Wizards are usually shown in portraits using staves or canes. I understand that staves and wand could have "charges" with spells. But there is a reason for a Wizard to have a "normal" stave or cane?
By the way, wizards do not need staves at all.
Yes, they do. It's a secret wizard-flavor-thingy.
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need, no. But by golly, they are nice to have regardless.
By the way, wizards do not need staves at all.Yes, they do. It's a secret wizard-flavor-thingy.
LOL
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and robes. Wizards always have robes. And an innate desire to build towers.
Outside its use as a magic item, a staff is also the biggest weapon that most wizards are proficient with.
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Nicholas Cage disagrees with you.By the way, wizards do not need staves at all.Yes, they do. It's a secret wizard-flavor-thingy.
Nope, he had a staff. He just kept it secret.
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and robes. Wizards always have robes. And an innate desire to build towers.
Except the female ones. They don't get robes - at least not something recognizable as such. They do build towers though...
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Staves are for supporting your weight; first you dump Strength, then you get Age Modifiers. You're going to need it, better get used to it.
Robes are nice and warm if you're working in a lab in a stone tower all day. Or maybe they hide the Potion Gut you get from not exercising.
Towers are just good sense for a class with that many ranged attacks. Or maybe they just like the view.
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Bah my wizard uses a heavy pick, but he's dwarf. Sure he isnt quite as smart as those prissy pretty boy elves but he does have a magnificent beard so points for that.
The only reason he needs a staff is if he decides to make some Goblin-Pops(TM). Goblin-Pops the offical summertime treat of dwarves everywhere, available in your grocers freezer section.
Best Bonded Object? Gotta be a Revolver.
How many GMs would let you get 4000 gp of free stuff out of arcane bond?
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Best bonded object: a familiar. That's ALL a wizard needs
You're really quite predictable.
Go back through your posting history and see if you can find your own pattern.
Best Bonded Object? Gotta be a Revolver.
I would love to read the background history for that!
Watch Ralph Bakshi's Wizards.Best Bonded Object? Gotta be a Revolver.I would love to read the background history for that!
Looking at the pics on google it looks really bizarre!
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How many wizards have you seen with long grey beards? Ok so classically almost all of them be it, Gandalf, Odin, Väinämöinen, Merlin, Dallben, ect. are older men who have spent years upon years refining and studying to master the power of magic. Well when you get that age, to quote George burns and his famous cigars, "I need something to hold me up."
Plus it is a big stick to whack something with; like annoying apprentices.
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If you want to *create* a reason why a wizard might want to carry a 'traditional' wizard's staff, there's plenty of options.
In GURPS, the 'staff' enchantment allowed you to add a hex of reach to your spellcasting when channeled through your staff (which was a big deal, in GURPS, where many spells had a -1 to the casting skill for each hex away from the target you were).
Creating a variation on this for a PF/d20 wizard's staff, that allowed him to touch things up to 10 ft. away, and added 5 ft. to his spellcasting range, by casting the spell from the end of his staff, could be funky.
At low levels, being able to start the cone of a burning hands or color spray as if you were standing 5 ft. away from your current position could be a *huge* benefit for an unarmored d6 HD caster!
A magical enhancement that buffed spells cast when the staff is in hand, giving an option of +2 to hit (for spells that require an attack roll), +1 to save DC *or* +1 caster level, could be neat.
A different magical enhancement that tapped into the lingering 'wasted' power of a spell's casting, and had a 5% or 10% chance of allowing you to not expend the slot or spell, could also give a wizard a reason to cast spells through his staff. Alternately, it would have a 10% or 20% chance of the spell's energy 'lingering' for an additional round, allowing him, when he is so fortunate, to be able to cast that same spell again the next round, without expending a slot or spell. (Like an uncontrollable echo spell / repeating spell metamagic.)
Instead of focusing on spells, perhaps a wizard's staff enhances his School powers instead, so that he is treated as if his Int score and / or class level is X higher while holding the staff, for determining uses per day and damage of his 1st level ability (like acid dart, for a conjurer). Different abilities would have different bonuses, so that ]hand of the apprentice, when used with the wizard's staff, would also add bonus damage equal to his Int modifier, for instance. Alternately, or perhaps additionally, the staff increases the range of those abilities, from 30 ft. to 60 ft. or even 100 ft.
A wizard's staff that is usable as a ranged weapon, able to mystically project its melee attacks at a 30 ft. (or greater?) range, could also be fun, and emulate stuff like the wizard's duel between Saruman and Gandalf in the movie (to a much lesser extent!).
Best Bonded Object? Gotta be a Revolver.
Are wizards automatically profecient with bonded weapons? Also you'd have to wave this around whenever you spellcast. Not exactly subtle.
Ask me about my "Pointy- Hat" trick or my "Extending Staff" trick and you'll find out why people think I'm magical! HAHA!
