According to this page, the DC to use a wand is 20, which you would have to roll for (UMD is always rolled, I believe).
Arcane or Divine has no particular bearing, I think, so you'd be best off grabbing the wizard's price wand. Thankfully failing a roll does not expend a charge so it's just a numbers game (though a natural 1 means you cannot try to activate the item for 24 hours), and some GMs may allow you to 'take 20' in this case, since eventually you WILL roll high enough.
Unfortunately you don't have UMD on your list of class skills unless you took a trait. Luckily, Paladins like Charisma - I'll assume you have a Cha of 14 at least. Assuming you also have eleven ranks in Charisma that nets you a +13 on checks. Not too shabby!
and some GMs may allow you to 'take 20' in this case, since eventually you WILL roll high enough.
You cannot take 20 on any skill that has a penalty for failure. In this case a roll of 1 on a UMD check carries a special penalty of being unable to attempt to activate that item again for 24 hours. Also the activate blindly option has several different penalties for failure as well.
Normally when purchasing a wand the rules state that it is made by a Wizard or Cleric if the spell is arcane or divine and on their lists. The lower level spell is used if it is on both lists. Spells unique to certain classes of course are the only classes who can make wands of that spell and if you have a specific crafter available in your game who makes wands then of course you can use them.
You just need to roll a 20 to activate the wand. After that you get an additional +2 to activate it again if you were successful before.
Remember that The nat 1 isn't an autofail, but that if you roll 1 AND fail the check then you have negative repercussions other than wasting The action
Thus if you have a base +19 in umd you could forgo the roll as even rolling 1 is a success
You really don't need to bother with Gravity Bow,once you have enough Paladin levels to make smite a significant part of your damage, plus you have the option of making your divine bond, a weapon spirit.
You really don't need to bother with Gravity Bow,once you have enough Paladin levels to make smite a significant part of your damage, plus you have the option of making your divine bond, a weapon spirit.Its still more damage for a relatively low cost that stacks with all the things you listed.
With the action cost of readying wands, casting spell, putting away wand, (unless you're simply going to just drop it), just to pile on another buff. I very rarely ever have a battle where I've gotten more than a round's warning.
You really don't need to bother with Gravity Bow,once you have enough Paladin levels to make smite a significant part of your damage, plus you have the option of making your divine bond, a weapon spirit.
That's only true if you mostly fight Evil creatures, and fight few enough creatures that your limited number of smites is not a restriction. Looking to increase your static damage is a worthwhile endeavour for a dedicated combatant.
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Out of combat means you take the armor off, then cast, then put it back on.Eh, that just requires using spells without somatic components, only using spells outside of combat, ignoring spells altogether, or being a Psychic bloodline sorcerer.Just be the amazing multiclassed paladin/sorceror so you can cast gravity bow and shield on yourself :)And wear no armor.
Or deal with arcane spell failure?
Since the examples given both have somatic components, I stand by my comment.
And casting out of combat doesn't eliminate the arcane spell failure problem.
And if you were considering dipping Sorcerer to get Gravity Bow, and then "ignoring spells altogether" you'd be better off dipping Ranger instead.
You understand that donning armor takes at least a minute for light armor, unless you want to decrease the effectiveness of it.
Gravity Bow has a duration of 1min/level. So you waste the 1st half of the spell to hastily don your armor? Seems like poor asset management to me.
What does that mean? ok so the wand is level 10, but does that effect my UMD throw? or is it still 1 throw for 20?@Gilfalas
Ok- so if it was crafted as an Arcane or Divine spell doesn't matter at all? also what about CL? the wand is CL10 but my paladin is level 11, so only CL 8? doesn't matter too?
The caster level of a spell from a wand is always the caster level of the wand
(Barring a special ability - Staff Like Wand is the only one I know of and it doesn't apply here)
Like Tarvi mentioned, the caster level of the wand is separate from your paladin caster level. If you manage to activate the wand, it functions as if cast by a 10th level caster, since it is a caster level 10th wand.
Caster level also has no bearing on your UMD check. Your total for UMD is only your ranks in UMD plus your Charisma, plus the class skill bonus (Which you don't have, as a paladin.) If you manage to successfully activate the wand once, you can add an additional +2 to your total, as you gain a bonus to UMD checks on a specific item if you've activated it before.
Step one: Unsanctioned Knowledge feat.
Step two: forget umd.
Unsanctioned Knowledge lets you pull from the bard, cleric, inquisitor and oracle lists. Gravity Bow is not on any of those.Step one: Unsanctioned Knowledge feat.
Step two: forget umd.
My mistake, I thought it let you poach from any other divine caster list.
Regardin poaching from other Divine list, surely playing a Samsaran is an option.
Given that you want to play an archer the -2 to Con doesn't hurt that much
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It really only takes a standard for such a character.
You understand that donning armor takes at least a minute for light armor, unless you want to decrease the effectiveness of it.
Gravity Bow has a duration of 1min/level. So you waste the 1st half of the spell to hastily don your armor? Seems like poor asset management to me.
So now we are casting 2 spells to make this work? As a sorcerer dip?
Another option: be a Chosen One paladin, and have your familiar spend the actions to cast Gravity Bow for you.
Of course, then you're missing out on Divine Bond...
Considering that its a first level spell that (in a wand) will only last for a minute it's really not worth it.
For a medium character with a longbow the damage goes from 1d8 to 2d6 which is 4.5 average to 7 average. You only deal 2.5 points of damage per hit.
Basically, unless you can prebuff for the combat with Gravity Bow it's almost never worth it to cast in combat, because you lose out on the first round of damage.
So my advice is honestly not worry about it.
You don't always need to roll on UMD, though to get Skill Mastery you need to be more Rogue than Paladin.
Skill Mastery doesn't work on UMD. Skill Mastery lets you take 10 when you normally couldn't because of stress or distractions.
UMD just says you can't take 10, not because of stress or distraction but because UMD is special so Skill Mastery does not help.
However, 1 level of Eldritch Scoundrel Rogue gets you the wizard spell list.
However, 1 level of Eldritch Scoundrel Rogue gets you the wizard spell list.With arcane spell failure still being a problem.
If it's just gravity bow that is desired, then I suggest a level of Ranger. Gain a favored enemy, keep your BAB up, etc.
Anyways, I still think that one spell isn't worth dipping.
Its not a problem if you plan is to use wands in the first place.
It's not exactly like the caster level 1 of actually casting the spell is very worthwhile.
But overall, yes I agree you would be better off dipping ranger (to keep up BAB and for spell list access) over dipping rogue or wizard for access.
I concur on the ranger dip. A FE of Humans, Undead, or Evil Outsiders will be a nice accent for you in some combats. And you can use the wand without issue at that point.
==Aelryinth