Used wands

[Kennethray]

A player just asked me if the group is allowed to buy wands for cheaper by getting them with less charges, such as in society play. Is that a common acceptable thing to allow? I do see the issue of how will the Ye Ole Magic Store have a wand of hold person with only 5 charges in it. I am trying to run this game as strictly by pathfinder rules as I can. Thanks in advance for any help.

K-Ray.

[Matthew Downie]

Buying a wand with 1 charge (by standard pricing rules) is always going to be cheaper than buying the equivalent scroll, and won't provoke AoOs. So there are balance reasons for not allowing it.

In my home game, I said that you could buy wands with less than 50 charges, but you had to pay extra, the equivalent of 5 more charges.

[Drejk]

I don't know how the PFS covers that but in home games it is reasonable that wands with less than maximum charges are available for buying - other adventurers could sell the partly used wand to the shop (because it is no longer useful to them, because they acquired it as a loot from enemies who used some of the charges) and shop sells it to another group. The caveat is that one cannot order one, unless GM specifically rules that wands can be created with less than maximum number of charges, but has to happen upon one currently being at sale. Might be a fun with randomly generated shop content.

[Evilserran]

Go visit the Harpells shop.. just beware of flying frog mounts...

[Detect Magic]

Drejk wrote:

I don't know how the PFS covers that but in home games it is reasonable that wands with less than maximum charges are available for buying - other adventurers could sell the partly used wand to the shop (because it is no longer useful to them, because they acquired it as a loot from enemies who used some of the charges) and shop sells it to another group. The caveat is that one cannot order one, unless GM specifically rules that wands can be created with less than maximum number of charges, but has to happen upon one currently being at sale. Might be a fun with randomly generated shop content.

Couldn't a spellcaster feasible re-charge a wand? In any case, partially charged wands ought to be available for purchase. As a DM, I'd probably only place for sale wands with at least 15 charges (store owners wouldn't want too many wands with few charges cluttering up their inventory).

[Kennethray]

I know the rules say that recharging wands is not allowed due to them already being the best/cheapest way to cast spells compared to scrolls/pots and all that.

[LazarX]

Kennethray wrote:

A player just asked me if the group is allowed to buy wands for cheaper by getting them with less charges, such as in society play. Is that a common acceptable thing to allow? I do see the issue of how will the Ye Ole Magic Store have a wand of hold person with only 5 charges in it. I am trying to run this game as strictly by pathfinder rules as I can. Thanks in advance for any help.

K-Ray.

In Society play the ONLY way to get such wands is when they are made available in a Chronicle.

As a GM, it is your option as to how to make magic items available in your campaign. Having a partial wand available isn't totally beyond the pale, many adventurers might cash in such items when they retire or are in need of quick cash. I would suggest that you place each item as you see fit. Frequently wands that are found as treasure, will have been partially used by the time the players acquire them.

Wands however, are ONLY made as full items of 50 charges. Your player can't go up to a shop and say. "I want a stoneskin wand with 10 charges on it."

[Kennethray]

so a private message I got says that if the spell in question is within the base value of a city then there is a 75% chance that the fully charge version of the wand is available to be bought, with a 5% chance that there is a wand of that spell with 4d10+10 charges available for a cheaper price. this sounds good, representing the treasures being sold from previous party's. though not a written rule.
K-Ray

[Kennethray]

If any of the NPC party's are like the any of the PC party's I have ran games for over the years, they never sell there Cure Light Wounds wands with a few charges, but they do the wand of Endure elements. so most of the wands with lesser charges are spells that are mostly only very situational. And still they hang on to most of them.

[Eaghen-]

I think of this as a pawn shop possibility. I give a percentage chance that a used wand is available, percentage determined by how big the town/city is and generally not higher than about 60 percent or so (the intrepid party isn't the only cost-conscious bunch around), and number of charges randomly determined on a weighted scale, highest likelihood being around 25 charges. I price the wands kind of steeply...it is a pawn shop after all...

[DonDuckie]

For me:
If players want to buy a wand, they are limited to the store's inventory, which mostly consists of wands "found" and sold by adventurers - so they have a random number of charges. Otherwise they need to order them crafted with 50 charges.

If they want fewer castings, they need to buy scrolls.

[Detect Magic]

Kennethray wrote:

I know the rules say that recharging wands is not allowed due to them already being the best/cheapest way to cast spells compared to scrolls/pots and all that.

I was suggesting that a spellcaster be able to pay the difference between the current value of the wand and the value of a fully charged one in order to re-charge it to 50, not that he/she be able to pay for individual charges.

[Zhayne]

I allow it, just because, well, it makes sense. Since you don't so much buy magic items in my games so much as commission them (nobody has stuff sitting on shelves), there's no reason you couldn't just say 'Could you make me a Wand of X with just 20 charges in it?'

[Cevah]

Found this 3.5 item: link

partially charged wands wrote:

DMG p. 199 explicitly allows new players entering the game at a higher level to choose partially charged wands. So choosing partially charged wands for equipment is assumed to happen for pcs in the game.

DMG p. 212-215 outlines how magic items shoudl be handled. At the bottom of page 214 even the process of pricing a partially charged wand is explained and that player characters can of course sell them when having found them in treasures. Now, I wonder, if they can sell them why should they not be able to buy them? Why should there be only a market for new cars, but not for used ones?
The game assumes that characters, at least between adventures in cities of appropriate size can obtain equipment as appropriate by their wbl.

I did not verify, but it does agree with what I recall. I also recall seeing somewhere a standard of 10 charges on a used wand for sale. In my current game, the GM told me such would be available, but only for common spells. Guess who defines common? :-)

There is also Recharge (3.5e Feat)

/cevah

[James Risner]

Kennethray wrote:

A player just asked me if the group is allowed to buy wands for cheaper by getting them with less charges

You may not ever, in PFS or normal games, buy a wand with less than 50 charges.

In PFS, there are sometimes wands with less charges on chronicle sheets. These are exceptions.

[blahpers]

Available magic items to purchase are always at the discretion of the GM. For PFS, this means following the PFS guidelines. For "normal games", this means the GM must decide. This is one of those things that is always a "house rule" (including in PFS--it's just a really big house).

[ryric]

DonDuckie wrote:

For me:

If players want to buy a wand, they are limited to the store's inventory, which mostly consists of wands "found" and sold by adventurers - so they have a random number of charges. Otherwise they need to order them crafted with 50 charges.

If they want fewer castings, they need to buy scrolls.

This is what I do. Random wands for sale in town have random charges remaining. Commissioned wands have 50.

This is absolutely not allowed:
"I check for a 50 charge wand"...rolls..no.
"I check for a 49 charge wand"...rolls..no.
"I check for a 48 charge wand"...rolls..yes!

That method results in nearly every tiny village of 7 people having 1-2 charge wands of 50+ 1st level spells lying around.

[LazarX]

ryric wrote:

DonDuckie wrote:

For me:

If players want to buy a wand, they are limited to the store's inventory, which mostly consists of wands "found" and sold by adventurers - so they have a random number of charges. Otherwise they need to order them crafted with 50 charges.

If they want fewer castings, they need to buy scrolls.

This is what I do. Random wands for sale in town have random charges remaining. Commissioned wands have 50.

This is absolutely not allowed:
"I check for a 50 charge wand"...rolls..no.
"I check for a 49 charge wand"...rolls..no.
"I check for a 48 charge wand"...rolls..yes!

That method results in nearly every tiny village of 7 people having 1-2 charge wands of 50+ 1st level spells lying around.

I don't use random rolls for magic items in town shops. I place items deliberately there, just like I do treasure.