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I am working on treasure for a campaign, and I want to include the occasional wand. To be honest, I get overwhelmed by the spell lists at times, however. Is there a list or guide somewhere that someone has already compiled of ideal wand spells?
I saw the spells guide over at the Guide to Guides page, and my current thought is to focus on the spells marked as "decent, but situational" (my phrasing). Any thoughts?
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Wands are great for anything that should be cast once per day. Bonus if the spell doesn't need to be heightened. For these spells, people will usually go out of their way to get them on their own - either buying or crafting them.
Examples: Mage Armor, Pocket Library, Pet Cache, Cozy Cabin, Vital Beacon
So giving them out as treasure you will probably want to give out the tier-2 wand spells. Spells that people may not think of or wouldn't even bother to learn, but that have use occasionally. Normally people will buy scrolls for those types of spells if they want them, but getting them on wands as treasure may be interesting. They may find a use for these spells since they now have them available. It may cause them to use the wands rather than just sell the scrolls or other loot that they find.
Examples: Alarm, Imprint Message, Seashell of Stolen Sound, Misdirection, Safe Passage
Would something like Temporary Tool be a good idea?
Sounds good to me. I probably wouldn't buy it, but finding it in loot I would probably keep it around for at least a while.
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An easy rule of thumb is that if your opinion of a spell is, "I'd love to have this, but I'm a spontaneous caster," then it might be worth considering a wand. Especially if it's something that fits your mental image of the class or character perfectly, but isn't going to come up often enough to justify having it in a repertoire or preparing on the average day, such as, e.g., restyle for a Bard.
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False Life is always a nice little bonus.
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False Life is always a nice little bonus.
Especially if it's a wand of teeming ghosts.
My sorcerer has used that to great effect with Demoralize, followed by phantasmal killer.
Debuff, debuff some more, then knock 'em dead!
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My favorites are utility spells that you may want to cast often but not often enough to justify expending a known spell or spells that maintain their potency beyond the level they're gained.
Level 1 - Alarm, Ant Haul, Animate Rope, Create Water, Illusory Disguise, Pet Cache, Pocket Library, Restyle, Unseen Servant
Level 2 - Longstrider, Animal Messenger, Create Food, Darkness, Humanoid Form, Instant Armor, Iron Gut, Phantom Steed, Shrink, Silence
Level 3 - Bottomless Stomach, Clairaudience, Meld Into Stone, Mind of Menace, Fear
I find that scrolls are MUCH more cost effective than wands for this. A wand costs 10 - 15 times as much as a scroll (depending on level) so you have to cast a spell that many times for it to be cost effective. And THAT ignores the fact that wands are front ended (ie, you have to but the whole wand, but you can buy the scrolls in dribs and drabs)
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I think in general wands that scale nicely are always nice rewards.
Fear is a good example. It is just a nice spell to cast for a long time. Having an extra low level spell is always nice.
On the reverse end spells like burning and heal get out scaled really quickly.
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My favorites are utility spells that you may want to cast often but not often enough to justify expending a known spell or spells that maintain their potency beyond the level they're gained.
Level 1 - Alarm, Ant Haul, Animate Rope, Create Water, Illusory Disguise, Pet Cache, Pocket Library, Restyle, Unseen Servant
Level 2 - Longstrider, Animal Messenger, Create Food, Darkness, Humanoid Form, Instant Armor, Iron Gut, Phantom Steed, Shrink, Silence
Level 3 - Bottomless Stomach, Clairaudience, Meld Into Stone, Mind of Menace, FearAs to Specialty wands Manifold Missiles and Teeming Ghosts are persistently useful.
I'd add Floating Disk to your list of 1st level spells alongside Ant Haul.
False life and longstrider will realistically be cast much much more than 15 times in a 1~20 campaign.
When they become cheap enough, it might be worth a second Longstrider wand to cover the rest of the day or as a spare if the first's dispelled; and one might get a False Life wand for after every battle, again when cheap enough (partly because it Heightens so poorly and 10+ hit points pre-healed as it were is worth the pittance).
(Factor in that I'm a glutton for wands, so there's that too.)| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
For higher level play, Dimension Door is great for when the bad guy traps you behind a Wall of Force.
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For higher level play, Dimension Door is great for when the bad guy traps you behind a Wall of Force.
I find that it pairs quite well with invisible object for getting past opaque locked doors and barriers, or with prying eye to 'port into places you can't otherwise see or fit into.
For higher level play, Dimension Door is great for when the bad guy traps you behind a Wall of Force.
