I recently had the idea of having a character really focus on utilizing UMD and buying wands (At early levels, of course) rods and even staves, and have that be one of the main things (s)he does, but I'm not sure how to make that happen. What would be the best race to start out with? What about Traits? Feats? Stats? Class? I was thinking of straight fighter, since they get a lot of feats (Some of which could be item creation?), and/or eventually taking Leadership to get a crafter wizard by my side, but I wanted some other opinions. This is in no way an optimization request, just wanted some other thoughts. Cheers.
So, the problem is that there is no way to take 10 on UMD.
Even a wand requires a UMD check of 20. Meaning that until you get to around level 7 or so you're going to be unable to use UMD and actually have a good chance of success at activating the wand.
You're beter off just playing a magus, getting the wand wielder and wand mastery arcanas. This will also allow you to grow into plate armor eventually as you level up, and be decent with a melee weapon.
But attempting this on a class that doesn't have a spell list...it's not going to go well.
I like that idea, and that's probably the ideal way of doing it. That being said, for curiosity's sake, is a build like this even possible outside of Magus? I'm still interested to find out what traits, races, and feats would be ideal for this type of build.
Also, what would that Magus build look like?
Half Elf with Arcane Training is probably what you're looking for...
Downside is you miss out on your fav class bonuses, but it's kind of neat being able to read scrolls and activate wands as a Wizard 1 when you're a Monk.
-TimD
My advice is 6 levels of Rogue with a single level dip into swashbuckler (Inspired Blade) at the beginning.
The Rogue Archetype you want is "Counterfeit Mage"
Six levels of Counterfeit Mage gives you: 2 Rogue Talents, +3 to a variety of checks including to activate Wands, Signature Wand (One Wand without UMD checks and Quick Draw with the wand, can change each day), and you get your Dex to activate wands. It also gives you UMD as a class skill. Though "Dangerously Curious" is a trait that gives you UMD as a class skill for any class you want.
A single level of Inspired Blade gives you everything you need to take Slashing Grace, which will cause your rapier to scale Dex to damage.
Then you can get the spell Weapon Wand with Major Magic, combining your wand with your rapier before combat so you no longer need to make use of Spring Loaded Wrist Sheathes.
Once you've taken the 7 levels above, you can do whatever would boost your damage the most!
(Note, consider Divine Deception as a feat as it gives you +5 to UMD for Divine spells.)
Though Magus is probably smarter. The real problem is just going to be that your main method of combat involves throwing money at the enemy :(
The Magician Bard has some nice wand-focused abilities.
-UMD is a class skill and you are a CHA based caster.
-You get half your level added to UMD checks.
(I think the half-elf Arcane Training will give you a one-level boost here.)
-Expanded Repertoire will let you add some spells from other arcane classes to your spell list.
(Evocations and rays can really round out your spell list.)
-At 10th level you add your CHA bonus to the DC for wands (for your spell list).
-At 16th level you use your caster level for wands (for your spell list).
Half-elf gets you the Arcane Training racial ability and also the human FCB to add spells to your list of spells known. I like combining the Magician archetype with the Sound Striker archetype.
Magus is the best at it, although an arcane duelist bard comes close, as does a druid or theologian cleric.
Hexcrafter Magus will give you an expanded spell list.