Spellsticks Great and Small

[Andorax]

I've been looking over the Scepter (Lost Empires of Faerun) and been doing some thinking on the topic of spell-storage devices in general.

For those of you unfamiliar, the Scepter is very similar to the Staff...perhaps a predecessor:

- About the size of a rod.
- Minimum CL of 6 (subject to the minimum level to make
- Can hold up to 7th level spells.
- Always has 2 spells in it.
- Spells L1-4 always cost 1 charge.
- Spells L5-7 always cost 2 charges.
- Does NOT gain the staff's caster level and ability score boosts.

The only advantages it holds over a staff are:

- Craft Scepter is available at 9th level.
- The second spell is at half price (staffs price the second at 3/4, third and thereafter at 1/2).
- It's physically smaller and more portable.



I ran a bunch of numbers, and specifically compared it to the existing two-spell staffs in the DMG. It didn't turn out well for Scepters. The rigid charge structure and lack of the CL/DC boosts makes the Scepter an unlikely choice in most cases...though a Scepter of Earth and Stone does make sense.



So, to the actual question at hand. Put yourself in the role of a player in my campaign with an interest in spell-storing item creation. How would you react to the following two house rules?


1) Craft Wand, Craft Scepter and Craft Staff are rolled together into a single Craft Spellstick feat (pre-requisite of CL 5).

The feat gives you the ability to craft Wands immediately, Scepters once your CL reaches 9, and Staffs when your CL reaches 12.

Anything that has a pre-requisite of Craft Wand or Craft Staff has a pre-requisite of Craft Spellstick.

Anything that has a pre-requisite of multiple crafting feats still counts Craft Spellstick as only one such feat.

Anything else that refers specifically to wands or to staffs still only applies to those types of items only (dual wand wielders can still only dual wield wands, not scepters or staffs).

Essentially, you don't gain any earlier utility or access, but you no longer have to shell out three different feats to be able to make whichever variety of spell-storing stick you prefer.


2) All staffs are required to have a minimum of 3 spells. Existing two-spell staffs will either be eliminated (charming, life) or become scepters (earth and stone, swarming insects), and repriced accordingly.

[Keld Denar]

Sounds like a good house rule. I have NEVER EVER EVER in 12 years of playing 3rd edition EVER seen anyone take Craft Staff. Wand, yes. Rods, yes. Rings, yes. Arms and Armor, definitately. Wonderous Item most of all. Never ever Craft Staff. I like it. It's not too strong, and you still have to expend crafting resources, so you really aren't getting much extra.

[Alefiend]

I like the concept. Here are a couple of questions/comments:

1. Should you also add Craft Rod to the list, or do you feel rods are sufficiently different from the other items to warrant its own feat?

2. Much as I like the idea of making my own magical tools, I would probably add some sort of additional requirement for each type. Perhaps you could add a craft skill (or family of skills), so that anybody who takes the feat has to stay current in order to benefit from the expanded options as they gain levels.

[Andorax]

Thanks for the input so far.

Alefiend, I don't want to include Rods because they're not a spell-trigger item. Physically, they're similar, magically...they're a type of wonderous item that requires a different feat.

I'm also disinclined to add a craft skill requirement. While I like the idea in theory, it's a skill 'tax' not reflected in any of the other item creation feats...you don't need Craft (Alchemy) for brew potion, for example.

Perhaps a Spellcraft requirement? Minimal for wands (4 ranks), scaled up for scepters (8) and staffs (12)? I don't want it to replace the spell-level requirement, as I want to keep staffs in the domain of higher-level casters, not just higher-level characters.

[Coidzor]

Perhaps a Spellcraft requirement? Minimal for wands (4 ranks), scaled up for scepters (8) and staffs (12)? I don't want it to replace the spell-level requirement, as I want to keep staffs in the domain of higher-level casters, not just higher-level characters.

A higher-level crafter is going to be a full-caster or near enough unless they're an artificer in which case they're going to be full-classed artificers anyway 99 times out of 100. So in general it shouldn't really come up as a concern.

I'd suggest doing some similar condensing with rods and wondrous items or wondrous items and rings or even rods and rings if you're going to start down the path of condensation.

[Andorax]

I'd suggest doing some similar condensing with rods and wondrous items or wondrous items and rings or even rods and rings if you're going to start down the path of condensation.

It's something to consider. I'm not big into pushing for sweeping changes, though, mainly because the whole ring/rod/wondrous thing doesn't bother me the way wands and staffs do. Even that wasn't a big issue until scepters got brought up, and I thought about what it would be like to blow my 6, 9, and 12th level feats all three just to be able to make relatively similar, but progressively more powerful spell-storing-sticks.


Essentially, with scepters on the scene, the question is this:

...keep things as is, and nobody would take the Scepter feat, because it's almost entirely redundant once Craft Staff comes along and turns it into a wasted feat, or

...consolidate the spellsticks together, restrict staffs a bit to give scepters their niche (hence the 3+ spell rule), and thereby provide a richer variety of items with reasonable balance and reasonable cost.