Also, every time I cast a spell (from the most minor cantrip to the greatest of earth-shattering dweomers) I arch my back, puff out my chest, extend my arm and splay my fingers expressively, and with a mighty voice I exclaim "HHHHHHHWWWWWWIIIIIZAAARRRDDDD!"
to which my dog familiar says: "wait, why did you put so much emphasis on the "H"? "wizard" doesn't even have an "H" in it!"
Staves should be to wizard spell casting what magical enhancements are to martial combat attacks. They should make your spells more effective. This is actually one of the things 4e tried to do and had some measure of success with.
Staves as they exist in Pathfinder are reasonably useful items if they happen to have the right spells a wizard can use, but they are too costly for what they do.
When PF releases a next version, I hope they fix staves.
None of my current wizards or spellcasters uses a staff except for my druid and the only reason she carries one is to use "shillelagh".
When PF releases a next version, I hope they fix staves.You don't have to wait that long. There are staves in Ultimate Equipment no pricier than a +2 sword.
Well, I suppose a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so at least they've taken a first step.
I think it's a pretty significant step. Staves are the tool of a journeyman mage, not some wet behind the ears 3rd level apprentice.Well, I suppose a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so at least they've taken a first step.When PF releases a next version, I hope they fix staves.You don't have to wait that long. There are staves in Ultimate Equipment no pricier than a +2 sword.
No doubt. However my problem with staves is just part of a larger problem with how limited and boring Pathfinder magic items are. I'm not a big fan of 4e, but I will say that they made magic items interesting, useful and fun, without them being overpowering. Staves as they exist in PF are really nothing more than a means to grant a wizard a few more spells. With the right spells that can be a very good thing, but it's still just more spells. What I want out of magic items are unique, fun, flavorful things that can help me advance the character's concept. Pathfinder magic items are stuck back in the 80s from a game design perspective.
What I want out of magic items are unique, fun, flavorful things that can help me advance the character's concept. Pathfinder magic items are stuck back in the 80s from a game design perspective.The tools and the guidelines are there for you to design your own. Anything you can reasonably want in a staff has tools available in the books for you to apply. Not all of them are spells on a stick, some of them have other properties as well.
But if you think that all of the themed staves in the books through UE are boring, then perhaps there is nothing for you in the staff mechanic.
Anything I could reasonably want LazarX?
OK, how about a staff that lets me add a +X to my DC on spells? How about a staff that allows me to overcome spell resistance? What about a staff that allows me to reroll a bad saving throw? Or one that lets me grant a fellow party member the ability to regain one spell of level Y or lower?
"Anything I can reasonably want" is a whole lot of stuff LazarX.
What I want out of magic items are unique, fun, flavorful things that can help me advance the character's concept. Pathfinder magic items are stuck back in the 80s from a game design perspective.The tools and the guidelines are there for you to design your own. Anything you can reasonably want in a staff has tools available in the books for you to apply. Not all of them are spells on a stick, some of them have other properties as well.
But if you think that all of the themed staves in the books through UE are boring, then perhaps there is nothing for you in the staff mechanic.
Anything I could reasonably want LazarX?
OK, how about a staff that lets me add a +X to my DC on spells? How about a staff that allows me to overcome spell resistance? What about a staff that allows me to reroll a bad saving throw? Or one that lets me grant a fellow party member the ability to regain one spell of level Y or lower?
"Anything I can reasonably want" is a whole lot of stuff LazarX.
All except for the last, you can design on a staff (or any other kind of item). It may be a different kind of item in the shape of a staff, but the rules tools are there for designing just about all of them.
Much of what you want is described either by existing magic items or feats. In many cases all you need to do is a reshape and a pick of the right feats. I can make a wand in the form of a staff. Nothing would change save it's weight and appearance.
OK, show me how. Show me the item that allows you to add a +X to your spell DC. I don't mean show me an item that gives you an attribute increase that THEN allows your DC to increase, I mean a straight untyped +X to your DC.
Same for increasing spell penetration. And if you say "there's a feat that does that" then you are saying that there is no need for any magic item that reproduces what feats do. Which would mean since there are feats for increasing attack and damage rolls, there's no need for enhancement bonuses to weapons. Fighters get BOTH. And USE both.
One reason metamagic rods are so popular is because they allow you to duplicate what a feat does a few times a day without investing in the actual feat. There is VALUE in that concept. I want to see more VALUE in my magic items.
Adamantine Dragon, I've but one thing to say to you:
I'm not a big fan of 4e, but I will say that they made magic items interesting, useful and fun, without them being overpowering.
... has not been my experience. Items in 4E look and feel like a necessary stat-add-on (even moreso than 3.X/PF! how do you do that?!) and very "samey".
Also, they can be stupidly over-powered in the right combinations of inexpensive, if you go with the errata (though they're nearly universally the opposite if you go without).
I mean I have fun with them, but that's because I kind of ignore the rules.
Otherwise, as you were (I was enjoying the conversation).