Destroying Wands/Rods

[Yogibear41]

In our game session we got our selves into a bit of a jam and when looking for creative ways to get out one of our wizards thought of the idea of tossing his wand at the enemies and then trying to blow it up. All of us seemed to recall some rule about if you destroy a wand or rod it causes all remaining charges in the wand to "go off" and damage anything in the immediate area of his destruction, however none of us could find such rule so it ended up not happening. Does anyone know if this rule is printed in 3.5 anywhere or if was simply a throwback to an earlier edition that some of the party members happened to remeber.

[tyckspoon]

It's a throwback. In 3.5, destroyed wands are simply broken. The only 3.5 items that still do the retributive strike/final release thing are those that specifically say they do (just the Staff of Power that I can remember, but there might be another one or two somewhere as well.)

[Psyren]

I think only the Staff of the Magi (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/artifacts.htm#staffoftheMagi) (an artifact) has a clause like that. In fact, it comes right out and says that not every magic item with charges can do this.

[Matticussama]

You can do that with a Retributive Strike, but it only applies to specific items (usually Staves) that say so in their description. As far as I know, there aren't rules for that with Wands or Rods.

Edit: You can also do it with a Staff of Power and a rare few other staves in addition to the Staff of the Magi, but not with Wands.

[Baroncognito]

There are a number of items that do behave that way. The necklace of fireballs, for example, will explode if it fails a save.




A staff of power can be used for a retributive strike, requiring it to be broken by its wielder. (If this breaking of the staff is purposeful and declared by the wielder, it can be performed as a standard action that does not require the wielder to make a Strength check.) All charges currently in the staff are instantly released in a 30-foot spread. All creatures and objects within 2 squares of the broken staff take an amount of damage equal to 20 x the number of charges in the staff, those 3 or 4 squares away take an amount of damage equal to 15 x the number of charges, and those 5 or 6 squares away take an amount of damage equal to 10 x the number of charges. All those affected can make DC 17 Reflex saves to reduce the damage by half.

The character breaking the staff has a 50% chance of traveling to another plane of existence (01—50 on a d%), but if she does not, the explosive release of spell energy instantly destroys her. Only certain items, including the staff of the magi and the staff of power, are capable of being used for a retributive strike.

[Yogibear41]

Well darn got the idea to play a character immune to one type of element and walk around exploding wands of that element on myself thereby blowing everything up around me lol

[Rhynn]

Doesn't look like a throwback; no such general rule for rods, staves, or wands in AD&D 2E (you can intentionally break your staff of the magi or staff of power to cause the retributive strike explosion). AD&D 1E has the exact same situation, except with the addition of "At your [the DM's] option, 1% of all wands are trapped to backfire."

So, some specific items may react explosively, but it's no general rule in any edition as far as I can see. (I only looked through the sections on the relevant types of magic items, so it's possible I missed some throwaway line in the middle of paragraphs of prose in the 1E or 2E DMGs.)

[Slipperychicken]

If that were legal, we'd probably have at least two "wand-snapper" builds floating around by now. It would also be super unbalanced. A 50d6 explosive is worth a whole lot more than 750gp.

[Yogibear41]

If that were legal, we'd probably have at least two "wand-snapper" builds floating around by now. It would also be super unbalanced. A 50d6 explosive is worth a whole lot more than 750gp.

Indeed it is, but you gotta admit it would be awesome lol

[Ravenica]

Well darn got the idea to play a character immune to one type of element and walk around exploding wands of that element on myself thereby blowing everything up around me lol

necklace of fireballs is what you want then, works exactly how you want and does so gloriously