Rod of Many Wands and Eternal Wands

[Garret Dorigan]

I have my own feelings on Eternal Wands as a whole, but how does the X/d item mix with an item that works with charges and increases charge use?

More to the point, has this been covered somewhere that I've not been able to find?

[Thurbane]

I would say that by RAW, it wouldn't work, since the Rod runs off a charge based mechanic.
Eternal Wands, despite their name, in some ways function more as a Wondrous Item than an actual Wand.

[Psyren]

I would say that by RAW, it wouldn't work, since the Rod runs off a charge based mechanic.
Eternal Wands, despite their name, in some ways function more as a Wondrous Item than an actual Wand.

I disagree - it would work by RAW, because the charge-draining is not required for the wands to function. By RAW, the following happens: you speak the command word, the wands activate, then X charges are drained from each wand (where X is the total number of wands in the rod.)

Because Eternal Wands don't actually use charges, step 3 does nothing - but the magic still comes out because of steps 1 and 2. And because you are still activating the wands, you will use up one of their uses/day.
So if you loaded a rod with eternal wands, you could do this twice in a day before you needed to load the rod with new ones.

[Tokuhara]

I disagree - it would work by RAW, because the charge-draining is not required for the wands to function. By RAW, the following happens: you speak the command word, the wands activate, then X charges are drained from each wand (where X is the total number of wands in the rod.)

Because Eternal Wands don't actually use charges, step 3 does nothing - but the magic still comes out because of steps 1 and 2. And because you are still activating the wands, you will use up one of their uses/day.
So if you loaded a rod with eternal wands, you could do this twice in a day before you needed to load the rod with new ones.

By this definition: Hello Magical Cartridges for my Artificer Revolvers

[Psyren]

Given that you'd only use this if you were activating 2-3 wands at a time, I'd consider it more of a shotgun than a revolver.

[Tokuhara]

Given that you'd only use this if you were activating 2-3 wands at a time, I'd consider it more of a shotgun than a revolver.

TWF + Dual Wand Wielder + Paired 6-Chambered Rod of Many Wands + Duster and Hat = Mage Gunslinger

[Psyren]

TWF + Dual Wand Wielder + Paired 6-Chambered Rod of Many Wands + Duster and Hat = Mage Gunslinger

It's not precisely a revolver though - every wand in the rod fires at once. That's why I said shotgun. (In addition, it's a full-round action to activate each rod, and they always have different command words, so you can never activate them both at once.)

Finally, the rods can only hold 3 wands each unless you homebrew something.

[Magnera]

It's not precisely a revolver though - every wand in the rod fires at once. That's why I said shotgun. (In addition, it's a full-round action to activate each rod, and they always have different command words, so you can never activate them both at once.)

Finally, the rods can only hold 3 wands each unless you homebrew something.

Why would they always have different command words?

[Arcanist]

Why would they always have different command words?

It's just mechanical fluff. The item by RAW requires a full-round action to activate. Now if you could make a Rod of many Staffs (or some other ways to get Greater Celerity on a wand or something)

[Psyren]

Why would they always have different command words?

Because the rules say so. Complete Mage:


After one or more wands are loaded into the rod, they can all be activated by a single command word unique to the rod. This utterance is a complex phrase in Draconic, and speaking it requires a full-round action, rather than the standard action normally required for command word activation.