Magic staffs. I'm ambivalent

[Keldrin]

My group was divvying up the latest party treasure and we had acquired a staff of evocation. At first it was decided to sell it. Lot's of money and we're not likely to use it (party has just hit 17th level and we have lots of ways to hurt the bad guys). After a bit of hemming and hawing, two of us decided it would be nice to have the emergency walls of force option.
We have lots of money so keeping it in the party wasn't a hardship for any of us.

Then I thought about buying another staff that would have some utility use, e.g. Staff of Passage, or Staff of Life (we don't have a cleric, but do have a druid, so no resurrection or raise dead), and as I looked at the standard list , I became more frustrated by the limitations. Staffs are expensive, and loaded with bloody useless spells, or worse, spell I WANT, but can't use because they're not on our lists.

Aargh.

So I guess I'm looking for advice on good staffs or nonstandard ones for a party . My character is a Jade Phoenix Mage with Wizard as my caster portion. A Druid. A sorcerer/archer/rogueish, and a secret Dread Necromancer ( I think).

Mostly looking for myself, I've got tons of scrolls for those useful , but little used spells, so I'm thinking of spells like wall of force, very situational, but when you want it, you're likely to want several.

tldr. I find staffs frustrating, but want a cool one , dammit!

edit. Can't spell , duh

[Jack_Simth]

Well, it's a DC 20 UMD check to use a staff of a spell not on your list. A few cross-class ranks and you've got a reasonable chance of actually using that Staff of Life if you need to.

You might, however, want to look at the Runestaffs in Magic Item Compendium.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I honestly find staffs useless aside from converting them into craft EXP for artificers. They are really cool thematically, but end up just being hideously expensive, less flexible, wands.

[Doc_Maynot]

Well a domain staff for the Druid would be the best way to get them some tasty spells not on their list.
A Domain staff hold nine spells from one domain, and it allows the caster to spont cast one of each spell by using one of their slots once per day.

[JDL]

If you're limiting yourself to purely the premade staffs in the DMG, they're pretty inferior for their price. However, if your DM allows crafting as per the rules, they can be quite useful mid level. A 50 charge staff of Baleful Polymorph will get you a long way, far more than a wand since you use your own casting DCs. Of course they're also a huge money sink, so if you have a stingy DM you'll probably end up blowing all your loot on crafting them.

[ericgrau]

Wall of force spamming will be really handy. Try it, you'll like it. Don't be stingy on charges, use it while it's still useful. Chain lightning is also great against 3+ foes that don't have SR or electricity immunity. Even at your level you'll take out 1/4 of the foe's health, so together that's like 3/4 of a foe in one round. Assuming you have other party members that deal damage to finish the job. If not then you may want to hold out for 6+ foes. The other 4 spells are no longer useful at your level.

It is hard to find a standard staff with stuff you like, especially at level 17. Ask your DM about making custom staffs. Either hire an NPC to make one or pick up a feat. If your staff is used between combat then it is usually better to have one spell on the staff, unless you think you'll never burn all the charges with only 1 spell. It is hard to use up a staff. If your spell is used in combat, it's better to have multiple spells to save on move actions.

The staff of life and maybe staff of transmutation are the only standard staffs I see that may be useful at your level. The staff of transmutation is more for utility uses. You get the ability to pick and choose between tunneling with 5 disintegrates, or polymorphing the entire party into a burrowing, swimming or flying creature that bypasses some encounter. Or if everyone gets UMD with at least a +10 modifier (for retries), you share it and all blink through an invincible wall. Or share and use it to buff up with blink and/or alter self ahead of time. These are all uses that you use either 5 times or 0 times, making them ideal for a staff. Pick other such spells on your custom staff. Or if there's a spell that you use either 5 times or 1 time, both prepare it and staff it, saving the staff for the 2nd+ times.

I think people hate staffs because they're thinking burning charges are like throwing money away, so they sell it off at panic speed without even trying it. Actually it's the opposite. In D&D the number of times you use something is extremely limited, so charged items tend to give a better deal than permanent ones. If you make a custom staff, make most spells cost 2 charges, or more if allowed.

[atemu1234]

Spells level 5-9 are a staff's greatest use.

[Keldrin]

Thank you folks for the suggestions and advice.

@DocMaynot; Domain staff? My google-fu is weak, and I couldn't find it. It sounds very possible.

My DM is flexible, so ordering a custom item from some Mercanes we met may be possible. I was looking at Dragon and other supplemental books and sources for staffs, and making myself crazy.

I'd get a Greenstone Amulet* and call it a day, but they're minor artifacts now and have no price..... *twitch*

* or some other fun, over the top item.

[ericgrau]

You can select any set of spells you want on your own custom staff and tell the NPC: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm#creatingStaffs . Though I'd try for something thematic simply for role playing reasons and to play nice.