Why wouldn't you memorize it instead? (w/ scrolls as spares)
Save that action it takes to draw a wand, perhaps stow it, and maybe more actions at first to get a free hand.I think combat spells are the least likely to put on a wand because either you're casting it often so memorize it; or casting in an emergency and want to use the minimal amount of actions casting it; or it's for unusual situations (like perhaps a sonic attack for crystalline creatures or those w/ Regeneration Sonic) in which case a scroll would suffice since you're unlikely to cast it 10+x in your career.
And if a cheaper batch of scrolls covers one's career usage, it's also superior since you could cast several in succession, just tossing the scroll away.
For higher level play, Dimension Door is great for when the bad guy traps you behind a Wall of Force.Why wouldn't you memorize it instead? (w/ scrolls as spares)
Because with it's two action cost, short range, and plethora of restrictions, it's really not a great combat spell.
My 12th-level sorcerer has cast dimension door only once in the last 5 levels, and it wasn't even in combat.
It's hard to justify 120 foot movement for two actions when I can either snipe with long range spells, or move the necessary distance with a Stride and still be able to cast a meaningfully contributive spell on behalf of the party.
Not my first choice when it comes to small enclosed environments, such as most dungeons.
The only time I forsee it coming into play in combat is if it can get you to a much more inaccessible position--that you can still see--from which to harry the enemy from. Teleporting up into a tall tree or cliff from which to snipe the enemy below with ray of frost as they struggle to climb up, for example.
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Heroism is a great wand spell too. You can never have too many castings of heroism, either at 3 6 or 9.
For higher level play, Dimension Door is great for when the bad guy traps you behind a Wall of Force.Why wouldn't you memorize it instead? (w/ scrolls as spares)Because with it's two action cost, short range, and plethora of restrictions, it's really not a great combat spell.
My 12th-level sorcerer has cast dimension door only once in the last 5 levels, and it wasn't even in combat.
It's hard to justify 120 foot movement for two actions when I can either snipe with long range spells, or move the necessary distance with a Stride and still be able to cast a meaningfully contributive spell on behalf of the party.
Not my first choice when it comes to small enclosed environments, such as most dungeons.
The only time I forsee it coming into play in combat is if it can get you to a much more inaccessible position--that you can still see--from which to harry the enemy from. Teleporting up into a tall tree or cliff from which to snipe the enemy below with ray of frost as they struggle to climb up, for example.
Depends on context. A lot.
Dim Door is a "get out of jail free" card IMO, which one hopes not to build one's tactics around by not being in the proverbial jail in the first place. Yet it happens, and one might need to counter a tactic such as the Wall of Force used in the example. It seems you've had the benefit of not needing it so much, yet I've had casters use it to exit pits, killing fields, or being cut off from allies (or outright flee though in that instance it had been player cowardice, not cunning). I wouldn't expect Dim Door to be used for basic movement or positioning. I agree that would be a waste, except maybe for a martial getting in a Strike at the BBEG who thinks they're safe behind obstacles. (Of course since PF2's BBEG's usually dominate 1v1 battles, that might be hazardous!)Your experience using Dim Door only once in 5 levels is a good argument against memorizing it (4th level slots still being important through 12th level after all). Yet it's also an argument against buying a wand. That rarity suggests buying scrolls instead. I might lean toward a wand if it were really cheap for my level and I found myself often wanting to Dim Door outside of combat.
Speaking of which, I think that'd be a main qualifier for the most useful wands, that they're useful outside of combat where one can draw and stow w/o precious combat action cost.
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I think that'd be a main qualifier for the most useful wands, that they're useful outside of combat where one can draw and stow w/o precious combat action cost.
That's why I favor wands like longstrider, mage armor, false life, and heroism.
Dim Door is a "get out of jail free" card IMO, which one hopes not to build one's tactics around by not being in the proverbial jail in the first place.
Last week my players just managed to kill a boss, that was supposed to have a chance of escaping. It was a tough fight, that boss had Dimension Door(4) memorised as an escape spell. Problem was they were in a dungeon. So there was nowhere to teleport too, because the level 4 version is still restricted by line of sight. Published modules ... anyway not that important so I let it slide.
Speaking of which, I think that'd be a main qualifier for the most useful wands, that they're useful outside of combat where one can draw and stow w/o precious combat action cost.
If you have the hands for it, I don't mind having a combat wand or staff out. Which you can roatate out when they are empty. But as you say its mostly too action intensive to do more than one in combat.