[PF]Wand Spells

[PlusSixPelican]

Out of curiosity, what are everyone's favorite spells to have on a wand?

[Kudaku]

Infernal Healing is definitely up there. PF's evil version of Lesser Vigor.

Comprehend Languages is handy for the utility, but you probably won't need a full 50 charges. See if you can buy a partially charged wand, or go for scrolls.
Detect Secret Doors.
Keep Watch. Similar to Comprehend Languages, very handy but you probably won't need 50 charges.
Floating Disk/Ant Haul. Both of these provide carry capacity utility.
Silent Image. Because hologram projectors are awesome. Remember there's no save unless you interact with it.
Expeditious Excavation(!). Don't like that door blocking your way? No problem, just move the wall next to it.
Gravity Bow is lovely for the archers out there.
Swift Girding, for those awkward "but I just got out of bed"-ambushes. Your full-plate wearing fighter friend will love you forevers. Again, might be better as a few scrolls instead of a full wand.
Air Bubble/ Touch of the Sea. Probably scroll material if you're not in an aquatic campaign, but very handy.

[Coidzor]

Out of curiosity, what are everyone's favorite spells to have on a wand?

Cure Light Wounds is the obligatory answer for being the magical band-aid to end all magical band-aids.

[Kudaku]

Cure Light Wounds is the obligatory answer for being the magical band-aid to end all magical band-aids.
I'd argue that Infernal Healing outperforms CLW by a fairly wide margin, and it's on the spell list of the Cleric/Oracle, Magus, Summoner, Sorcerer/Wizard, and Witch to boot. However it has the Evil tag, so you might run into some difficulties if you're playing a good-aligned divine caster.

Continuing my list with a look at the cleric spell list yields a few good 'uns:

Endure Elements, fixed duration of 24 hours. Depends on your campaign of course, but can definitely come in handy.
Know The Enemy for a free +10 insight knowledge bonus on any monster you've met in the past day. Useful if you're low on scholarly characters or your campaign has a monster theme, like RotRL.
Remove Sickness and Sanctify Corpse might be better off as scrolls, but certainly handy.
Touch of Truthtelling will absolutely wreck any and all mystery plots your GM has going if he doesn't see it coming, so might be a bit careful with that one.

[PlusSixPelican]

Additional question: Cure Light Wounds or Infernal Healing?

[Kudaku]

A first level wand of a healing spell is not going to be able to keep up with combat damage, well, ever, so ideally and most likely you'll be using the wand for downtime healing (ie between encounters).

A 1st level wand of CLW heals on average 5.5 HP per charge. 5.5 multiplied by 50 comes to an average of 275 HP healed per wand.
A 1st level wand of Infernal Healing heals 10 HP flat. 10 HP multiplied by 50 comes to an average of 500 HP healed per wand.

That having been said, using a wand of Infernal Healing is considered an evil act (due to the Evil Descriptor Tag), meaning clerics etc can't use it. Furthermore, Infernal Healing is on the following spell lists: Cleric/Oracle, Magus, Sorcerer/Wizard, Summoner, Witch.

CLW is on the spell lists of: Alchemist, Bard, Cleric/Oracle, Druid, Inquisitor, Paladin, Ranger, Witch.

So if you have a class in your party that's able to use a wand of IH, I'd grab that. If alignment or spell list accessibility is an issue and you don't have anyone with UMD, the wand of CLW is a good if slightly suboptimal alternative.

[Frosty]

Yeah, but evil.

[Kudaku]

Yeah, but evil.

Covered the possible drawbacks of that earlier in the thread, but I updated my previous post to cover the alignment issues as well :smallsmile:

[PlusSixPelican]

I think it's a little strange to call efficient low-level healing evil, mechanically.

[Kudaku]

I think it's a little strange to call efficient low-level healing evil, mechanically.

It has to do with a fairly unfortunate blanket ruling that casting any spell, and by extension using a spell completion item, with the [Evil] descriptor is an evil act and subsequently good-aligned deities will not grant spells with the Evil descriptor and vice versa. The average character using a spell with the [Evil] descriptor wouldn't (or shouldn't) alter his alignment simply because he casts the spell, but rather you'd look at the circumstances and the application of the spell in question. Using Infernal Healing to heal the party paladin is good (and possibly hillarious), while using Infernal Healing to magically sustain a torture session is probably frowned upon by the Empyreal Lords.

