Thoughts on Wands in 2E?

[Zwordsman]

graystone wrote:

Zwordsman wrote:

Yep. I want a wand prestige class archetype thingy. Open for martial or mage.

A wandslinger?

Basically.. I kind of want the weird niche short prestige classes sort of thing.

I always wished p1 had adapted a the Magic missle prestige class like thing.
I love dragon disciple because its heavy to its theme.

A wand caster (or wandslinger) could be really amusing. And open up a lot of interesting design space. More so if it was built with the idea of being useful to martial or casters. (i.e. not reliant on innate spells per day stuff, or caster lists). It could be rather amusing to gain some sort of ability to daily prep a small subset of wands from a list of some sort.. no clue how one would manage or balance that though.
But could improve prof with wand usage- to spell attack or natural class attack prof, extrar uses in some way. Maybe infususe wands to change the spell in it (using a scroll or a friendly caster).
or maybe the dedication/first archetype feat has the character designing "their wand" and that wand eats other wands and basically makes a multi-purpose wand that is *their* wand.
(with some sort of reasonable limits. I'm rubbish at game design)

[breithauptclan]

Xenocrat wrote:

The wizard already has feat options to replace verbal and material components, though.

And you can buy feats with gold?

[Garretmander]

totoro wrote:

Maybe I'm just getting hung up on the shape of the wand, but why would you put these spells on a stick? They feel like they belong on a figurine or gemstone in almost every case. I would reserve the word "wand" for something other than a thing you rub once a day.

I don't think there's anything stopping a player from saying their wand is a talisman/figurine/gemstone/etc. as long as it's mechanically a 'wand' as in: wielded exactly as a wand, but looks different.

[totoro]

Garretmander wrote:

totoro wrote:

Maybe I'm just getting hung up on the shape of the wand, but why would you put these spells on a stick? They feel like they belong on a figurine or gemstone in almost every case. I would reserve the word "wand" for something other than a thing you rub once a day.

I don't think there's anything stopping a player from saying their wand is a talisman/figurine/gemstone/etc. as long as it's mechanically a 'wand' as in: wielded exactly as a wand, but looks different.

Absolutely, and I was certainly going to allow that, but what I meant was I think there was a design space for wands to be something interesting and unique. Specialty wands are closer to what I want, which means I just have to come up with a third alternative to 1/day wands and specialty wands. It doesn't have to be earth-shaking, but I want them to be the kind of thing a wizard doesn't treat like a mug (just using the clean one when they want a cup of coffee).

Maybe as simple a change as an evoker's wand that allows you to prepare an extra evocation cantrip as long as you have at least one other evocation cantrip prepared; +1 Focus Point as long as you know Force Bolt; plus that 1/day (evocation) spell.

[Gisher]

breithauptclan wrote:

Also, just checking...

Where the rules for wands and staves say 'your spell list', they are meaning the entire list of spells from the spell tradition that you have access to, yes? Not just the ones that you have learned.

So using a wand or staff you could cast spells that you otherwise couldn't because you haven't learned those spells yet.

I'm reasonably sure that is correct, but thought I would check with the group too.

You are correct. Any spells from your tradition work, even if you don't know them. (With staves, you do also have to be able to cast spells of the same level.)

[Ed Reppert]

It strikes me that a fundamental design decision about how magic works was made, and all these efforts with focus spells, spell slots, limited wand/staff use, etc. are just kludges trying to fix the flaws in that fundamental design decision. If it was up to me, I'd say casting makes you tired, and the more tired you are the less capable you are at casting. Eventually, if you cast a lot, you'd be so tired you can't cast any more until you rest. This mechanic could be extended to just about everything: melee combat, running, swimming, climbing, any physical activity, really.