Staff of Holding

[Scud422]

I came up with this magic item to help out the wizzard who fumbles around with a bunch of rods, wands and staves.

I mostly based it off of the Scabbard of Many Blades even though there are similar items that are much cheaper.

Staff of Holding, CL 9th, 5,000 gp

This staff can be given weapon enhancements like a normal staff in addition to having the below abilities.
This staff has 4 large grooves running along its length. Each groove can hold 1 magical staff, or 2 wands or metamagic rods, which shrink down and snap into place. The wielder can cast any spell from any of the slotted items or use any metamagic rod when casting a prepared spell as if they were wielding it.
As a move action, the wielder can make the entire staff function as if it was one of the staves slotted into it, but doing so negates any weapon enhancements that the Staff of Holding has and makes the other staves, wands or rods temporarily unusable. This ability can be ended as a swift action.
Non-metamagic rods can also be put into the staff, but only their spell-like abilities can be used, such as a Rod of Wonder. Rods with static abilities, such as a Rod of Absorption, can also be placed into the staff, but the rest of the staffs powers have to be suppressed with a move action as above for the rod to function.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Cost, 2,500 gp; Feats, Craft Staff; Spells, secret chest

Let me know what you guys think!
Could the wording be a bit tighter? Is it properly priced?

[Amanuensis]

Action economy for retrieving/putting away these items is an important balancing factor for many of these items. Therefore, I wouldn't allow this item at all.

[Nigrescence]

The idea is cool, but I think it needs to be balanced a bit. For only 5k GP you are essentially letting someone use any metamagic rod they want without having to draw one or worry about where it is stored. That is a REALLY powerful bonus, all on its own. Add to the fact that you can cast from wands or even a staff without having to draw one or worry about where it is stored and it is even more ridiculous.

However, I love the idea, so let me make some suggestions for the sake of balance.

Make it a magical staff, with charges and all, and its extradimensional storage and access plays into using charges.

Staff of Dimensions:

Charges -> Spell
1x Rope Trick
1x Shrink Item
2x Dimension Door
2x Secret Chest
3x Teleport

Special Abilities
In addition to allowing spells to be cast using charges like other magical staves, this staff also has a unique property which allows it to take advantage of the extradimensional powers bestowed to give it further use as a storage device. The staff can hold up to 4 staves, and can hold up to 2 metamagic rods or wands instead of 1 staff (you can use your flavorful description of this here instead).

The wielder of this staff can select, as a Move action, any one of the slotted staves, rods, or wands to be considered wielded for the purpose of casting spells from that item or for activating a rod's metamagic powers as long as they continue to wield the Staff of Dimensions. This change is permanent until that staff, rod, or wand is removed (at which point no item is selected), or another staff, rod, or wand is selected as the active slotted item.
The wielder can choose to consume 2 charges from the Staff of Dimensions to make this a Swift action instead.
The wielder can choose to consume 4 charges from the Staff of Dimensions to, as a free action, allow the use of one additional slotted item for one round only (this does not change the currently selected active item).

It is a Standard action to insert or remove an item from the Staff of Dimensions' slots.

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At any rate, this staff would obviously have to be more expensive due to its staff abilities, and an extra bit of cost added for its special power which you seek to have.

Additionally, you can drop its spell selection, but still have it require 2 charges to use it as a swift action, and have it recharge using somewhere between level 3 to level 5 spells.
This would also let you drop the cost, but I still recommend a higher cost than what you currently have listed. At least 10k GP. Probably at least 15k GP honestly.

Still, I like the idea, and there are many ways to tweak the concept. Just be careful of the power level of new toys you give out. Wouldn't want to give away a doomsday device valued at only 100 GP.

Scud422 wrote:

As a move action, the wielder can make the entire staff function as if it was one of the staves slotted into it, but doing so negates any weapon enhancements that the Staff of Holding has and makes the other staves, wands or rods temporarily unusable. This ability can be ended as a swift action.

Also, I don't even get the point of this part. The only reason to do this would be to use a Staff of Power or Staff of the Archmagi (or other kinds of the rare staves that actually provide some kind of bonus for the wielder and not just the ability to cast spells through it with charges), or just a regular magical quarterstaff as a weapon. Or... I suppose... to recharge a staff without removing it. Either way, that just seems to be a very weird and largely completely useless function.