For instance, a chaotic evil cleric wants to cast Protection from Evil as he gets ready to kill his immediate superior in order to earn a promotion in the Church of cliched Evil. The spell would give him a benefit in arguably doing an evil thing (killing for his own gain) but he is unable to cast it since PfE is a spell with the [Good] descriptor.

A good-aligned cleric wants to use a looted wand of Infernal Healing in order to help children as they are tossed out of a burning orphanage. His apparently somewhat prudish deity however feels that using that wand would be badwrongbad. The cleric tries to use the wand with UMD. Now the Cleric faces potentially losing his abilities for trying to use an [Evil] spell against the express wishes of his god, all in the pursuit of a Good goal.

Edit: It should be noted that Infernal Healing is by far one of the least "evil themed" of the Evil Descriptor spells - apart from the material component (one drop of devil blood/unholy water) and the fact that the person it is cast on detects as evil for the duration it's a perfectly normal spell.

I'd personally suggest either removing the Evil tag or let the neutral/good religions develop a neutral and/or good aligned variant. For reference, Lesser Vigor from 3.5 is pretty much the exact same spell only without the evil theme.

[avr]

It's odd that there's no good/neutral variant, but partially turning someone into a devil for a minute is consistent with the evil tag. I think that's what infernal healing does.

In combat wand uses include a lot of battlefield control stuff. Create pit and silent image still work with poor save DCs. Some out of combat stuff that you're likely to cast many times a day or not at all - knock, maybe invisibility if you're making the whole party invisible, some buffs - goes on to wands well.

[Kudaku]

It's odd that there's no good/neutral variant, but partially turning someone into a devil for a minute is consistent with the evil tag. I think that's what infernal healing does.

There is some backing for this interpretation in the spell description, specifically that the spell does not heal damage from Silver or Good-aligned weapons - many devils have DR/Silver.

That having been said, I'd feel more comfortable with this spell being Evil if it required angel blood. Oh well, one of those things I guess.

[ericgrau]

Cure light wounds (or w/e substitute)
~Unseen servant
Invisibility
Augury

All for heavy spammability between fights. If it's not spammable it belongs on a scroll. If you're not a full caster the list greatly expands because you get the wand to be able to cast it every day, spammable or not.

In certain styles of campaigns resist energy (thematic dungeons), silence (stealth), disguise other (clever plans / stealth) or lesser restoration (plot fighting foes like undead or assassins) can also be handy.

[WildPyre]

Mage Armor, Shield and Rejuvinate Eidolon for my Summoners.

[Coidzor]

Yeah, but evil.

Also, some things it can't heal at all, so you'll likely want a CLW wand as well.


I think it's a little strange to call efficient low-level healing evil, mechanically.

They don't want you having too much fun as a goody-two-shoes, after all. :smallwink:

[Ravens_cry]

If you have time, Infernal healing does beat our CLW, but it takes a minute, while in a minute you could be hit by CLW 10 times. Even the most patent DM's might get annoyed if you spend half an hour in game pounding down wands, compared to a 3 minutes if they are going for any kind of pacing.
Still, from a gold to HP perspective, definitely the best.

[Coidzor]

If you have time, Infernal healing does beat our CLW, but it takes a minute, while in a minute you could be hit by CLW 10 times. Even the most patent DM's might get annoyed if you spend half an hour in game pounding down wands, compared to a 3 minutes if they are going for any kind of pacing.
Still, from a gold to HP perspective, definitely the best.

How often do you need to heal someone 300 hp without being at such a high level that time is trivial?

[ericgrau]

When the whole party needs healing.

[Coidzor]

When the whole party needs healing.

...Can the wand not cast the spell while an older iteration is in effect?

[ericgrau]

Oh ya :P, true. Still 5-7 minutes to heal up at mid level can matter when you're storming a dungeon. Sometimes you don't even have time for CLW. It's not common though.