As I have tried to convert treasures from first edition to second edition, I am realizing how what used to be a common simple treasure that adventurers could find was partially used wands. Now that wands are permanent items, and not something that gets consumed, it makes these invalid, along with some of the stories that included them.
I kind of felt like there would be room for something that might help fill this niche. Something other than (convert any wand to a potion, or scroll). What if some wands were poorly made, or sometimes overcharged wands, instead of becoming useless became, no-longer permanent.
My idea being, shoddy/fragile wands are generally 1/day usable items, but any use (not just over-charge uses) are subject to a flat roll. Overcharge uses are more risky, if attempted.
Your basic shoddy wand may for instance have a DC5 roll. On any success other than a natural 20, the spell is cast, and the wand's flat check DC increases by one. On a natural 20, the check remains the same. On a failure the wand is destroyed or becomes non-magical. If an attempt to use a shoddy/fragile wand is made more than once per day, subsequent attempts to use the wand on the same day, the DC of the flat check is 10 higher than its normal roll.
I contemplate a potential differentiation between shoddy and fragile wands, shoddy wands might be that shoddy wands may impart the -2 item penalty to the DC of the spell cast, fragile ones would however have no item penalty, but would still be subject to the flat rolls to see if they burn out.
By shoddy rules, such an item would normally not be something you could sell. if they were to be able to sell it, they would probably, at most, get around the price of similar level consumable, as you would only be guaranteed one use, so most would consider it too much of a gamble.
Further, if we implemented that the failure on a overcharge attempt on a normal fully operational wand only completely destroyed the wand on a roll of a natural 1, and rolls from 2-9 left you with a broken wand, that also gains the shoddy/fragile property with an attached DC of (10-your failed flat roll). This would then easily explain the existence of some 'limited' wands. (something that has been cannon in past stories) It also might make overcharging of wands a 'little' less crazy, and something someone might risk on occasion.
And yes, rolling a 9 on your flat check for the wand overcharge, would net you a Wand with Broken, Shoddy(DC1) traits. So after being fixed, it would need a DC1 check (success guaranteed), but unless they got a natural 20, the wand would become Shoddy(DC2), leaving you a slowly growing chance it is burnt out forever.
Anyway, what do people think about this?
Would it be interesting to be able to find a Wand of Magic Missile, shoddy(dc5)? An item you can use for a while and then discard when fate takes it from you?
As I have tried to convert treasures from first edition to second edition, I am realizing how what used to be a common simple treasure that adventurers could find was partially used wands. Now that wands are permanent items, and not something that gets consumed, it makes these invalid, along with some of the stories that included them.
I kind of felt like there would be room for something that might help fill this niche. Something other than (convert any wand to a potion, or scroll). What if some wands were poorly made, or sometimes overcharged wands, instead of becoming useless became, no-longer permanent.
My idea being, shoddy/fragile wands are generally 1/day usable items, but any use (not just over-charge uses) are subject to a flat roll. Overcharge uses are more risky, if attempted.
Your basic shoddy wand may for instance have a DC5 roll. On any success other than a natural 20, the spell is cast, and the wand's flat check DC increases by one. On a natural 20, the check remains the same. On a failure the wand is destroyed or becomes non-magical. If an attempt to use a shoddy/fragile wand is made more than once per day, subsequent attempts to use the wand on the same day, the DC of the flat check is 10 higher than its normal roll.
I contemplate a potential differentiation between shoddy and fragile wands, shoddy wands might be that shoddy wands may impart the -2 item penalty to the DC of the spell cast, fragile ones would however have no item penalty, but would still be subject to the flat rolls to see if they burn out.
By shoddy rules, such an item would normally not be something you could sell. if they were to be able to sell it, they would probably, at most, get around the price of similar level consumable, as you would only be guaranteed one use, so most would consider it too much of a gamble.
Further, if we implemented that the failure on a overcharge attempt on a normal fully operational wand only completely destroyed the wand on a roll of a natural 1, and rolls from 2-9...
I think this is an interesting design space for sure. I wish this was somehow built into wands already though (like wands automatically became permanently shoddy if used a second time a day rather than immediately having a DC10 destruction risk). Maybe price them as being somewhere in between permanent items and consumables?