The Wand Dancer feat lets a character move before and after using a spell trigger item, provided they don't move a total distance greater than their speed, with a movement of at least 5 feet before and after use of the item. This obviously looks like Spring Attack for wands and staves, except it doesn't specify an action to use the feat. This is important.
A magus with the Wand Wielder arcana can use wands and staves in place of casting a spell when using spell combat. RAW, this should combine with the feat to create a full-round attack with extra movement. Let's use a staff magus with 30 feet movement speed as an example:
1) Charge: Move 25 feet towards enemy, start spell combat using the staff as the first attack/spell, move 5 feet, continue full-attacking.
2) Retreat: Start spell combat using the staff as the last spell/attack, move 5 feet before making said attack, move 25 feet away from enemy.
3) Hit-and-switch: Either of the above, except not maxing out movement and instead just switching to an enemy further away than a 5 foot step would allow, or switching enemies twice by also taking a 5 foot step mid-attack.
Is this correct?
As a GM, I want to say "they didn't need to specify an action because you must take a move action to move more than five feet unless an ability explicitly says otherwise".
'When using a spell trigger item, you can move both before and after triggering the item,' - not attacking with, triggering a spell trigger item. Combining a move and a 5' step isn't explicitly allowed by the action and is disallowed in the general rules.
RAW I suspect you're otherwise correct. RAI I'd bet on it being intended as a variant of shot on the run, flyby attack or spring attack and treat it the same way as Rednal if I was the GM.
@Rendal: Yes, they don't have to specify otherwise, since using a spell trigger item is a standard action, leaving you only with the move action. However, a magus with the Wand Wielder arcana can incorporate said standard action into his full-round attack. Hence this is the one time situation where it would allow a full-round action and a move action.
@avr, I'm not too familiar with move actions and 5 foot steps, so I'll take your word on that. The Wand Wielder arcana explicitly allows using a spell triger item with spell combat: "The magus can activate a wand or staff in place of casting a spell when using spell combat." So I could move towards an enemy, throw a fireball from the staff at some other enemies by triggering it, move around/closer to the enemy, and then go to town on the enemy with a full attack, no?
I agree with both of you that RAI, it likely shouldn't work, but then again: It takes 2 feats (Dodge and Mobility) and five ranks in a "useless" skill to even qualify for the feat, staves have limited charges and aren't exactly cheap/easy to come by, while using a wand would require first casting weaponwand for one round (since the arcana doesn't remove the free hand limit from spell combat) almost every combat, as it only has a duration of 1 minute/level. Finally, the staff magus is a very MAD archetype (Int for casting, Cha for staves, Con for HP, Dex for AC, Str for hit and damage, even Wis shouldn't be below 10 because of Will being the most important save). Some of that can be allievated through traits like Pragmatic Activator, but even then he's still splitting points between 4 stats and not dumping the 5th. So if a player was willing to invest in three feats and a MAD archetype, why not throw them a bone?
1) Wand Dancer interrupts a standard move, you can’t charge and spell combat in the same round with or without it.
2) by retreat you mean withdraw? You can’t withdraw and spell combat.
3) you can’t wand Dancer and spell combat as you don’t have a move action to use with wand Dancer.
1) Nowhere in the feat's description does it refer to any type of action, whether standrad, move, full-round, or otherwise. It only effectively splits your move action because of the way it's worded and using spell trigger items being a standard action.
1+2) I just named them such because that's what these movements effectively mimic. I'm aware you can't actually charge or withdraw and spell combat the same round.
3) Again, the feat doesn't require you to spend a move action, just that you don't move a distance greater than your movement speed. If you spent your move action otherwise, the feat doesn't care.
3) It does require moving 5 ft before and after.
You say it doesn't require spending a move action, how else do you plan to move 10 ft and spend the standard in between fulfill the requirements?
By using the feat? I could reiterate the wording of the feat, but since it doesn't say that using the feat is a full-round action or excplicity states that you have to split your move action, if taken RAW, you gain movement up to your speed for free whenever you use a spell trigger item.
Two examples of better worded feats granting extra movement would be Following Step and Outslug Sprint, both of which increase your 5 foot step to 10 feet when following an enemy or when making attacks with a close weapon, respectively.
I won't argue that RAI, Wand Dancer probably means for you to split your move action, but RAW, this feat flat out grants free movement.
VarisianViscount wrote: if taken RAW, you gain movement up to your speed for free whenever you use a spell trigger item. That isn't how RAW works, and if this ever got FAQ that isn't how it will get answered.
If you think it works that way, great. Ask your GM. If they agree, have run.
Here is how to read this.
1) The games has rules. Actions and movment are the sections that matter here.
2) sometimes feats, class features, and items give acceptions to these rules.
3) If an exception is not explicitly given than all other rules apply.
You may move before and after using the item but it does not let you move as a free actions, so you still need to provide the action to move. This means you get to split your movement. If you are a battle oracle and can move as a swift action you could split the movement of that swift action but you still need to start some form of movement to comply with the rules.
Because the feat does not actually address splitting you action explicitly it by raw only let's you ignoring attack of oppertunities if you have a way to move before and after the wand use. But though the truest raw reading, it's a dumb reading that makes the feat pointless. And rai is reasonable when you are asking the question "did paizo mean to publish a feat that does nothing?"
+1 on Grandlounge's 1, 2, and 3 explaination.
No matter what, this feat does something. Two things in fact. It allows you to split your movement from some other action (move action or example of oracle's swift action movement) before and after a standard to activate and it allows that movement to not provoke if it otherwise would.
Didn't want to force this reading of the feat, I was just curious what others were thinking about the lack of specified actions and playing devil's advocate for a bit (probably should have prefaced that), but Grandlounge explained quite nicely how it doesn't need to specify splitting your move action.
Though, just for reference, Paizo has indeed published a feat that does nothing. Well, it does something, but that something amounts to nothing: Monkey Lunge.
I said they did not do so intentionally. They have had to go back a fix a number of broken things over the years.
I'm not accusing anyone of deliberately making useless feats or anything like that, because everyone can and does make mistakes.
But you either attack as a standard or as a full-round action during your turn, or as an AoO during the enemy's turn. Monkey Lunge makes it impossible for you to use the feat and attack during the same turn, while limiting the benefits to your turn. Whoever wrote the feat either meant to give you a single attack as part of using the feat or confused 'turn' and 'round'. Either way, the feat has never received an update as far as I know.
Campaign Clarifications fixed Monkey Lunge:
Quote: Page 24—Replace the first sentence of the Monkey Lunge feat with the following. "When you use the Lunge feat to increase the reach of your melee attacks, you do not take a -2 penalty to your AC until your next turn."
Another good example of a fix is spell storing armor.
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