Staves

[BigNorseWolf]

To activate a staff do you have to have any spell on the staff, or the spell you want to activate?

If the latter, who's supposed to use a Staff of defense?

[Halfling Barbarian]

Seems to be the spell you wish to activate. Any that aren't on your class list would require the spellcraft roll to fake it. Although I may be wrong, I've never been a stave guy.

[Drejk]

IIRC you need to have the spell you want to use but you need any spell in the staff to recharge it.

[Halfling Barbarian]

You recall correctly.

PFSRD wrote:

Recharging Staves

Staves hold a maximum of 10 charges. Each spell cast from a staff consumes one or more charges. When a staff runs out of charges, it cannot be used until it is recharged. Each morning, when a spellcaster prepares spells or regains spell slots, he can also imbue one staff with a portion of his power so long as one or more of the spells cast by the staff is on his spell list and he is capable of casting at least one of the spells. Imbuing a staff with this power restores one charge to the staff, but the caster must forgo one prepared spell or spell slot of a level equal to the highest-level spell cast by the staff.

[Neo2151]

So, in regards to the Staff of Defense:

A Wizard can only use 1 out of 4 of the stave's spells.
A Paladin can only use 1 out of 4 of the stave's spells.
A Cleric can only use 3 out of 4 of the stave's spells.

So, no one (save multiclass characters) can get a full use out of a Staff of Defense.

...

Classy.

[Emil Refn]

Activation: Staves use the spell trigger activation method, so casting a spell from a staff is usually a standard action that doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity. (If the spell being cast has a longer casting time than 1 standard action, however, it takes that long to cast the spell from a staff.) To activate a staff, a character must hold it forth in at least one hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for nonhumanoid creatures).

Spell Trigger: Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it's even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Spell trigger items can be used by anyone whose class can cast the corresponding spell. This is the case even for a character who can't actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin. The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

So any spell that you will be able to cast at some point you can activate from a staff, just like a wand

[Halfling Barbarian]

Neo2151 wrote:

So, in regards to the Staff of Defense:

A Wizard can only use 1 out of 4 of the stave's spells.
A Paladin can only use 1 out of 4 of the stave's spells.
A Cleric can only use 3 out of 4 of the stave's spells.

So, no one (save multiclass characters) can get a full use out of a Staff of Defense.

...

Classy.

The cheapest staff should only go to a character of level 5 or higher with little or no magic gear. At level 5 my UMD skill (I quoted spellcraft earlier, duh moment) will be at 8 + cha mod minimum (plus magical aptitude, and maybe skill focus) giving me a 50% to 90% chance to cast any spell off of any staff. At 5th level.

The Staff of Defense shouldn't be owned by a character of less than 10th level, according to the wealth by level chart. Assuming maxed ranks in UMD (which any caster should be doing) + the class skill bonus (Clerics, Paladins, and Wizards that want to be utility item casters need the Dangerously Curious trait to get it) + Cha mod + one feat that increases the skill puts you at UMD 17 - 20+. It's not really a big issue.

[Neo2151]

Halfling Barbarian wrote:

Assuming maxed ranks in UMD (which any caster should be doing) + the class skill bonus (Clerics, Paladins, and Wizards that want to be utility item casters need the Dangerously Curious trait to get it) + Cha mod + one feat that increases the skill puts you at UMD 17 - 20+. It's not really a big issue.

Why would my support Cleric have UMD maxed? He (essentially) gets all the best support spells already.

Why would my Paladin have UMD maxed? He's a fighter first, support second. Pretending to be otherwise is seriously stepping out of character support.
My wizard/sorcerer always maxes UMD. No argument there.

[BigNorseWolf]

Neo2151 wrote:

Why would my Paladin have UMD maxed? He's a fighter first, support second. Pretending to be otherwise is seriously stepping out of character support.

Why wouldn't they? It gives the class some much needed versatility.