I think wizards should have staves or at least the option of having magic staves earlier than vanilla makes feasible. Unfortunately the arcane bond has that big ol penalty for losing the bonded object and I think that any player who chooses the bonded item over the familiar would most likely choose an amulet or ring. That said I have not yet had a player who decided to go for the object over the familiar after reading the rules.
So what about this: a wizard gets a staff that gives some static bonus to his favored school spells, I was thinking +1 CL.
Arcane bond:
A wizard who chooses to bond with an item choose a staff rod or wand and begins play with such an arcane object. The wizard can use the hand wielding the object for somatic components for spells. When wielding the bonded item the wizard casts spells from her favored school at +1 CL. If lost or destroyed the wizard must personally craft a new item a process which takes a week of 8 hour work days and 100 gp.
A wizard who can craft rods, wands, or staves can decided when crafting such an item that this one will be her bonded item as well.
It's definitely more powerful but is it too powerful? do you think +1 to DC's would work better or maybe a floating +1 bonus to DC, Spell penetration, or duration?
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+1 to DCs and +1 caster level is actually quite powerful. While I would like to see arcane bonded items to get a bit of a buff, the wizard does not need an overall buff. +1 DC/CL would definitely be a buff and make staves bonded items not only better than other items, but possibly better than familiars until the wizard gets Improved Familiar.
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Instead of creating odd buffs, why not just focus on the inherent problem with bonded items you identified?
Houserule:
You can still cast spells when your bonded item is destroyed.
The end.
(Letting PCs craft their bonded item without meeting the level prereqs would also go a long way to help. As it stands you don't even get to make your staff magical till level 11, which is usually 90% the way through the campaign.)
You could restrict the buff to spells cast through the staff (including the 1/day casting of any spell you know).
Frankly, though, most wizards don't use staves as arcane bonds because they can't really do anything with them until 11th freaking level. Wizards pretty much never start with a staff, and even if they find one early on there's no process for transferring the bond without exorbitant penalties. I dropped the level requirement for making staves (and other items) for this reason.
That's the standard rule. There's just the slight complication of having to make a concentration check.Instead of creating odd buffs, why not just focus on the inherent problem with bonded items you identified?
Houserule:
You can still cast spells when your bonded item is destroyed.
Yes, without the concentration check. I thought that was self evident?
IIRC the check is prohibitively difficult outside of low level spells, which is the whole reason we're discussing this in the first place.
You can always use the staff to "store" your non-slotted magic items. Have your pearls of power be attached to your staff, and voila, magic staff (thematically at least). I'm not personally so much for staves, but I usually do the same thing with rings instead, having like a half-dozen "magic rings" that are mundane rings with pearls of power in them.
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Check out Rune Staves and Apeiron Staves from Super Genius Games. They provide lower-powered staves that give the kinds of bonuses that you're looking for as magic items. They're cheaper, so will be available to characters earlier (albeit not at first level). But, they're not free, so you still do have to pay for bonuses, such as bonuses to attack rolls or on-demand minor spells.
If you GM just decide that the bonded item is a staff. I dont Think giving the wizard more power, with houserules, is the Way to go.
I just had an idea. What if there were staves that granted an enhancement bonus to mental stats as long as it was held in hand, with the special stipulation that it never became a permanent bonus?
The price would of course be lower than headbands.
This would give a use for magic staves as crutches for fledglig mages to make their spells more penetrative (increasing DCs) but for seasoned mages they wouldnt be very useful. For NPCs theyd always remain a strong option as NPC wealth is so much more limited.
Price perhaps around bonus * bonus * 700, so a staff of intelligence +2 would be 2800 gp.
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Check out Apeiron Staves by Rogue Genius Games. They're pretty fun and easy for wizards and other casters to use early on while not being unbalancing.
Require that the bonded item be a held item, remove the spellcraft check drawback, let them treat the stave as a wand at early levels.
Just my two copper.
How about giving the wizard the ability to focus his school powers through the staff? As long as the wizard has his staff in hand, he gets an extra use of that school power.