Battlezoo Bestiary Staves

[Johann Weiss]

Running a game fully using the battlezoo monster parts system and we just reached level 5. One of my players pointed out the items you can make are very slanted towards martials, with only Perception and Skill items useful to casters. It's not game breaking but I did notice that Staves are completely absent.

Wands roughly approximate to a Skill item with the Spell imbuement (it's marginally more expensive but it gives a skill bonus which a wand wouldn't).

I thought a weapon with the Magic imbued path would be similar to a Stave but it's much worse and way more expensive. 1000gp Fire Weapon on Magic track gets you Flaming Sphere (lvl 2), Fireball (lvl 3), and Produce Flames (cantrip). Both levelled spells are once per day.

Compared to a Greater staff of Evocation which costs 900gp. You get Ray of Frost (cantrip), magic missile (lvl 1), shocking grasp (lvl 1), Acid Arrow (lvl 2), glitterdust (lvl 2), lightning Bolt (lvl 3), magic missile (lvl 3), fireball (lvl 4), weapon storm (lvl 4). Admittedly, your limited to the number of charges you imbue the staff with during preparation, but it's going to be at least 4 charges by the time you should have gotten it.

I know it's sorta apples to oranges since the Fire imbued weapon is also a +2 striking weapon, but for a caster that's usually pointless.

Long story, still kinda long... I'm thinking of adding a Battlezoo equivalent to a staff, using the standard staff cost as a benchmark. Would appreciate any feedback if someone else has thoughts or has tried this. I'll also post an update at some point when I've got costing worked out in case anyone runs into this issue in the future and wants to copy my solution.

[Perpdepog]

I believe Roll for Combat are going to have rules for monster parts staves in their new bestiary, Battlezoo: Strange and Unusual.

[Johann Weiss]

Perpdepog wrote:

I believe Roll for Combat are going to have rules for monster parts staves in their new bestiary, Battlezoo: Strange and Unusual.

Well that's perfectly timed. I had kickstarted the Eldamon but opted out of the "Year of Monster" and "Strange and Unusual". KS update says Strange and Unusual is supposed to release this month, so I can just grab it then. I couldn't find any mention specifically of Staves in it, but it sounds like it has more of everything, so regardless I'd be picking it up.

Thanks!

[Perpdepog]

NP. And yeah; I believe I heard it in one of Roll for Combat's streams when Mark was talking about the monster parts system and the expansions in Strange and Unusual.