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View Full Version : [3.5e] Activate Magic Items Without Using Charges?



Warclam
2009-04-23, 09:23 AM
What ways are there to activate a magic item, say a scroll or a staff, without consuming a charge? I know of Eternal Wands (cast 2/day instead of 50 charges), which are handy, but they have all the normal restrictions of using wands, including that they have to be specially made so each one only casts 1 spell. Is there a way to cast more generally? Like, say, I can cast a scroll without using it up?

The Glyphstone
2009-04-23, 09:38 AM
Staff Mastery lets you spend your inherent spell slots to cast out of a staff, but it's an Epic feat.

Warclam
2009-04-23, 09:45 AM
Staff Mastery lets you spend your inherent spell slots to cast out of a staff, but it's an Epic feat.

Aw, it would be, too. Too perfect for this world.... *sniff*

Anyone got one that can be obtained by level 12-15?

Telonius
2009-04-23, 09:48 AM
To cast from a scroll without using up the scroll: Scribe the scroll into a spellbook, be an Archmage, and use your "Spell-Like Ability" high arcana on the spell. (Costs a fifth-level spell slot, though, and probably a good deal less cheesy than you're looking for).

Depending on the effect you want, be a Warlock. You can use a whole bunch of spell-like things as many times per day as you want.

Alternately, you could probably stack abilities onto an Eternal Wand using the Magic Item Compendium rules. A wand of Eternal (X spell) and (Y spell) wouldn't be completely outlandish, as long as you pay for it.

I'm away from my books at the moment, so I can't look up the exact wording of Anyspell, but an Eternal Wand of Anyspell might interest you.

jcsw
2009-04-23, 09:55 AM
Wand Surge, Magic of Eberron. Requires action points, so cast action surge.

Warclam
2009-04-23, 10:10 AM
Action Surge? Where's that? I found the feat, but that uses action points instead of giving them, so I'm pretty sure that's not what you meant.

EDIT: I'm trying to decipher how an Eternal Wand of Anyspell would work. Since the spell takes 15 minutes to cast, the wand wouldn't be any good in the thick of battle. Hypothetically, though, it should allow a Wizard, twice a day, to spend an extra 15 minutes to prepare any 2nd-level or lower arcane spell he has written down, whether or not he actually knows it.

The spell says it takes up your 3rd-level domain slot (Anyspell can only be cast using the Spell domain), so I figure whatever spells you prepare get stored inside the wand to be cast like a normal Eternal Wand.

The trouble is, the spell says that preparing a spell from a scroll wipes the scroll; only spellbooks are preserved (That's why I specified a Wizard above). So an EWoA doesn't help cast a scroll without burning a charge, sadly. :smallfrown:

Despite that, though, that is seriously cool. It can be used by any arcane caster, too, so a, I dunno, Warlock-Wizard team working together could give the Warlock some spells to cast from the Wizard's spellbook.

One thing I can't figure out, though: what happens after you cast the spells? Presumably if you don't use the spells you loaded up, you can use them the next day or a week from now, but if you cast them, do they come back, or do you have to load the wand up again?

EDIT EDIT: Aw, and after I put so much thought into it.... "An eternal wand holds a single arcane spell of 3rd level or lower" (emphasis mine). I guess the EWoA can't be made after all.

Hmm... anyone know how to go about pricing an Eternal Staff of Limited Wish? :smallwink:

Rubicon
2009-04-23, 09:07 PM
The runestaff from MIC is activated by using spell slots instead of charges. Unfortunately, it requires you to provide any material components, foci, and XP cost for the spell in question. Usually, wizards are better off just scribing the spell into their spellbook. Sorcerers or bards (with limited spells known) get the most benefit from using a runestaff.

Jack_Simth
2009-04-23, 09:23 PM
The runestaff from MIC is activated by using spell slots instead of charges. Unfortunately, it requires you to provide any material components, foci, and XP cost for the spell in question. Usually, wizards are better off just scribing the spell into their spellbook. Sorcerers or bards (with limited spells known) get the most benefit from using a runestaff.
Runestaffs are quite useful for Wizards, too - any spell with a save DC goes better in a Runestaff than in a scroll - but yeah, it's Sorcerers and Bards that get the most use out of it.

I believe there's a trick with an Artificer that lets you cast a spell out of a spell-trigger item, double it, and put one of them back in to restore the lost charge, for a small XP cost.

Myrmex
2009-04-23, 10:06 PM
Dragon 338 has the imbued staff variant, where you give up your familiar to get a special staff. If you take craft staff, and add charges to your imbued staff, per the regular rules of crafting a staff, you can put charges back in at the cost of 5 spell levels/charge. Found it on Crystalkeep feat index.

JaxGaret
2009-04-24, 12:37 AM
There is a feat in Lost Empires of Faerun called Channel Charge that does exactly what you want.

namo
2009-04-24, 07:48 AM
Wand Surge, Magic of Eberron. Requires action points, so cast action surge.

Wand Surge allows you to use an AP instead of expending a charge - it also works for staffs.
Then there's Unfettered Heroism in Races of Eberron that gives you 1 AP per turn for 1 round/level.
Put the two together...

lesser_minion
2009-04-24, 10:32 AM
I've seen a PrC in Dragon 339 (I think) that I think had SR and the option to siphon the power out of spells that miss their SR to heal or power their own items and spells. It might have been the other way round - siphoning charges from a wand though.

Warclam
2009-04-24, 11:59 AM
There is a feat in Lost Empires of Faerun called Channel Charge that does exactly what you want.

Perfect! It needs UMD, of course, but I was actually looking for a way to use UMD without burning a ton of cash (Tricky check, though! 15 + CL, ouch. Almost as bad as a scroll.). Doesn't work on scrolls, unfortunately, but I didn't expect to find anything that would help there.

Man, every time I'm looking for something and can't find it, someone tells me it's in Lost Empires of Faerūn. I should start looking there first.

Thanks everyone else, too. A ton of useful stuff.

Warclam
2009-04-24, 05:58 PM
Wand Surge allows you to use an AP instead of expending a charge - it also works for staffs.
Then there's Unfettered Heroism in Races of Eberron that gives you 1 AP per turn for 1 round/level.
Put the two together...

Hmm... this has some real potential, now that I think about it more. A Runestaff with Unfettered Heroism on it might work very nicely with this combo.

Of course, the obvious thing (to my devious mind, anyway) is to make a use-activate magic item of Unfettered Heroism. Using the pricing guidelines:
5 (spell level) * 9 (min caster level) * 4 (rounds/level duration) * 2,000 = 360,000 gp.

Oh. Well. Maybe not, then.

Actually, doing a little research, it looks like LordofProcrastination created an endless spells trick using Wand Surge. I can't seem to find a non-broken link to it, though. Anyone know where I can find LoP's stuff? Or know how that one works?

Chronos
2009-04-24, 10:14 PM
It's easy: Make a staff that has both Unfettered Heroism and some other useful spell in it. Or two staffs; that works too. Use an action point or a real charge or a real spell off your own spell list, whichever, and cast Unfettered Heroism once. Then use your bonus action points to cast a bunch of other spells from the staff. Just before your original Unfettered Heroism is about to wear off, cast another Unfettered Heroism from the staff to reset the duration, and continue indefinitely. If you ever stop to rest for more than a minute or two, you have to start the process again, but other than that, you can keep it going indefinitely. And if you're a Warforged, you can cast a free spell every single turn forever.