I don't really like almost any of the published staves. I mostly like the flavor but not the mechanic. They are okay if you are only expanding your options and not really trying them to be "sustainable" for long periods. But they are "badly designed" from the optic of the user of the staff (I'm not talking about role playing game design, I'm taking about what a wizard would think of the staff).
The main problem that I see is that they usually have the high level spells costing more than one charge to cast to reduce the price of the staff. So, you have to "pay" a high level slot to recharge a staff that normally uses its charges to power low level spell casting. And if you really need that high level slot you will have to pay 2 or 3 "slots" to cast it.
For me, the logic think to do would be to have a staves always with spells of the same level. The most commonly used spells should have a cost of one charge while more situational ones could have a cost of 2 or 3 charges.
So, I have designed several homebrew staves for my games that follow these principles:
1. All the spells in the staff are from the same level, so when you recharge them, you are paying to get exactly what you put in it. If I want to add an spell of a lesser level, I add some metamagic to rise it to the level of the spell to the level of the other spells.
2. They have some powers that use more than one charge. The ones that I expect to use more frequently cost one charge. The ones that not, 2 or more.
3. All the powers have a common theme, because that is a cool part of the staves and I want to show that you can "optimize them" like a real wizard would do without reducing the coolness or roleplaying interest of the item.
4. All the staves have a minimun caster level of 8.
This is the list of staves that I have created for my games so on. Most of them have three or four spells of the same level (I will only put the mechanics, because i don't have the fluff and construction requirements written for all of them):
Level 3 (Base Price 43200 gp, Cost 21600, CL 8, level 3 spells):
1. Staff of the Dijinni (CL8, 1 Charge: Fly, Extended Invisibility; 2 Charges: Wind Wall, Gaseous Form).
2. Staff of the Efreeti (CL8, 1 Charge: Fireball, Piercing Scorching Ray; 2 Charges: Disruptive Pyrotecnics, Gaseous Form).
3. Staff of the Marid (CL8, 1 Charge: Quench, Gaseous Form; 2 Charges: Water Breathing, Extended See Invisibility).
4. Staff of the Shaitan (CL8, 1 Charge: Burrow, Focused Glitterdust; 2 Charge: Meld into Stone, Stone Shape).
Staff Level 4 (Base price 57.600 gp, Cost 28.800 gp, CL 8, Level 4 spells)
1. Staff of the Necrowarrior (CL8, 1 Charge: Enervation, Greater False Life; 2 Charge: Boneshatter, Focused Halt Undead). 57,600 gp
2. Staff of Fire Blaster Adept (CL8, 1 Charge: Intensified Fireball, Empowered Scorching Ray; 2 Charge: Black Tentacles, Fire Wall). 57,600 gp
Staff Level 5 (Base Price 81000gp, Cost 40,500gp, CL 9, Level 5 spells)
1. Staff of Winter Witch (CL9, 1 Charge: Cone of Cold, Icy Prision; 2 Charges: Extended Ice Storm, Extended Fire Shield).
2. Staff of Dragon Lord (CL9, 1 Charge: Intensified Dragon's Breath, Overland Flight; 2 Charges: Extended Protection from Energy, comunal, Bouncing Charm Monster).
3. Staff of Polymorphism (CL9, 1 Charge: Baleful Polymorph, Polymorph; 2 Charge: Extended Monstrous Physique, Focused True Form).
4. Staff of Classic Arcanist (CL 9, 1 Charge: Wall of Force, Telekinesis ; 2 Charge: Cloud Kill, Dominate Person).
5. Staff of Overlord (CL 9, 1 Charge: Hold Monster, Feeblemind; 2 Charge: Mind Fog, Dominate Person).
A summoner-themed staff (summoner spells, created by summoners):
1. Staff of Summoner’s Assistant (CL8, 1 Charge: Magic Circle Against Evil, Dimensional Anchor) 33.600 gp. A summoner perhaps want to use planar binding, but he is not going to do it very often so... why waste those precious third level slots in utility spells? Also, they are situationally useful, so carry them around in a staff is not a bad idea.
What do you think? Would you buy/construct those staves instead of the classic ones?
I was wondering if someone has thought and done the same thing. It would be cool if he/she also share his/her creations.
I've always looked at staves as more permanent, less charge. I have not, however, put any thought or effort into bringing this sort of thing to life. The furthest I got was a theme, some sort of charge per day (i.e pool of uses per day which can be used to cast the spells stored in the staff, uses expended depended on a value of the spell) and that's about it.
I really like your versions of staves over the standard; they're thematic and definitely cooler.