Need help deciding between Craft Wand and Craft Wondrous Item

[KillianHawkeye]

So I am playing my first Wizard in 3.X and I need some feat advice.

I want to take an item creation feat at 6th level. I was thinking of getting Craft Wand so I can save myself on some spell slots in the future, but a couple of my fellow players are requesting for wondrous items and are even willing to buy me scrolls of new spells so to help me meet the prerequisites. An influx of new spells is pretty tempting, and I know that Craft Wondrous Item really covers a lot of ground.

So, watcha think, Playground? Which is better? :smallwink:

[suhkkaet]

Well, since you could potentially make a long stick of X with CWI, which functions the exact same as a wand of X..
Except, of course, that the long stick could also potentially carry spells of a greater level than 4th..

I think my answer is obvious.

[Sucrose]

If you go with one magic item creation feat, go with Craft Wondrous Item. You probably won't have a large enough array of spells that you want to cast outside of your own slots that wands will make up most of your WBL. Odds are, you'll spend instead on a Handy Haversack, a Headband of Intellect, Cloak of Displacement, and so on and so forth.

As such, buy most of your normal wands at standard market price, and use your wondrous item creation to craft basically all of your own gear, and a substantial portion of your party's.

[KillianHawkeye]

Well, since you could potentially make a long stick of X with CWI, which functions the exact same as a wand of X..
Except, of course, that the long stick could also potentially carry spells of a greater level than 4th..

I think my answer is obvious.

What are you even talking about?? Because it sounds suspiciously like trying to abuse the custom magic item creation guidelines, and I'm pretty sure my DM won't let that fly.

[0nimaru]

I wouldn't try to use Wonderous Items to make mock-wands, but the rest of the advice here is sound. Over 50% of the items you'll wear will be Wonderous and the money you save by crafting them could buy you stacks of wands.

Also, you can make Wonderous items with unusual effects and name them what you want! A wand of fireball is always a wand of fireball, but boots that do X/day Celerity? Those are Killian's Boots of Faster-Than-Thought Dodgin'.

[Zaq]

Yeah, wondrous items are way better than wands, if for no other reason than that the whole party can use them (which means that you get more magical effects in play at once, and more magic = more better). Plus, if you're really into crafting, you'll probably make far more of them (really, how many wands do you need, at least if you're not an Artificer burning twelve charges per action?). Oh, and they can just flat-out do more.

Wands are great. Wondrous items are better.

[Ernir]

Unless wands serve some special purpose in your build (they do have some possible shenanigans), Craft Wondrous Item all the way.

[KillianHawkeye]

Unless wands serve some special purpose in your build ...

They don't, really. I've just never played a prepared caster before and I was concerned about running out of spells. I bought a wand of Melf's Acid Arrow using some of my starting money (we started at level 4), and it's been pretty useful since I don't have many attack spells.



How about Craft Arms & Armor? I just remembered the party Rogue wants to get a Hide bonus enchanted onto his new armor.

[Chilingsworth]

They don't, really. I've just never played a prepared caster before and I was concerned about running out of spells. I bought a wand of Melf's Acid Arrow using some of my starting money (we started at level 4), and it's been pretty useful since I don't have many attack spells.



How about Craft Arms & Armor? I just remembered the party Rogue wants to get a Hide bonus enchanted onto his new armor.

You can make a compentence bonus item of hide with CWI. I believe the usual slot for such an item is a cloak. You can then add other bonuses to the cloak such as resistance via the MIC rules.

Craft wonderous item wins.

[Safety Sword]

They don't, really. I've just never played a prepared caster before and I was concerned about running out of spells. I bought a wand of Melf's Acid Arrow using some of my starting money (we started at level 4), and it's been pretty useful since I don't have many attack spells.

It sounds like you might get some use out of the Reserve Feats in Complete Mage. It's like having spells something to do, when you don't have many spells left.

Craft Wonderous Item is about the best crafting feat unless you have something specific you want to make (or spare feats to burn).

[KinnetDynamon]

Yeah, wondrous items are way better than wands, if for no other reason than that the whole party can use them (which means that you get more magical effects in play at once, and more magic = more better). Plus, if you're really into crafting, you'll probably make far more of them (really, how many wands do you need, at least if you're not an Artificer burning twelve charges per action?). Oh, and they can just flat-out do more.

Wands are great. Wondrous items are better.

I whole heartedly agree with this post. All of my past arcane casters have taken CWI if they took anything and with great results. What can really be nice, at least for RP purposes, are the little colorful details you can build into wondrous items, like the puff of smoke when using a cape of the mountebank. I suppose you could use these details with any magic item, but wondrous items seem most suited to them.

