to use CLW potions or wands during a combat — players were starting every combat at full HP every time if they had a few minutes to burn charges. So now I just let them have the HP, and I'm a little bit firmer on rules like food and lodging costs to make up for their extra gold.
So, if you're like me and you hate the flavor and mechanics of wands, they're simple enough to gloss over. That CLW wand doesn't feature as a balancing factor in combat, it only comes up between combats. So just get rid of it, and give players most of the HP back, and tax them a little more on gold somewhere else! Potions too. Down with irritating paperwork.
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I presume you are also ignoring the costs of potions as well because potions are exorbitantly expensive.
I've also most often been in groups that tend to use the magical items and equipment we find, as opposed to played "Let's Go to the Mall...Today!"
Great, now I have Robin Sparkles suck in my head.
If the players want to buy or make a wand, I demand they come up with a better flavor for the deplete-able spell-trigger item.
Whats necessarily uncool about wands?
I'm a big fan of them from the Dresdenverse myself, but apparently the Harry Potter fandom loves the more traditional sort to a ridiculous degree; I know a guy who came back from Universal Studios with half a dozen of the things for people who couldn't have been happier to spend their money on them.
One of these isn't a bad option, either: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/wondrousItems.html#phylactery -of-positive-channeling
In terms of efficiency, and use of the cleric's time.
Erm, thats the same cost as 14 2/3 wands of cure light wounds. If we assume each wand is worth 275 average healing (4033.33 total healing for the 14 2/3 wands), you'd need to use the phylactery 576 times on average for it to give you more healing than the wands would.
As thats unlikely to happen, its the very definition of inefficient.
channeling also tends to be more useful in situations that do not allow for alot of time, combat for instance, which isn't by default a bad use of your round. Also you might want to take into account resale value, while the wands lose in value the phylactery keeps it's full value which cuts it down to 72 uses in a party of 4.
Well assuming 4 encounters a day, that's basically 9 levels at the fast xp track, which is kind of a lot(for 30 days of channeling). If you can channel more it becomes better, if you only have 3 encounters a day it becomes 6.75 levels on the fast track. But only 3 encounters a day might mean that you channel less, so it's a bit of a wash.