[Item] Staff of the Pyro

[NEO|Phyte]

the Random Banter thread may be spawning a high-level gestalt game, and I've been itching for a chance to create a character based on my current avatar. In pursuit of this goal, I opened my DMG to find the rules for creating a custom Magic Staff. After a little bit of muddling about, I created this:

Staff of the Pyro

Created from a strange grey wood, this staff has a tiny offshoot near the top that angles back towards the tip of the staff. When a spell is cast from the staff, a tiny flame is emitted from the offshoot, which lasts until 5 rounds have passed without the staff being used.

All spells cast from a Staff of the Pyro deal fire damage, and have the [Fire] descriptor.

* Cone of Cold (1 charge)
* Lightning Bolt (1 charge)
* Polar Ray (2 charges)

Strong evocation; CL 15th; Craft Staff, Cone of Cold, Polar Ray, Lightning Bolt, creator must have Energy Substitution[Fire] or Mastery of Elements; Price 55,800 gp.


Lesser Staff of the Pyro

Created from a strange grey wood, this staff has a tiny offshoot near the top that angles back towards the tip of the staff. When a spell is cast from the staff, a tiny flame is emitted from the offshoot, which lasts until 5 rounds have passed without the staff being used.

All spells cast from a Lesser Staff of the Pyro deal fire damage, and have the [Fire] descriptor.

* Burning Hands (1 charge)
* Scorching Ray (1 charge)
* Lightning Bolt (2 charges)

Moderate evocation; CL 8th; Craft Staff, Burning Hands, Scorching Ray, Lightning Bolt, creator must have Energy Substitution[Fire] or Mastery of Elements; Price 10,800 gp.


How does it look to you people?

[Elrosth]

So were there no fire spells that would've worked for the concept?

You might consider tweaking the effects of the spells in question to get better flavor. For example, in the Flaming Cone of Cold, you could treat it as a fireball with a cone shape. It'd also probably be cheaper that way, not having to do the energy substitution. I dunno though, this setup sounds cool too.

This is supposed to basically be a magic flamethrower, right? Can you continually cast these spells, like a stream of fire, or are they one-shots like normal? If they were able to stream for awhile, you might also consider allowing for spreading out the damage for a wider range. For example, instead of full damage in the main cone, you could do half-damage but the area would be the arc of two cones instead of one.

[NEO|Phyte]

I originally had Burning Hands for the cone effect spell, but then I realized that all the spells in the staff have to be at the caster level of the highest spell, and Burning Hands caps at CL 5. Similarly, I wanted a ranged touch spell that wouldn't already have its damage capped, preventing any benefit from a high-leveled wielder of the staff, hence my use of Polar Ray instead of Scorching Ray. My books lack any fire-based spell to mimic lightning bolt, so it has to stay.

Hmm, maybe I'll create a Lesser version with lower-level spells in it... :edit: Its made, see the opening post

As for special/custom effects, this is my first real attempt at custom item creation, so I didn't want to try for anything fancy.

[Elrosth]

Now that I think of it, a flamethrower goes in a line, not a cone, so I suppose the cone spell *is* the effect I was trying to describe...

Lookin' good though.

[Fizban]

Nyah ha! I've got it for your low lv staff: use the scorch spell (lv2) from spell compendium, burning hands, and scorching ray. assuming CL 10 for easiness, the spells do:
burning hands: 5d4, 15' quarter circle
scorch: IIRC: 5d8 in a 5' wide, 30' long line
scorching ray: 8d6 ray at one target, up to 50' away.
make it a woundrous item, and set the scorching ray to only target one person (but maybe still require 2 rolls, for concentrating the stream). Ohh, and shape the burning hands into a larger cone!
Screw it, I'll price the thing. In several variations.....(after designing item): nah, I like this one, it makes sense, the abilities don't overpower each other, and it's cheap enough for lower levels where it can be useful. (I tried to keep it cheap enough that in a war time setting, you could have them scattered around with the normal troops, plus: no aggrivating backpack explosions!).

Flamethrower:
This item is a bulky device consisting of a large backpack, with an attached hose ending in an adjustable nozzle. The nozzle is attached to a grip, much like a crossbow, in such a way that it can easily be activated, and will obviously spray something forth when one does so. To be used effictively, the backpack must be worn, taking up the magic cloak slot (it's that big) The flamethrower can spray fire, dealing 2d8 fire damage to everything in a 30' long line, ref DC 13 for half, or can be swept in a semi circle, dealing 4d4 fire damage to everything in a 15' cone, ref save DC 11 for half. The Flamethrower can be used by anyone, and has 50 charges when newly created, either use of the flamethrower drains 1 charge. Faint Evocation, CL 4th, Craft Wondrous Item, Burning Hands, Scorch (spell compendium), Price: 5,500gp, weight: 10lb.

10 sec later edit:
This one is straight off the tables, but I could see allowing you to recharge it with alchemist's fire, at the cost of 5 flasks/charge (mathematically, it's 5.5 flasks). If this is too good, maybe bump up the price of it to 6,000 or so.

edit again:
Just cause I feel like it the pricing is:
use activated (2,000)x CL (4)x spell level (2)x charged with 50 charges (1/2)+ use activated x CL 4 x spell level (1)x charged x second similar ability (3/4)= 11,000, x1/2 for using body slot for 5,500 total. For a higher level flamethrower, use lightning bolt/ blast of flame (60' cone, 4th lvl, 10d6 max), or even cone of cold+sub fire/cone of cold+sub fire+sculpt to line(+1 lv)
Hmm, those would be:

31,250gp for 120' line, 10d6, DC14 or 60' cone, 10d6, DC16
73,125gp for 120'line, 15d6, DC18 or 60' cone, 15d6, DC17
Both of these assume it still takes up an item slot, presumably cloak for the backpack.
Wow, I really liked making those, hope you or someone else uses them :)

Edit once again:
You could price weakest one at 500gp, with 5 alch fire= 1 charge. When full, the backpack would weigh 250lbs+ backpack weight (10lbs? 25lbs? 50lbs?) Yay, now it could be non-magic-ish maybe?

[Fizban]

For all your lightning bolt-emulating needs, see the sculpt spell metamagic feat in Complete Arcane. I'd post what it does, but I'm pretty sure it's not OGC, suffice to say: for +1 level, you reshape the spell. You could probly guess the dimensions from there (hint: look at iconic 3-4 lv spells). Hope that's vague enough.