The crux of the matter is that my GM gave me a staff that is way too expensive for my character to recharge.
Details:
I am playing a 5th level cross-blooded sorcerer. (Ifrit with Djinn/Fire Elemental bloodlines. Wanted to play a blaster. Haven't played one in a long time.) It will take me until 9th level to get 4th level spells.
The Staff has
Detect Charm (1st)- Takes 1 charge to cast
Protection from Law (1st)- Takes 1 charge to cast
Shard of Chaos (2nd)- Takes 2 charges to cast
and recently added:
Dimension Door (4th)- All remaining charges (10) to cast
The GM ruled that the staff was made a cheaper way which means that it uses more charges to cast spells out of it. And since the (new) highest level spell in the staff in the spell is 4th-- It now needs 10x 4th level spells cast into it to recharge.
I can't do it myself, and I won't be able to until 9th level. Paying for it is 10 x 4th (700gp) = 7000 gp to recharge.
This "upgrade" also means that casting out of it has made ALL the spells much more expensive:
Detect Charm- 1 charge= 700 gp
Protection from Law- 1 charge= 700 gp
Shard of Chaos- 2 charges= 1400 gp
Dimension Door- All remaining charges= up to 7000 gp
It seems to me that getting scrolls and wands of the various spells would be much, much cheaper. I could buy a wand with 50 charges for 750 gp, instead of putting one charge back into my staff. Am I missing something? Is my GM?
If so, is there a discussion point I could courteously use with the GM? He is a RAW guy, and gets irritated when I question his rulings.
To be fair, he added in the Dimension Door to save my character from a sticky situation.
Is there a rule that would let me renegotiate the recharging of my staff? Or do I just say "Thank you very much for letting my character live" and put the staff in a closet for the next 4 levels?
Staves are poorly designed in my opinion. Unless you have a lot of downtime to recharge, I wouldn't bother with them.
OK so first off, it is mighty nice of your DM to give you a staff at 5th level. My group just hit 10th level, and we just ran across our first one.
Second, it looks like your DM is not going by the rules for recharging staves. He.she is well within his or her rights to do this. The rule as written is
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. For example, a 9th-level wizard with a staff of fire could imbue the staff with one charge per day by using up one of his 4th-level spells. A staff cannot gain more than one charge per day and a caster cannot imbue more than one staff per day.
So as long as you have one of the spells in the staff on your spell list and are capable of casting it once per day (maybe that nice Level 1 Detect Charm spell), youc an charge your staff 1 charge per day.
If he gets irritated when you question his ruling, that's fine. Let him get irritated. If he claims to be a RAW guy, but then changes then when it suits him, he isn't an RAW guy.
Staves can be powerful. He may be putting the restriction on you to restrict your power. But it doesn't make sense to me, as he gives you dim door to get out of a tough situation, but then takes away the ability to recharge the staff.
By the rules, you can recharge the staff at the level you are at.
By the rules, he can change the rules if he wants.
It comes down to what are you willing to negotiate.
No, he can't recharge the Staff:
"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."
Unless I am missing something.
Indeed, he would need a 4th level spell slot to sink into the staff in the morning to recharge one charge. (highest level spell in the staff = dimension door = lvl 4)
so RAW is correct and the DM is doing it right.
ah sorry, my bad.
I can't do it myself, and I won't be able to until 9th level. Paying for it is 10 x 4th (700gp) = 7000 gp to recharge.
Unless I am missing something, that is not right. Paying for a caster to cast a spell is Spell level x caster level x 10gp. So a 4th level spell would be 4x7x10gp, or 280gp. A full 10 charges would cost 2,800gp.
(A scroll of a 4th level spell does cost 700gp, but you can't use scrolls to recharge a staff. It must be a spell slot from a caster, when preparing their spells for the day.)
The crux of the matter is that my GM gave me a staff that is way too expensive for my character to recharge.
And since the (new) highest level spell in the staff in the spell is 4th-- It now needs 10x 4th level spells cast into it to recharge.
I can't do it myself, and I won't be able to until 9th level. Paying for it is 10 x 4th (700gp) = 7000 gp to recharge.
It seems to me that getting scrolls and wands of the various spells would be much, much cheaper. I could buy a wand with 50 charges for 750 gp, instead of putting one charge back into my staff. Am I missing something? Is my GM?
Is there a rule that would let me renegotiate the recharging of my staff? Or do I just say "Thank you very much for letting my character live" and put the staff in a closet for the next 4 levels?
1) you don't need 10 slots to recharge, you need to cast 4th level spells.
It will take 10 days if empty though.2) Buying spellcaster to recharge costs 280gp each charge or 2800 gp for 10 charges.
Why was the staff upgraded with dimenson door? Did you pay to have it upgraded?
Thanks everybody for the input. It looks like the GM gave my character a get out of death free card-- for a (legitimately) high price. Into the closet goes my expensive walking stick.
@GM HoF and Starbuck II-- The Staff was a very nice gift from the GM. It was a response to my request for a plot hook for my character. We spent time before the game developing my high-charisma character as an ambassador/spy. But after two months of weekly gaming my character didn't have a single spy related event; no handler, no message from home, no mission, no whisper in a dark alley- nothin'. Everyone my character tried to make contact with slammed the door in her face. So I requested a plot hook, please. That night a high-level wizard popped in, gave my character the staff (with the three low-level spells) said basically "you're not ready, but you're all we've got" and popped out, never to be heard from again. I guess plot hook = stuff in the GMs mind. Still, it was very nice stuff, so I said thank you, and kept hoping something interesting would happen plot-wise for my character.
@Rashiakas-- I agree that staves aren't that practical. I think the GM meant to give me an impressive gift, but actually I would have been better off with wands.
@Darkwarrior-- I think selling it's a fabulous idea! But unfortunately I think it'll tick off the GM, and the high-powered NPC that gave it to me.
@Starbuck-- The Dimension Door addition was a spontaneous development (by the Staff/GM). My character was seriously outmatched by an assassin, and the Staff spontaneously developed this ability, which kept my character from dying.
@Jeraa and Starbuck-- Thanks for the clarification about spell costs. Paying to recharge it is still unwieldy, but at least its not insane.
I am playing a 5th level cross-blooded sorcerer. (Ifrit with Djinn/Fire Elemental bloodlines. Wanted to play a blaster. Haven't played one in a long time.) It will take me until 9th level to get 4th level spells.
You will be able to recharge the staff at 8th level. You don't need a spell known of 4th level to recharge the staff you described, only the 4th level daily spell slot which you will have - crossbloded only reduces number of spell known, not daily spell slots.
If DimDoor simply uses the remaining charges in your staff you don't need to charge it to 10. A single charge would suffice.
Oooh, clever. Always keep just 1 charge in the staff for an emergency Dimension Door? Nice.
I am playing a 5th level cross-blooded sorcerer. (Ifrit with Djinn/Fire Elemental bloodlines. Wanted to play a blaster. Haven't played one in a long time.) It will take me until 9th level to get 4th level spells.You will be able to recharge the staff at 8th level. You don't need a spell known of 4th level to recharge the staff you described, only the 4th level daily spell slot which you will have - crossbloded only reduces number of spell known, not daily spell slots.
Nice again! I had already complained at 4th level that I *had* 4- 2nd level spell slots, but didn't *know* any 4th level spells. I forgot that might work to my advantage once I hit 8th! Thank you.
You can always use higher level slot to cast lower level spell - including filling it with a lower level spell modified with a metamagic feat. This is important for crossblooded sorcerers who get their spells know with delay and for any casters with low spellcasting ability scores.