Metamagic Wands?

[Crow]

As it is possible to create wands of varying caster levels (i.e. 1st, 3rd, or 5th level wands of magic missile), is it possible to create a wand with a metamagic effect tied to the spell?

If a wizard wanted to make something like an empowered wand of disrupt undead (normally level-0), for instance, could they do so at the cost of a 2nd level wand?

[elonin]

There are metamagic applied wands in the dmg. Course the wand is at a higher level and cost.

[Tyndmyr]

Huh...with the right feats/gear boosting wands, you could make fell drained spells incredibly nasty.

Sonic Snap most likely. Low spell level, no save. That or magic missile would be a great start.

Doesn't the drum-like wand thing allow you to use three wands as a single action? Given that wands have the activation cost of the parent spell, you could have one drum with FD sonic snaps, and the other with quickened FD sonic snaps.

Six levels gone per turn. Nasty.

[Ernir]

Huh...with the right feats/gear boosting wands, you could make fell drained spells incredibly nasty.

Sonic Snap most likely. Low spell level, no save. That or magic missile would be a great start.

Doesn't the drum-like wand thing allow you to use three wands as a single action? Given that wands have the activation cost of the parent spell, you could have one drum with FD sonic snaps, and the other with quickened FD sonic snaps.

Six levels gone per turn. Nasty.

(Un?)Fortunately, activating a Rod of Many Wands is a full-round action. :smallfrown:

Also, how would you fit a quickened FD sonic snap inside a Wand? :smallconfused:

[Tyndmyr]

Arcane Thesis is enough to make it fit, no?

Mmmm, the full round action thing is a problem, though. Perhaps I'll have to look at one of the other ways of burning out wands prematurely for multiple blasts.

[ericgrau]

As it is possible to create wands of varying caster levels (i.e. 1st, 3rd, or 5th level wands of magic missile), is it possible to create a wand with a metamagic effect tied to the spell?

If a wizard wanted to make something like an empowered wand of disrupt undead (normally level-0), for instance, could they do so at the cost of a 2nd level wand?
Yes. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm#) You can.

[elonin]

Didn't know about that wand gun device taking a full round action. Even if not wands take a standard action anyway, else just about every rogue would be using wands of grave strike which is an immediate action to cast. Could use dual wand weilder, but that burns a lot of charges (not as many as that item from MIC).

[Runestar]

Rules compendium clarifies that activating a spell trigger item uses the same time as the original casting time of the spell (reversing the DMG ruling). So it takes a swift action to activate a wand of grave strike. A rogue could activate a wand of wraithstrike and still make a full attack. :smallsmile:

[2xMachina]

Wand of Locate City Bomb!
Wand of Extended Persisted buffs! (made using arcane thesis, prac+easy metamagic, by a Incant 10)
Wand of Chain Split Repeat attacks!

Metamagic cheese for everyone!

[Tyndmyr]

Wand of Locate City Bomb!

*Shudder*

I can see this being an interesting sort of tippyverse plotline.

[Sinfire Titan]

(Un?)Fortunately, activating a Rod of Many Wands is a full-round action. :smallfrown:

Also, how would you fit a quickened FD sonic snap inside a Wand? :smallconfused:

Also, all three wands have to have the exact same spell stored. But you could do a Twinned 0 level spell and apply Fell Drain using Metamagic Wand Grips (same book, Complete Mage), thus getting your 6 Fell Spells/round as a Full Round action.

[Sophismata]

I once tried to create a character, who used a rod of many wands and dual-wielding wand feats to simulate triple wand claws (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/1/26/).

Sadly, I was unable to get it to work, RAW.

[Tyndmyr]

Also, all three wands have to have the exact same spell stored. But you could do a Twinned 0 level spell and apply Fell Drain using Metamagic Wand Grips (same book, Complete Mage), thus getting your 6 Fell Spells/round as a Full Round action.

Well, consider that we've also got incantatrix in this build...thus, they can also apply metamagic to wands as they use them.

So we're already at "just lose six levels", which is pretty damn good. Are there any metamagics that could boost that further?

[2xMachina]

Chain, now hits everyone in sight

Repeat, for the same thing to happen again

An epic wizard/incantatrix with the relevant feats might be able to pile all of those in.

Pack on Ocular Spell, then it qualifies for Split ray.

Twin, Split, Repeat. That's 8 times. Chain adds it to even more targets.

[Tyndmyr]

With a sufficiently high spellcraft check, and a high enough int modifier(because you can add metamagic to wands 3+int mod times per day), it could become truly insane.

Now, for fun....could another incantatrix standing by also apply metamagics via cooperative metamagic, if the original spell is off a wand?

Im pretty sure that a trio of wands with split, repeat and twin would FD anything to death. You'd get a total of 12 levels drained immediately, and another 12 next round without even needing to act.

So...for high ECL mobs, it may not kill them until round two....but it doesn't much matter, because they're dead, and 12 negative levels should negate anything really effective they can do before they keel over.

[Bayar]

Wand of Extended Persisted buffs! (made using arcane thesis, prac+easy metamagic, by a Incant 10)

Metamagic cheese for everyone!

1. You cant extend and persist the same spell.

2. An Artificier does it cheaper and easier. And at a later level.

[Tyndmyr]

1. You cant extend and persist the same spell.

Why not? Extend doubles the duration, persist sets it to 24 hours. I don't see an explicit "cannot combine" in either, and the player selects the order in which MM is applied.

Thus, persist first, extend second.

[elonin]

Rules compendium clarifies that activating a spell trigger item uses the same time as the original casting time of the spell (reversing the DMG ruling). So it takes a swift action to activate a wand of grave strike. A rogue could activate a wand of wraithstrike and still make a full attack. :smallsmile:

As a player of rogues I've often wished it to be so but the srd, customer service at wotc say:

from srd

Activation

Wands use the spell trigger activation method, so casting a spell from a wand is usually a standard action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. (If the spell being cast, however, has a longer casting time than 1 standard action, it takes that long to cast the spell from a wand.) To activate a wand, a character must hold it in hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for nonhumanoid creatures) and point it in the general direction of the target or area. A wand may be used while grappling or while swallowed whole.

[Sophismata]

The Rules Compendium is fairly questionable in general. I tend to go with the SRD ruling for wand activation (and most other things).

[term1nally s1ck]

The Rules Compendium which was released to bring all the previous books up to date with the new mechanics (swift actions DO NOT EXIST in core), and to fix any mistakes that were made in previous books?

[Fizban]

Use Double Wand Wielder + Metamagic Spell Trigger + Metamagic Infusion (Twin Spell) x2. Two twinned wands per turn plus another twinned and quickened, 6 levels per turn. All you need is Artificier and a couple feats. You can also use Metamagic Wand Grips, but since you don't have any damage to maximize you don't really need them for Fell Drained Sonic Snaps.

[Tyndmyr]

The Rules Compendium which was released to bring all the previous books up to date with the new mechanics (swift actions DO NOT EXIST in core), and to fix any mistakes that were made in previous books?

This. Rules Compendium, while dry reading, is just what you need for an authoritative rules decision.

[Tinydwarfman]

I once tried to create a character, who used a rod of many wands and dual-wielding wand feats to simulate triple wand claws (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/1/26/).

Sadly, I was unable to get it to work, RAW.

It would still be for naught if you were unable to make your enemies Rue it Hard (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/5/19/)