Direct-damage wands

[Kazyan]

Anyone know of some good wands to use when you just wanna blast stuff? This is for a level 7 Binder with 8,000 gp to spend and with Karsus available, so the save DC of the wands will be increased by 2. Wizard spells only, please, as per Karsus--I have no ranks in UMD.

Our group is also going to be fighting demons, so...elemental damage will not be all that helpful. I was thinking an Energy Substitution (Sonic) Shocking Grasp wand at CL 5. Thoughts?

[ArcturusV]

Honestly I kinda like Magic Missile, as sad as that may sound. Sometimes I just need to do some unavoidable damage. Sometimes you need that 3d4+3 to put the boot in something. Course you could metamagic it up to be better. No doubt about that.

[Malroth]

caster level boosted lesser sonic orb is a favorite of mine

[Kazyan]

Honestly I kinda like Magic Missile, as sad as that may sound. Sometimes I just need to do some unavoidable damage. Sometimes you need that 3d4+3 to put the boot in something. Course you could metamagic it up to be better. No doubt about that.

I'm going to be throwing out this damage like it's candy. Is 10.5 average damage the best we've got for 3,750 gp? The Shocking Grasp idea is 17.5, but puts me in more danger and has a change for the touch attack to fail. Hmm.

Re: Lesser sonic orb, it looks worse than Magic Missile for the same CL.

[ArcturusV]

Sheer damage? Probably not the best option. But the fact that it's unavoidable, unstoppable damage means something in my book. I mean you could be getting more out of a Wand of Fireball, sheer damage wise. Or even a Wand of Burning Hands with something like a 5 CL, not counting for AoE extra targets. But then you have to deal with Saves, resistances, etc.

Unfortunately my knowledge of blasty spells is nowhere near encyclopedic to really say what is the best.

[Xervous]

Are we allowing metamagicked wands by crafting casters with metamagic reducers?

[Emperor Tippy]

Remember that you can make wands that are effected by metamagic.

Arcane Thesis: Invisible (-1), Cooperative (-1), Sanctum (-2), Searing Spell (+0), Easy Metamagic: Maximize, Maximized (+1), Easy Metamagic: Quicken, Quickened (+2) Orb of Fire is a valid spell for a third level wand.

Do that with Fireball and its a valid second level wand and thus under your price limit. Buy a second one that trades the Quicken for Twin Spell and you can throw out three of those per turn.

Have it made by an Archmage with Mastery of the Elements and you can switch the energy type to Sonic.

It's the Mailman in a can.

Arcane Thesis, Enlarged, Invisible, Sanctum, Cooperative, Quickened, Chain, Fell Drain Magic Missile wand is a great starting choice.

[Kazyan]

Remember that you can make wands that are effected by metamagic.

-snip-

I know; you're the one I'm getting the Energy Substitution idea from. But I'm almost certain my DM will take one look at a heavily metamagic-reduced wand and say "no".

Fell Drain Sonic Snap could be seriously useful, even at the full +2 metamagic. 1,500 gp.


Sheer damage? Probably not the best option. But the fact that it's unavoidable, unstoppable damage means something in my book. I mean you could be getting more out of a Wand of Fireball, sheer damage wise. Or even a Wand of Burning Hands with something like a 5 CL, not counting for AoE extra targets. But then you have to deal with Saves, resistances, etc.

Unfortunately my knowledge of blasty spells is nowhere near encyclopedic to really say what is the best.

Yannowhat, I'll take it. 3,750 gp for CL 5 magic missile, 1,500 gp for Fell Drain Sonic Snap. Nice.

[Yaitanos]

There is also the feat in the ebberon books, cull essence. Which allows you to use a charge from a wand, and wand to do a ray attack. 60ft ray, deal damage based on the level of the spell in the wand. 1st-1d6, 2nd-3d6, 3rd-6d6 and 4th-10d6. Weapon focus (rays) counts and so does spell resistance. Have fun!

[Fyermind]

For added pleasure, you can make wands at lower caster levels if you could still cast the spells. It trades SR for lowered cost. You could get a wand of CL 1 casting 4th level arcane spells for mage fighting (or whatever that feat is) and pierce magical concealment.

When you fight no SR foes, your shots cost 1/7th as much

[Emperor Tippy]

For added pleasure, you can make wands at lower caster levels if you could still cast the spells. It trades SR for lowered cost. You could get a wand of CL 1 casting 4th level arcane spells for mage fighting (or whatever that feat is) and pierce magical concealment.

When you fight no SR foes, your shots cost 1/7th as much

No you can't. You can not cast a spell with a CL lower than the character level that you first get access to said spell (a wizard needs a CL of 17 to cast a 9th level spell).

Minimum CL to cast fireball is 5, for example.

[Fyermind]

No you can't. You can not cast a spell with a CL lower than the character level that you first get access to said spell (a wizard needs a CL of 17 to cast a 9th level spell).

Minimum CL to cast fireball is 5, for example.

Tippy, you are probably right about this, but say I am a eighth level wizard third level fighter with mage slayer and pierce magical concealment with and intelligence score of 13. I suck at life. I take my 12th level in wizard and put my bonus into intelligence. I now have caster level 1 (9 wizard levels -8 from feats) and have just gained the ability to cast fourth level spells for the first time (intelligence 14). convoluted? Yes. Do artificer's or anyone else UMD crafting wands as though they were someone else care? Not really.

In the likely event Tippy is right, and I am wrong, this should still work. A Wizard 9, bard 1, sublime chord 1 can have a sublime chord caster level of 2 and can cast fourth level spells as a sublime chord.

[Xervous]

I believe that Sanctum Spell-ed Spells can be ruled either way on whether they (5ths) can fit into wands as they count as 4ths for a variety of things.

Of course, I could be wrong once more.

[almightycoma]

for meta magic on a wand the most DMs are ok with, you could try a meta magic grip.