A Different Take on Wands and Scrolls as Treasure

[Bluemagetim]

I am taking a semi random approach to treasure rewards still following the guidlines in the GM core for how much and of what level.
As I am deciding on loot rewards in my campaign I am seeing something kind of unfun about wands and scrolls. It feels too on the nose for me to choose the spell on a wand that I know the players can use (it also means I am in a way assigning that wand when only one player can use it rather than the players assigning them to who they thing most needs them) and randomly assigning a spell can make the wand or scroll unusable for them, might as well be a gem or coins of the sell value at that point.
I wouldn't do this with less of the wand and scroll rewards if any of my players wanted to pick up trick magic device. I think i would in effect be cheating them out of some of the benefits of their feat at that point.

Here is my thought to do it a little differently. Most wands and scrolls will be found essentially blank. A player can with a casting of the appropriate spell slot rank imbue a spell into the wand or scroll. The drawbacks are that players cant use the item right away when they find it and a resource is being spent to imbue it.
The benefit though is that the party can decide who needs the item and let them put any applicable spell they can cast into the wand or scroll for later use.

[turtle006]

I agree with the intention, but I think finding treasure that you can't use until tomorrow sort of feels bad.

Does it break realism too much if they are allowed to "override" the item once? The scrolls/wands still have a randomly determined spell, but they can choose to override, it using these rules, once.

I think this allows for the creative use of a "bad" scroll, but still doesn't remove treasure.

[Ascalaphus]

I like the idea that you can reprogram a wand with a few days of downtime crafting. That also fits wands that used to be high level for you, but that you're growing out of. You can then turn them from an attack spell to some utility spell that doesn't care as much about being max rank. It makes finding a wand of a level-oriented spell (like an attack spell or a Heal or such) feel better.

Not sure I'd do that with scrolls though. Overall I encourage people to not sit on consumables for too long, but to just use them when the situation seems good for it. Because if you wait a few levels, they're just not strong enough anymore, relative to your challenges.

[Bluemagetim]

I didnt think of a one time override. Thats a great idea.
I think I will adopt that for wands.

Scrolls are different huh. They are also a way for some characters to learn new spells and clerics and druids can make use of any in their tradition.