[Scud422]

Nigrescence wrote:

Also, I don't even get the point of this part. The only reason to do this would be to use a Staff of Power or Staff of the Archmagi (or other kinds of the rare staves that actually provide some kind of bonus for the wielder and not just the ability to cast spells through it with charges), or just a regular magical quarterstaff as a weapon. Or... I suppose... to recharge a staff without removing it. Either way, that just seems to be a very weird and largely completely useless function.

Yeah, I put that in there because of staves like those. But if you can only have it function as 1 item in the staff at a time, then that will give the same desired effect.

Here's take 2:

Spacious Staff, 13,000 gp

- Rope Trick (1 charge)
- Create Pit (2 charges)
- Spiked Pit (3 charges)
- Shrink Item (3 charges)

Special Abilities
In addition to allowing spells to be cast using charges like other magical staves, this staff also has a unique property which allows it to take advantage of the extradimensional powers bestowed to give it further use as a storage device. The staff can hold up to 4 staves, and can hold up to 2 metamagic rods or wands instead of 1 staff. It is a Standard action to insert or remove an item from the Staff of Dimensions' slots.

The wielder of this staff can select, as a Move action, any one of the slotted staves, rods, or wands to be considered wielded for the purpose of casting spells from that item, for activating a rod's metamagic or special abilities, or gaining static bonuses from the item for as long as they continue to wield the Spacious Staff. This change is permanent until that staff, rod, or wand is removed (at which point no item is selected), or another staff, rod, or wand is selected as the active slotted item.
The wielder can choose to consume 1 charge from the Spacious Staff to make this a Swift action instead.
The wielder can choose to consume 3 charges from the Spacious Staff as a free action to allow the use of one additional slotted item for one round only (this does not change the currently selected active item).

--

I still want to keep the cost pretty low because there all ready exists several really cheap items that let you do similar stuff with just a move action (or as part of a move action or even Free/Swift with Quick Draw) that doesn't limit you on the type of items.

[Scud422]

Also, is there anything in the rules that would prevent you from duck-taping or gluing a bunch of rods end to end, with a wand on each end of your makeshift staff?

[Nigrescence]

I like your newer revision more, except for the pit spells and the charge cost for shrink item. Then again, they do fit the theme of making more space. My suggestion is to make Shrink Item cost 1 charge and adjust the price per staff costs to compensate.

However, with the cost as it is now, the staff spell abilities alone only cost 4,300 with the amount of charges you're using to reduce its cost. So I recommend having the special ability cost 10,000 (because unlike many of those other items, this one is always wielded and never has to be unwielded to use it fully, and two of the others are for ammunition primarily and don't let you freely swap what you carry without DROPPING the item to free your hand). That means, unless you change the charge cost of any of the spells, the cost is 14,300 which I think is relatively fair for its ability even though the ability is primarily the best part.

Also, by your reference, you can do something "really similar" with the Efficient Quiver. So why is this so much more powerful, you ask? The Efficient Quiver does not let you wield multiple things at a time. The Efficient Quiver does not let you draw a new item to use WITHOUT having to drop the one you are already holding. The Efficient Quiver only lets you draw stuff as if it is from a normal quiver or carrier. Only this item lets you freely swap between things in this manner.

You're trying to compare something with an extraordinary extra step in power level to something that pales in comparison.

So again, why not just use Efficient Quiver?
Because this thing offers so much more power. That's why it should cost more.

I'm not trying to attack the idea, like I said, I love it. I just think you need to understand just how powerful an effect like this should be considered.

[Scud422]

Quick primer on the rules for drawing and sheathing weapons: You can draw sheath a weapon with a move action and draw a weapon with a move action or as a free action combined with a move if it's readily accessible.
Therefore if you have an efficient quiver or similar item, you can sheath a staff/wand/rod/puppy with a move action and then draw another item as a free action as part of that move action.
If you have the Scabbard of many blades and Quick Draw, then you can swap out items with just a swift action. Yours now for only 4,999.99 gp!

[AwesomenessDog]

Or just wear a Bandolier for your rods and potions, spring-loaded wrist sheaths for wands, and a back-scabbard for your staff/staves. You can also combine multiple rods into one (at an increased price of course: [most expensive ability's cost]+1.5*[total cost of every other ability]=[total cost]).