Wands, Aesthetics, Literature

[Popertop]

What kind of aesthetic did WotC draw from to get the 50 charges idea? In all fantasy literature I can remember, this has never been the case, and seems to provide an industrial magic aesthetic.

I for one much prefer the wand used as a focus, as in Harry Potter. I still need to check out that RPG (I think WotC developed it, right?) to see how they approach it.

What do you think about how wands are approached in 3.5?

It just seems to jarring to me to have a magic item that you can just spam over and over again, kinda takes the mystery away for me.

[FMArthur]

Yeah, I feel pretty much the same way. I've never particularly liked the way wands have been presented in 3.5, but I haven't given any thought to how I would change it, either. I'd be interested in hearing any house rules you or the forum may have cooked up or are thinking about on the subject.

4e has a wand or staff (or an orb? Been a while) focus for spellcasting that's similar to our conception of wands, but I don't really like 4e as a whole. Perhaps it could be lifted, but I don't even remember the mechanic because it was one of those 'never think about it after character creation' things.

Have you checked the Magic Item Compendium for things which are wands-by-different names that provide spellcasting benefits? Seems reasonably likely that such a thing may exist, and it would be easy to swap the names or even replace wands entirely.

[Squiggles]

What kind of aesthetic did WotC draw from to get the 50 charges idea? In all fantasy literature I can remember, this has never been the case, and seems to provide an industrial magic aesthetic.

I for one much prefer the wand used as a focus, as in Harry Potter. I still need to check out that RPG (I think WotC developed it, right?) to see how they approach it.

What do you think about how wands are approached in 3.5?

It just seems to jarring to me to have a magic item that you can just spam over and over again, kinda takes the mystery away for me.

I would imagine that having charged wands was just a way to keep Feats like Craft Wand from growing stagnant, ie if you have to continuously create a new wand because your last wand is spent, then it helps to keep the feat investment relevant.

I tend to prefer the Eternal Wands with their 2 uses/day from MiC though, since they help to keep the abuse of buff spells a day to a minimum, while not being totally useless.

[Urpriest]

I can't think of any fantasy literature where scrolls vanish upon casting either, though if I encountered one I would be less surprised than if I had encountered literature with the 50 charges idea.

Potions, Scrolls, Wands, and Staves are primarily game mechanical objects. Potions are close enough to their literary function that the mapping is fairly obvious, scrolls are fragile and thus plausibly one-use, staves are the signature weapons of their wielders so that one can justify putting a thematic selection of spells in one, and wands have less gravitas then staves and thus are plausible as a more utilitarian class of item.

Basically, think about it in the other direction: if you had a class of magic item that could cast a given low level spell many times before running dry and being replaced, what literary class of item would you assign to it? The wand may not have been the only option, but it wasn't a bad one.

[Yahzi]

What do you think about how wands are approached in 3.5?
Along with scrolls, they broke the game.

In previous editions, wand charges were valuable resources, and scrolls were treasure.

Now any wizard can craft scrolls at lvl 1, which makes a mockery of the "limited" spell selection. A wizard is better than a sorcerer, because he can cast any spell he knows ten times a day. Assuming he's smart enough to make scrolls before leaving his ivory tower. Let's see if he's smart enough - how about an Intelligence check?

[Yhynens]

I'm assuming wands and scrolls were charge-based pre-3e, considering that that's how they act in Nethack, which is sort of based on AD&D. In there it all works a lot better, too, since wands tend to have like 5-10 charges on them (and can be recharged with scrolls of recharging, or you can usually get another charge or two by engraving with it or breaking it) so they're an extremely precious commodity, especially considering you can't make them.

That is to say, I think it's an issue of game balance. Having items that work in a similar way to other consumable items (like potions) but with drastically different effects opens the game up.

I do like the focus interpretation, too, and as previously mentioned that's what 4e does, but having sunk a ton of time into Nethack I think the "industrial" feel is pretty dang cool, though I don't think I would ever have called it that if you hadn't. It's more like, another way to get cool things. Mercantile might be a better word for how I interpret it.

[Analytica]

It would make much more sense if you could recharge the wands. Come to think of it, are there any mechanics that allow that?

[Yhynens]

I've been considering adapting the way wands work in nethack for a no-caster campaign recently, but I don't really know enough about 3.5 to do it personally.

But if you're interested in doing that yourself, this is basically all of it in depth: http://nethack.wikia.com/wiki/Wands
I'd also like to know if anyone's adapted any rules already or if anyone's heard of anything similar. One thing I would change from Nethack's system, though, is making all wands have a max number of recharges like the wand of wishing.

[Honest Tiefling]

If I recall 4e correctly, caster classes could often use different implements, such as obs, staves and wands to cast spells better, and it varied by class which you could use. Certain builds also used different implements.

In 3.5, it would be tricky I think. +1 to attack with a melee weapon is one thing, but +1 with ranged attack spells? Not the same power. It also does not help that many mages might prefer the scrolls to cover spells they cannot or do not wish to prepare.

Through...I think the OP does have a good point. Staves help you channel magic, not cast spells. Perhaps add the ability of a ring of wizardry (with appropriate cost increase) or other such item. Or refluff a charge, so instead of using it to cast a spell, a wizard can concentrate to have the staff animate or cast a shield to protect the wizard.

As for one use items, amulets, tokens, totems and runes can all be made and broken when needed and used to replace single charge items.