Wand of Cure Light Wounds

[ktRabblerouser]

This came up during session. How much does a cure light wounds wand heal? It has always been my understanding that you calculate the minimum caster level needed to craft the wound. Since Craft Wand requires Caster Level 5, wouldn't that mean the spell being "put into" the wand, heal 1D8+5? Someone said it would heal 1D8+1, but couldn't really justify why they believed this to be true. Thoughts?

[Chemlak]

Depends what Caster Level the wand has. Normally, a wand with a 1st level spell in it will have Caster Level 1 (you can create an item with any caster level as long as it is at least the minimum needed to cast the spell), and thus heal 1d8+1 hit points per use. Higher caster level wands cost more.

[Nefreet]

A wand of Cure Light Wounds at caster level 1 costs 750gp. The same wand at caster level 5 costs 3750gp.

[ktRabblerouser]

Well, that seems silly. Thanks.

[DM_Blake]

As the others have said, the guy who made that wand can choose the caster level, anything from the lowest possible level to cast the spell (in the case of Cure Light Wounds, the lowest possible level is level 1) up to the creator's own caster level (and even higher, but the crafting DC gets harder).

The formula for the price to make it is Caster Level x Spell Level x 750 / 2 so it gets more expensive when you create it at higher caster level.

A wand of Cure Light Wounds at CL 20 would cost literally 20x more than a wand of Cure Light Wounds at CL 1. Even CL 2 would cost twice as much.

So for that reason, it's usually understood that almost all items are created at the minimum level to cast the required spell, just to keep the cost down.

Some spells, it might be worth it. A CL 2 wand of Bless would last twice as long for twice the price, at CL3 it will last 3x as long for 3x the price, etc. Maybe that's worth it. But a wand of Cure Light Wounds at level 2 does about 22% more healing for 100% more cost. That's probably not worth it.

Of course, it doesn't always have to be that way. I will sometimes have higher CL items in a monster hoard. Not often, but sometimes, and I usually try to stick to items where it makes financial sense.

[Are]

It's also possible to have another spellcaster provide the needed spell for the wand, which could certainly explain the 1st-level spell despite a 5th-level caster doing the crafting.

For instance, a 1st-level cleric could provide the spell for a 5th-level wizard who performs the crafting.

[strayshift]

I'm not a fan of allowing players these as a DM (or of buying be-spoke magic items in general) and I would add the cost of each individual casting of the spell to these also. Otherwise healing becomes 'ho-hum' and there is no incentive for the party to take a character with at least some focus on healing.

I accept this is not a popular view on these forums but my anachronistic mindset was formed when there were no rules for the creation or buying of magic items - and that's the way I like it.

[Chris Kenney]

strayshift wrote:

Otherwise healing becomes 'ho-hum' and there is no incentive for the party to take a character with at least some focus on healing.

Considering that that's basically the point of creating them - to at least create the possibility that any random party has a shot at completing an adventure and there are no 'needed' roles...

[strayshift]

Chris Kenney wrote:

strayshift wrote:

Otherwise healing becomes 'ho-hum' and there is no incentive for the party to take a character with at least some focus on healing.

Considering that that's basically the point of creating them - to at least create the possibility that any random party has a shot at completing an adventure and there are no 'needed' roles...

Call me old fashioned. But the point I am making is this - if the DM thinks they are too cheap, make them more expensive and or limit their availability.

[Durinor]

strayshift wrote:

I accept this is not a popular view on these forums but my anachronistic mindset was formed when there were no rules for the creation or buying of magic items - and that's the way I like it.

I started playing in first edition and my DM from then has a similar attitude to magic items of any sort. When 3.0 came out he removed the scribe scroll feat from first level wizards and replaced it with a metamagic feat.

While buying and making magic items is certainly convenient there's a lot to be said for extreme rarity - a +1 weapon can be a treasured possession.

Edit: I've just finsihed a very long campaign that ended up with me as a 20th level wizard with several item creation feats. Certain magic items were so common (Cloaks of resistance for example) that they felt technological rather than mystical. In fact the amount of magic in use and the fact that we jumped about the planes at a whim made the game seem more like sci-fi than fantasy. Not bad, but very different.