[KillianHawkeye]

You can make a compentence bonus item of hide with CWI. I believe the usual slot for such an item is a cloak. You can then add other bonuses to the cloak such as resistance via the MIC rules.

Craft wonderous item wins.

Well, there's the Cloak of Elvenkind, but the creator must be an elf (which I am not).


It sounds like you might get some use out of the Reserve Feats in Complete Mage. It's like having spells something to do, when you don't have many spells left.

Yeah, I'm considering taking the lightning bolt one after I get Orb of Electricity as one of my 4th level spells.

[suhkkaet]

What are you even talking about?? Because it sounds suspiciously like trying to abuse the custom magic item creation guidelines, and I'm pretty sure my DM won't let that fly.

I would say bend rather than abuse. Specifically because the long stick would cost double of what a wand would cost. (e.g. Spell level*CL*750 * 2, because of the no space limitation).

Nonetheless, I'd still pick CWI over CW, since you can make so many things with it. A wand is limited, it's a charged stick with spells. A wondrous item can be practically anything.

[Chilingsworth]

Well, there's the Cloak of Elvenkind, but the creator must be an elf (which I am not).

1. You can make custom magic items via the rules presented in the DMG and the MIC. You don't need to make a true cloak of elvenkind.

2. If your DM refuses to let you do this, you don't have to meet all the requirements yourself. You can have help. So, if you're not an elf, you can get an elf to help you, thus fulfilling that requirement.

[Gnaeus]

If a flying enemy comes and attacks your party, would you rather cast fly 5 times, or have everyone activate their flight item?

If attacked by invisible enemies, would you rather cast see invisible 5 times, or have everyone activate their corsairs eyepatch or blindfold of true darkness?

If you want to help your fighter fight better, would you rather pull out a wand of haste or have him use his boots of speed? (repeat this question with blur/cloak of displacement, Bulls strength/belt of giant strength, etc.)

Craft wondrous item is better.

[JackRackham]

I have a related question: is CWI worthwhile for a cleric (not a clericzilla build: cloistered cleric, high mental stats, DMM quicken or maximize, city, commerce and knowledge domains). I'm away from my books ATM and don't remember what spells are required for a lot of the nice wondrous items. Are enough of them cleric spells to warrant CWI? That's the question, I guess. Thanks in advance.

[Chilingsworth]

I have a related question: is CWI worthwhile for a cleric (not a clericzilla build: cloistered cleric, high mental stats, DMM quicken or maximize, city, commerce and knowledge domains). I'm away from my books ATM and don't remember what spells are required for a lot of the nice wondrous items. Are enough of them cleric spells to warrant CWI? That's the question, I guess. Thanks in advance.

Well, you'll be able to craft Con, Str, Wis, and Cha stat items. Resistance items should be available. You'll also be able to craft healing items such as the ones in the MIC. You'll be able to craft skill bonus items of whatever skills you have the appropriate number of ranks in. Those are just the items that come immediately to mind.

Also, if you have other spellcasters in your party, or members that otherwise can provide crafting prerequisites, you can collababorate with them to make even more items.

[Randomguy]

Get craft wondrous item is better: Wondrous items tend to provide continuous affects, or can by activated by anyone and not just you or someone with high ranks in UMD. Also, mostly it's the casters that can actually use wands, while everyone uses wondrous items.

Lastly, wondrous items are much more expensive than wands, so you save more money by crafting wondrous items than you do by crafting wands.

Don't forget that you can use CWI as an emergency replacement for craft rings, but it's more expensive than actually crafting a ring.

Also, if there's an elf in your party you can work together to craft a cloak of elvenkind. You can even make it so that the elf pays the xp.

[house.au]

Don't forget that you can use CWI as an emergency replacement for craft rings, but it's more expensive than actually crafting a ring.

How does that work? Total noob to crafting here...

[SamBurke]

So I am playing my first Wizard in 3.X and I need some feat advice.

I want to take an item creation feat at 6th level. I was thinking of getting Craft Wand so I can save myself on some spell slots in the future, but a couple of my fellow players are requesting for wondrous items and are even willing to buy me scrolls of new spells so to help me meet the prerequisites. An influx of new spells is pretty tempting, and I know that Craft Wondrous Item really covers a lot of ground.

So, watcha think, Playground? Which is better? :smallwink:

Wondrous Item. Almost all of the things you'll get as a caster will be wondrous items.

[Tvtyrant]

And wondrous items allow you to make a Blessed Book, which pays itself off very quickly. 1,000 free pages=100,000 GP, the book costs 12,000.

[KillianHawkeye]

Okay, you guys have convinced me. Now I need to start making a list of spells to get and magic items I can make from them!