My epic elf had a "staff of readiness" with all his high level preparation-type buffs on it: foresight, moment of prescience, etc. Don't remember if I ever added on timestop. Our DM let me upgrade my staff by simply paying the difference. And I think this is RAW: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm#addingNewAbilities . I only played for a few months but it still had 30-something charges left. In spite of spamming a set of buffs every known combat day. D&D is super short.

[Kraken]

If Dragon is on the table, Dragon 338 has the recharge staff feat, though it might be too late for you to look into getting it. First, a wizard needs to give up their familiar at first level in exchange for an ACF that gets them a staff. Then you need to take craft staff to enchant said staff with spells (craft staff is also a pre req for recharge staff). Then, once you finally get the recharge staff feat, it allows you to expend unused spell slots for the day to recharge your staff, at a rate of one charge per five spell levels. Yes, that means if a staff has a level 6-9 spell in it that costs 1 charge, you can expend a 5th level spell to get a charge back to cast that spell. Also great if you make your staff have spells with expensive material components that you want to spam regularly. Edit: the enchant staff feat is also worth mentioning. Requires the imbued staff ACF as recharge staff does, but when you take enchant staff you choose a spell one level lower than the highest level you can cast (yes, earth spell and similar shenanigans are applicable here). You may cast that spell as an SLA once a day as a standard action, and it functions as if you had cast it yourself. So at the cost of a feat and 100*spell level GP in a ritual, pick a spell that has a casting time of longer than a standard action, expensive material component or focus, and/or a high exp cost. You can now use it once a day for free as a standard action. The feat can be taken multiple times to add a selection of different spells, but it can't be applied to the same spell more than once for multiple uses of the same spell in a day.

[Doc_Maynot]

Thank you folks for the suggestions and advice.

@DocMaynot; Domain staff? My google-fu is weak, and I couldn't find it. It sounds very possible.

My DM is flexible, so ordering a custom item from some Mercanes we met may be possible. I was looking at Dragon and other supplemental books and sources for staffs, and making myself crazy.

I'd get a Greenstone Amulet* and call it a day, but they're minor artifacts now and have no price..... *twitch*

* or some other fun, over the top item.

Domain Staffs: Complete Champion page 143
Price: 36,000gp Each

DOMAIN STAFFS
A domain staff allows its wielder to use his own divine energy to generate magical effects. Each domain staff holds the nine spells associated with a particular cleric domain. By expending a prepared divine spell or divine spell slot, the wielder can "cast" a spell of the same level or lower from the runestaffs list, as long as that spell also appears on the wielder's divine class spell list (including his domain lists, if any). Treat the domain spell as a spell of its level in the domain, even if it appears on your spell list at a different level. The spell is treated exactly as if the wielder cast the spell himself, including caster level, save DC, and any other effects related to the spell. Each spell can be cast from a domain staff once per day.
In order to use a domain staff, you must attune yourself to it as part of your preparation or readying of divine spells. You can't attune yourself to more than one domain staff at a time; attuning yourself to a second domain staff breaks your previous attunement.
Activating a domain staff (that is, casting a spell from it) is almost exactly like casting the spell yourself, including casting time and even provoking attacks of opportunity. You must supply any components or costs normally required by the spell cast from the domain staff, just as if you had cast it yourself.
• If the spell has a verbal component, activating the domain staff requires you to perform that verbal component
(and thus the spell can't be cast if you're incapable of
speaking).
If the spell has a somatic component, you don't need to have
an extra hand free; simply manipulating the staff can meet
the requirement.
• If the spell has a material component or focus, you must supply it as part of the casting. For example, if a domain staff held stoneskin, you'd have to supply 250 gp of diamond dust each time you cast that spell from the domain staff.
• If a spell has an XP component, you must pay that each time you use the domain staff to cast that spell.
• If the spell has any other prerequisite that would normally prevent you from casting it (such as an alignment or racial restriction), you must meet the prerequisite in order to cast the spell from the domain staff.
You can apply the effect of metamagic feats that you know to spells from a domain staff, but you must expend a spell whose level equals or exceeds the adjusted level of the affected spell.

For you, I perhaps recommend a Hat of Many Spells from the Animated Series Handbook.

[Keldrin]

Thanks Doc. I'll take a look

[Vortenger]

The Runestaff of Power was always a favorite staff of mine. Versatility in casting, check. Excellent passive buffs, check. Cheaper than the base version by nearly half, check. No fiddly charges to keep track of since its powered by your casting (I call it a perk, many would disagree), check.

My preferred caster's held weapon since Age of Worms 2010. MIC, 38k gold.

edit: also, because of its smiting (double damage) ability, the staff is a great platform for a staff fighting gish. Combine the smite, Greater Mighty Wallop, Power Attack, TWF'ing, and your favorite buffs to shame barbarians with your walking stick.