A question on wands

[King Atticus]

I was just reading through the Factotum's Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2720.0) and it was talking about spells that are handy for them. As a 1st level spell it mentioned Nerveskitter.


•Nerveskitter SC: Actually better in an eternal wand, a +5 initiative bonus is always welcome.

My question is, is there an allowance for immediate action spells in wands because from what I've seen in the RAW it's a standard action or longer to cast from one.


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.)

(From d20srd.org)

Wouldn't this make a wand of Nerveskitter useless?

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

no... this was ruled away... Rules Compendium I believe. casting a spell from a wand takes the same amount of time as if casting the spell.

[veven]

no... this was ruled away... Rules Compendium I believe. casting a spell from a wand takes the same amount of time as if casting the spell.

Yup, rules compendium.

Wand away!

[Cog]

Two things to keep in mind: 1) You'd still need to have the wand ready to use it. A wand chamber might be best for this. 2) Factotums aren't technically arcane spellcasters, and so need to make UMD checks even for eternal wands.

[theForce017]

no... this was ruled away... Rules Compendium I believe. casting a spell from a wand takes the same amount of time as if casting the spell.

I don't disagree with you but where is this info located? Page Number? Just so we could show our DM. Thanks

[Cog]

Pages 8 and 9, Rules Compendium

[theForce017]

Pages 8 and 9, Rules Compendium


Spell trigger (such as a wand or staff)^2

Activating this sort of magic item takes the same amount of time as casting the spell the item’s power duplicates. If the power doesn’t duplicate a spell, activating the item is a standard action unless its description says otherwise. See note 16 for spells that have 1-round casting times.


Thanks! That's awesome!

[Tibbaerrohwen]

Two things to keep in mind: 1) You'd still need to have the wand ready to use it. A wand chamber might be best for this. 2) Factotums aren't technically arcane spellcasters, and so need to make UMD checks even for eternal wands.

This is technically true, but I would talk to your DM about it. Factotums use spell-like abilities in a fashion than nearly perfectly duplicates the efforts a wizard goes through. I always treat them as arcane spellcasters with access to wizard spell list for the purpose of wands.

[Cog]

This is technically true, but I would talk to your DM about it. Factotums use spell-like abilities in a fashion than nearly perfectly duplicates the efforts a wizard goes through. I always treat them as arcane spellcasters with access to wizard spell list for the purpose of wands.
Well, they get the benefits of SLAs (no actual somatic/verbal components required, mainly), get to cast off the entire Sor/Wiz list without any spells known restrictions, and no matter what can only cast a given spell once per day, so there are a lot of oddball differences. UMD's a good investment for a Factotum anyway, so I don't see much need to change that, but I wouldn't say it's horrible to make that change either.

[King Atticus]

Thanks everyone for all the help. I never seem to remember that the rules compendium actually exists :smallbiggrin:

[ericgrau]

This one always bugged me b/c RC tends to be awesome at clarifying existing rules, whereas this is actually a rules change. But ya, that's the rule. Maybe this rule is what they actually wanted in the first place.