Wizard & Staff Confusion

[CormacDM]

Hey all,

Myself and one of my players are a little confused about staffs...

Does the wizard need to take the Arcane Thesis, Staff Nexus to wield and prepare a staff. If the the answer is no, then what benefit does the staff nexus thesis provide?

Apologies, we have moved over from 5e and we are all new PF2E players(Asside from the BB with the pregens)

[Kyrone]

No, any Wizard can use a staff.

I will give an example to make the explication easier.

Let's say that we have a staff of water

It would have

Cantrip: Spout
1st Rank: Create Water, Hydraulic Push

But the Staff Nexus one would have an extra cantrip and 1st rank spell of your choosing like:

Cantrip: Spout, Shield
1st Rank: Create Water, Hydraulic Push, Sure Strike

After level 8 you can put more charges on it than other casters, the average Wizard would have the 4 charges of the staff + expend a spell slot to get more charges, while the Staff Nexus one can expend 2 slots for that.

So the Maximum in theory would be at level 8.

Average wizard: 8 Charges, 4 from the staff + 4 from a lvl 4 slot.

Staff Nexus: 12 Charges, 4 from the staff + 8 from two lvl 4 slots.

[ORC Enforcer]

Kyrone wrote:

No, any Wizard can use a staff.

I will give an example to make the explication easier.

Let's say that we have a staff of water

It would have

Cantrip: Spout
1st Rank: Create Water, Hydraulic Push

But the Staff Nexus one would have an extra cantrip and 1st rank spell of your choosing like:

Cantrip: Spout, Shield
1st Rank: Create Water, Hydraulic Push, Sure Strike

After level 8 you can put more charges on it than other casters, the average Wizard would have the 4 charges of the staff + expend a spell slot to get more charges, while the Staff Nexus one can expend 2 slots for that.

So the Maximum in theory would be at level 8.

Average wizard: 8 Charges, 4 from the staff + 4 from a lvl 4 slot.

Staff Nexus: 12 Charges, 4 from the staff + 8 from two lvl 4 slots.

Don't you mean "rank 4 slot[s]?"

[Finoan]

In addition to the excellent walkthrough by Kyrone, Staff Nexus Wizard starts at level 1 with their basic staff. Other spellcasters have to wait until they can afford at least the 60gp for the level 3 staves like the Staff of Water.

The benefit of the very basic Staff Nexus staff is pretty small though.