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Does anyone know how the Staff Nexus Makeshift Staff works for PFS? Normally I understand that you can't upgrade items into other items. However, the ability says:
You begin play with a makeshift staff of your own invention. It contains one cantrip and one 1st-level spell, both from your spellbook, but it gains no charges normally during your preparations; you must expend a spell slot to grant it charges in the same way you would add additional charges to a normal staff. You can Craft your makeshift staff into any other type of staff for the new staff's usual cost, adding the two spells you originally chose to the staff you Craft.
So clearly it's meant that you can upgrade it at least once. But with the way the levels work on staves, if you get a Staff of Evocation, you're eventually going to want a Staff of Evocation (Greater). It would stink to have to then give up your benefit from your Arcane Thesis if you can't upgrade the staff again.
There are four possibilities I can see:
1) You can't upgrade it at all (effectively making Staff Nexus worthless).
2) You can upgrade it once, but not beyond that.
3) You can upgrade it more than once, paying the difference between the two items.
4) You can upgrade it more than once, but you have to pay/craft full price each time.
If it's number 4, there's also the question of whether you could go Makeshift Staff->Staff of Fire->Staff of Evocation->Staff of Evocation (Greater) if you are paying full price each time. Effectively you'd have bought all three staves without being able to sell any of them. It's just a question of keeping your extra cantrip and 1st level spell in the staff. EDIT: And being able to use your ability to expend extra spells to charge it farther.
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I think another option is missing.
5) You can make a new makeshift staff that then you can then make into a higher level staff, adding the two spells from the makeshift staff.
I don't see a limitation on how many makeshift staffs can be made. And once the makeshift staff is upgraded, it is no longer a makeshift staff.
I don't see upgrading more than once from a single makeshift staff because the staff is no longer makeshift after the upgrade.
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What does it cost to make a new makeshift staff? You don’t pay for the initial one. You just start with it. And does that mean you can get the extra cantrip and spell and other abilities on multiple staves at the same time? You “built” the one you start with, but there’s no information given on how to build another one, even if that one is destroyed.
Edit: it seems like this would have been so much simpler if they had just said your bonded item must be a staff, and any staff that is your bonded item gets the extra abilities. And that a normal staff weapon qualifies. Then there wouldn’t need to be any extra rules on upgrading it.
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Agree about the bonded item.
It is a gray area that will likely need an errata or a ruling on how it is to be handled in PFS.
Rereading the whole thesis, I believe a character can make a new makeshift staff at will (likely following normal crafting rules) since the makeshift staff is crafted "into" another staff.
I have not verified but I don't think you can have more than 1 staff attuned to you at a time so no a character can't have multiple makeshift staves and get unlimited 1st level spells.
Venture-Captain, Missouri—Columbia
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The way I understand this arcane thesis to work is that the staff is your bonded item. I say that because of the wording, "Your thesis maintains that early and intense adoption of staves from the first days of study can create a symbiotic bond between spellcaster and staff, allowing them to create remarkable magic together."
Honestly, it doesn't matter one way or another if the staff is your bonded item or not.
As for staff creation costs, you have to pay the price for the new staff. During that process you add your two spells you originally chose.
I'm not so thrilled with this thesis. You can add charges to a stave with it beyond what the stave is able to hold per the rules on page 592 of the CRB. You cannot add any additional spells to the staff other than what it is allowed to have per each staves description and the two spells it gets at the start of the character.
Furthermore, you have to expend a spell slot to grant it the charges to begin with for the original spells.
You can only prepare one staff a day.
I just do not see this as a major thesis. The only redeeming feature I can find with it is increased charges to a staff like Staff of Fire for example. Personally, I'm not that interested in using my spell slots to add charges to an item.
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I have not verified but I don't think you can have more than 1 staff attuned to you at a time so no a character can't have multiple makeshift staves and get unlimited 1st level spells.You can indeed only attune to a single staff per day.
Right, but having multiple different types of staves and being able to use your Staff Nexus abilities with all of them is a potentially useful situation (so you could decide which spells you want access to each day, while not losing your arcane thesis for the day). I don't think you're intended to have more than one staff that you're bonded to for the Staff Nexus ability. But I also wouldn't want to be limited to only one staff ever, which probably means waiting until 6th level to buy one, and then never having a higher level staff.
It doesn't have to be your bonded item, but if you have a staff that you're going to want to keep out all the time anyway, you may as well make it your bonded item. If the abilities were tied to your bonded item, then it would be easier to see how they transfer when you get a more powerful staff.
My understanding of the ability is that while it is the makeshift staff (before upgrade), it starts with no charges. You can expend a spell to charge it, giving you access to the cantrip and the spell in the staff. So it's essentially an extra cantrip prepped every day, because the spell is just something you could have prepped with the slot you used to charge the staff..
Once you upgrade it, it functions like a normal staff, plus it grants the cantrip and ability to cast the 1st level spell you chose with charges. Plus you can charge it more than another wizard would be able to charge their own staff by expending an extra spell slot or more (pending leveling unlocking the ability).
So if you have a staff of evocation, and your Staff Nexus cantrip is shield and 1st level spell is Fear,, you can have a staff of evocation that can also cast shield and Fear. If you were going to prep acid arrow and glitter dust anyway, you can instead use those slots to charge the staff, giving it 7 charges total, which you can then use to cast any combination of fear, magic missile, shocking grasp, acid arrow, or glitterdust. Plus at will ray of frost and shield. So it's flexibility that you get out of using the spell slots to charge the staff, because if you don't end up needing glitter dust, but 2 extra magic missiles would be great, you can now do that. You haven't lost anything by expending the spell slot when the staff can cast something that you would have prepped anyway.
It may not be the greatest Arcane Thesis, but that doesn't mean it can't be an interesting option. Unless, of course, the ability only lets you upgrade the staff once, and you're stuck with a staff of fire forever or giving up on one of your major class abilities. So I'm just trying to figure out how it works, so that I can decide if it's something that I want to try to use.
The first staff costs 0. Each original makeshift staff costs 0. Any higher staff would need to be created through Magical Crafting by such a wizard. The real options from those listed above would be 4 or 5, with the latter being a very lenient option, allowing sale of the one you replace at 50% of its value.
The crafter has to buy the formula for the staff, have the tools and access to the workshop, pay half the cost, and work for 4 days. Then hope they're successful in their crafting check vs a DC of 22 with a +15 at the highest bonuses. Having to roll a 7 isn't too bad. Assurance at level 6 won't let you succeed.
At this point, I just don't see it as very beneficial to take this thesis. The idea is great, but with the crafting situation as it is, I wouldn't want to mess with it. Maybe in a home game it might be interesting, but not in online play, in my opinion.
It is too bad since I was looking forward to it.