Author Topic: The Definitive Guide to Wands  (Read 31268 times)

Offline Libertad

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The Definitive Guide to Wands
« on: January 09, 2012, 02:57:45 PM »
Credit Goes to Amechra

Hello everyone, this here is going to be a guide to wand use, tricks to do with wands, and the whole shiboodle of stuff like that.

What this guide will have: Information on how to work with wands themselves, and thus interesting ways to mess with these unquestionably awesome items.

What this guide won't have: What spells to put on your wand, because seriously, there are already guides for that. There aren't guides that deal specifically with our friend the wand.

*Note* This guide will not cover Eternal Wands, because most stuff that works with wands won't work with them. The awesome stuff, at least.

For the uninitiated, a wand is a Spell Trigger item that takes the same action as the spell it is based off to use, has a UMD DC of 20 to  use without having access to the list that the spell is from, and have 50 charges. They contain a spell of 1st to 4th level.

Now, onto the rest of the guide!

*Note* This is not a list of classes that have good spell list to use wands out of; this is a list of classes that allow you to use wands without access to the list itself. Or at least, do it well.

CLASSES

Artificer: Yep, everyone's favorite crafting class is right here with the best of them, due to their Skill Mastery: UMD. They get it to late for me to suggest that though; what they get that makes them shine is a. the ability to craft wands without needing to now the spell that is going into it, and b. the Metamagic Spell Trigger infusion, which is borked to all hell. More on that later.

Binder binding Karsus: This is absolutely schmexy; the only reason you would go for the Magic domain is that that the Magic domain takes less levels. Basically, this is "use magic items like you're a wizard, and while you're at it, throw on a +2 to the DC. You deserve it, because your awesome." Combine this with the other nifty abilities of the binder (including our friend Astaroth from Cityscape, who gives you crafting goodness), makes Binder a solid choice.

Clerics, and other sources of the Magic domain: They get to act as if they were a Wizard of half their level for the purpose of using magic items; wands only require that you have their spell on your list (and that it was made by someone who shares your list), so one level dip into cleric can net you access to pretty much all non-Divine wands. Tasty.

Monk: I'm kidding, obviously. They don't bring anything to the table.

Warlock: Skill Mastery: UMD at 4th level, and at 12th they basically get what Artificers had all along, in that they get the ability to make wands off any spell list too. Lack infusions, though; however, they are capable of a bunch of combos that no-one else can perform, and are the best low-level wand users, leaving Rogues in the dust.

PRESTIGE CLASSES

Cannith Wand Adept: This PrC requires two feats you should have anyway (Craft Wand and Wand Mastery), Favored in House (Cannith) or a Minor Mark of Making, and Ranks in Spellcraft and UMD you should already have. Basically, due to the fact that it is a 0/3 spellcasting class, most casters won't take it; however, it gets an ability that gives it Class Level as a bonus to DCs and CLs for wands (So at third level, you have +3 CL and +3 DC.) You already have Wand Mastery, so you use wands at +5 CL and +5 DC. Throw some Reckless Wand User and Karsus binding on there (use Anima Mage), to get +7 CL and +7 DC! This isn't even starting with our good friend the Legacy Champion... This is a good PrC just for Wand Focus; it sucks otherwise. Eberron specific, from Sharn, City of Towers.

WHO TO GET YOUR WANDS FROM

The following progression shows the best classes to grab the spells on your wand from, in order from worst to best:
Archivist/Beguiler/Cleric/Dread Necromancer/Wizard/Wu Jen->Favored Soul/Sorcerer->Paladin/Ranger->Bard/Duskblade

Artificer, Spellthief, and Warmage are special cases.

Why such a progression? It shows the classes who have the spells at the highest CL; coincidentally, it also approximates how expensive a wand will be, in order from cheap to more expensive. Paladin and Ranger are where they are because their spells tend to be quite powerful for their level, do to the fact that they only get up to 4th level spells.

Special cases, and the reasons why:

Artificer: Artificers are the king of churning out cheap wands; they technically are in that whole range becuase their minimum level for wand crafting is whatever class -2; however, if they have equal level, they craft a wand of that level. In a nutshell, this means that Artificers are officially in all of the above categories.

Spellthief: Spellthieves are somewhere between the Wizard group and the Sorceror group normally; however, if the Spellthief has Master Spellthief, they easily become the best class to craft from, due to having high base CLs. Unfortunately, unless you're using some good old crafting tricks, they tend to be as expensive as all hell. Wands for connoisseurs.

Warmage: Warmages would be in the same boat as Beguilers and Dread Necromancers if not for one thing: they have the Eclectic Learning ACF. This ACF allows them to learn any wizard spell as a spell 1 level higher than the norm. This means that the base CL is 2 higher than everyone else's for 4 spells that the Warmage knows. Of course, the Warmage can always retrain what spells they learned through this... Warmage wands are great, but Master Spellthief wands still beat them out.

FEATS:

Consecrate/Purify Spell Trigger: This is not a good pair of feats; you can get the exact same thing, only better, with Metamagic Spell Trigger.

Cull Wand Essence: Turns a charge into nice, smooth, rapidly scaling damage. 10d6 from a wand with a 4th level spell is rather nice, if you need the damage more than utility. By the way, the damage scales in the manner of n((n+1)/2)d6, where n is the spell level. Keep this in mind; there will be a quiz.

Double Wand Wielder: Needs Two Weapon Fighting (trivial), and Craft Wand (as if you wouldn't have this  ). Basically, you can fire off two wands as a full-round action, with the one in your off hand using up two charges instead of 1. This is nice with the action economy, as this basically becomes "fire off two  <insert action here> buffs in a round", which pops up to 3 if you add in Prophecy's Artifex. Not the best we can do with wands, but more efficient than the next best option...

An equivalent, called Dual Dorjes, exists for Dorjes. It is exactly the same, except it requires Craft Dorje instead of Craft Wand.

Inspired Master A feat from Dragon 339, it adds +1 to the CL of any item you use. It has NO prereqs. This is very shmexy, very shmexy indeed.

Metamagic Spell Trigger: In exchange for extra charges, add metamagic to a wand. There is no daily limit on uses. Score! Requires at least 12th level and a metamagic feat, though. The infusion is still superior, but this is more accessible by, let's say, our friend the Warlock. There are some really funny tricks you can get up to with this...

Prophecy's Artifex: This feat is awesome; basically, while you are under the effects of Prophetic Favor, you can use Spell-Trigger items as Swift actions. Not bad; basically quicken for wands, and the prereqs don't suck, either.

Reckless Wand Wielder: This feat requires Craft Wand and some ranks in UMD, and it lets you increase the CL of the wand by 2 for the low, low cost of an extra charge! Very useful, when you have to squeeze out some extra juice; hell, it straight out doubles the effectiveness of a Wand of Magic Missile, for example.

Wand Mastery: This feat is AWEsome with a capital AWE; +2 to the DC and +2 CL? Sign me up! Unfortunately, it requires CL 9, so unless you cast spells yourself/are a Warlock/Artificer, this doesn't exist for you. Makes me respect Warlocks a lot as wand users, since they can easily get a +4 to CL and +2 to the DC; Artificers are still better, but to each their own. Schmexy.

The Dorje equivalent is cool but not as powerful; it is basically you getting either +4 pp into the dorje's power, or a +2 to DC. It doesn't even increase the manifester level. Still, useful for stuff like Astral Constructs.

Wandstrike: Can be taken at level one, when you grab your first 4 ranks of UMD. Basically, make a touch attack that deals 1d6 damage. You can trigger the wand while doing so; sadly, this explicitly doesn't stack with Sneak Attack or Sudden Strike, and doesn't scale, so unless your DM allows retraining, I wouldn't take it. Except maybe as a Warlock, since Hideous Blow would still add damage, iirc...

Offline Libertad

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Re: The Definitive Guide to Wands
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2012, 03:37:39 PM »
Alaunghaer's Triptych allows you activate up to three magic items on your person at the same time.  Very useful for wands!

Quote
Alaunghaer's Triptych
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Targets: Up to three magic items
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Special
Spell Resistance: No (object)

You activate up to three items you are wearing or carrying, which together count as a quickened spell (whether you activate one, two, or three items, it counts as a quickened spell for that round, preventing you from casting another quickened spell that round). These activations occur in any order you choose. Only one ability of any particular item can be activated by a particular use of this spell, and the ability must be a spell trigger- or command word-activated ability. The items must be items that you could otherwise activate (for example, you have to know the command word for the item, a character with no cleric levels could not use this spell to activate a wand of cure light wounds, and so on), and must be used properly (items that use magic item slots such as bracers and rings must be worn in the appropriate location, a wand must be held in hand, and so on). The items function normally (you choose the target or area, are subject to any limitation of the items, and so on) and do not suffer any penalties due to being activated quickly by the spell. You may aim the items at the same target or different targets. If more than one item generates a touch effect (such as ghoul touch and shocking grasp), only the last-activated item's touch effect functions, with the other or others having dispersed as if you had cast a spell while holding the charge on a touch spell (in short, activating multiple touch effects is a wasted use of the potential of this spell).

A triptych is not completely reliable. Each time the spell is cast, roll d% for each item; a result of 5% or less means the spell fails to activate the item. If the item were the first or second item activated by the triptych, you can attempt to activate it again with your remaining one or two activations from the spell.

The Awaken From Afar spell and the Ring of Spell Triggering (both found in the same article) are also very good for wand use.

Thanks to Nijineko and Wiggins for pointing this out!

The article containing the spell was written by Sean K. Reynolds and Ed Greenwood.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2012, 01:20:28 AM by Libertad »

Offline Libertad

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Re: The Definitive Guide to Wands
« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2012, 11:50:47 PM »
My favorite mid-levels trick for wands. It is campaign specific though, since Action Points are only used in Eberron (unless we talk about the ones in Unearthed Arcana which are even better).

What you need:
Extend Spell (PHB)
Persistent Spell (Complete Arcana)
Wand Surge (Magic of Eberron).
Unfettered Heroism (Races of Eberron).

The ones that can pull it of:
Wizard/Sorcerer or Bard into Incantatrix or
Artificer with Etch Minor Schema.

You apply Persistent Spell to Unfettered Heroism either through the Incantatrix class feature or the Artificer infusion to add a metamagic feat to an item. In the latter case, you need to craft a Schema of Unfettered Heroism. Schemas are found in Magic of Eberron and works like a permanent scroll that you can use one per day.

Now you gain 1 action point per round, but it'll disappear at the end of the round if you don't use it.
This will go on for 24 hours.
Through Wand Surge, you can burn an action point instead of a charge to activate a wand or a staff.
You can now activate your wand for free.
Or your custom built Staff of Avasculate for that matter... :smirk