Looking for Wand Recommendations

[CDTalmas]

Hello folks. Our DM has enabled us access to an absolute wealth of money (read: I've kept items away from you for 7 levels now... let's get you some stuff!) and a one-time access to a specialized merchant who will house any magic item up to 65k in cost. I'm looking to increase my versatility as a Healer (playing Jiriku's Healer fix). My UMD is high enough to reliably activate any staff or wand. Pretty much all official books are allowed (and permission required for other sources). Now, despite my primary role, I'd like to provide some secondary backup as either a crowd controller or all-around supporter.

To sum it up, what spells would you put on wands of 1st through 4th levels, cost NOTwithstanding? I'm not looking for Genesis-type effects that create demi-planes or some-such; just some good support measures for the rest of the party (Totemist, Wizard, ToB Unarmed Swordsage, 1 Druid/Planar Shepherd, 1 Druid/MoMF, 1 Bard). I've got a Belt of Many Pouches lined up for access to any or all of them and there's just so gosh darn many spells. I figured things like Favor of the Martyr, Invisibility, Grease, etc. are all good spells but there's just a plethora out there. What would you choose?

If it would make it easier, maybe the top three spells you'd put for each level:

Level 1)
#1: ???
#2: ???
#3: ???

Level 2)
#1: ???
#2: ???
#3: ???

Level 3)
#1: ???
#2: ???
#3: ???

Level 4)
#1: ???
#2: ???
#3: ???

[Troacctid]

Off the top of my head:

Level 1:
Blade of Blood
Resurgence
Benign Transposition
Lesser Vigor
Obscuring Mist
Swift Invisibility
Swift Expeditious Retreat
Nerveskitter

Level 2:
Primal Instinct (best on an eternal wand)
Spider Climb
Invisibility
Lesser Restoration

Grease is useless on a wand as its duration is only 1 round.

[Randomguy]

Grease actually isn't that great in a wand. You want spells with a high duration / level and no saving throw.

Level 1:
Protection from evil. (as a counter to mind control when it comes up).
Enlarge Person. (make the totemist and swordsage buy you this one)
Mount. (i.e. wall of horse)
Silent Image.
Blockade from Complete scoundrel.

Level 3:
Regal procession from Spell Compendium. (i.e. mass mount, i.e. greater wall of horse).
Mass Resist Energy at CL 7. For when a dragon shows up and you want to protect the whole party from the breath weapon. If this one's too pricy just get a scroll or two.

[Ruethgar]

Firstly, you should get a livewood staff made by create devise with a bio charger built in. +1 charge per 1d4 rounds isn't much, but it would sure as hell make your staff worth it no matter what you put in it.

I would also look into the Invigorating spell template, can't recall the Dragon it was in but it is a feat tax to give a rider to all Conjuration(Healing) spells to remove a variety of minor status effects.

If you want a low level Genisis effect, the nearest you can get is a War Rope Trick. Note that rope trick only has a creature limit plus the rope, objects are fine. Holes of Hiding can technically hold an infinite number of non-humanoid objects and creatures because of the altered wording. And rope tricks in particular can have portals leading to them.

[CDTalmas]

Off the top of my head:

Level 1:
Resurgence
Benign Transposition
Lesser Vigor
Obscuring Mist
Swift Invisibility
Swift Expeditious Retreat
Nerveskitter

Level 2:
Primal Instinct (best on an eternal wand)
Spider Climb
Invisibility
Lesser Restoration

Grease is useless on a wand as its duration is only 1 round.
Awesome. Exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. And I could've SWORN grease was a 1 min/level spell... Weird! Any other wands you'd recommend inside a casting glove or the like?


Grease actually isn't that great in a wand. You want spells with a high duration / level and no saving throw.

Level 1:
Protection from evil. (as a counter to mind control when it comes up).
Enlarge Person. (make the totemist and swordsage buy you this one)
Mount. (i.e. wall of horse)
Silent Image.
Blockade from Complete scoundrel.

Level 3:
Regal procession from Spell Compendium. (i.e. mass mount, i.e. greater wall of horse).
Mass Resist Energy at CL 7. For when a dragon shows up and you want to protect the whole party from the breath weapon. If this one's too pricy just get a scroll or two.
Again, can't believe I thought Grease was a longer spell. Could've sworn it was a minute per... Wall of horse is a hilarious thought though! Blockade is an awesomely quick battlefield control spell, though it would require me to get into the thick of things (or us it as a semi-escape spell to block vision). Regal procession is, again, absolutely hilarious. Summoned creatures can make for quite a change in battle. And as I said, price is no object on this one. Mass Resist is an awesome wand spell. I could definitely choose the Wizard version of that for the CL 7 version.


Firstly, you should get a livewood staff made by create devise with a bio charger built in. +1 charge per 1d4 rounds isn't much, but it would sure as hell make your staff worth it no matter what you put in it.

I would also look into the Invigorating spell template, can't recall the Dragon it was in but it is a feat tax to give a rider to all Conjuration(Healing) spells to remove a variety of minor status effects.

If you want a low level Genisis effect, the nearest you can get is a War Rope Trick. Note that rope trick only has a creature limit plus the rope, objects are fine. Holes of Hiding can technically hold an infinite number of non-humanoid objects and creatures because of the altered wording. And rope tricks in particular can have portals leading to them.
I appreciate the thought but I'm good on staves (I loaded up; as I said, money became a non-issue for one shopping trip). And I wanted to avoid Genesis-type effects. The items for purchase are "as-is" and cannot be modified with templates or metamagics (unless they've already been written down as such items in the DMG or the like).

There's a "G" in "DMG" after all!

[Janthkin]

Eternal Wands of Healthful Rest & Endure Elements are standard equipment on many of my characters; so handy!

Lesser Restoration is a good choice, as it means you never have to prepare it - save your slots for less-situational spells. See also Cat's Grace, Bull's Strength, Animalistic Power, etc. Basically, any spell where the lower CL of the wand isn't going to unnecessarily hurt, either in duration, save, or effect. Note that a wand CAN be made at higher-than-minimum caster level per standard DMG rules.

Obscuring Mist or Fog Cloud is a good choice for some quick battlefield control. (Note that per the movement rules, anyone moving in a vision-hampering cloud who relies on sight is paying double movement cost.) Entangle is a great spell even at CL 1 and DC 11.

Comprehend Languages (or Tongues), unless your party already includes a cunning linguist.

Some others:
Blur; Displacement, sadly, is rounds/level, but Blur lasts 3 minutes from a wand.
Knock.
Silence.

Arcane Sight.
Glibness.
Invisibility Sphere.
Zone of Silence.

Freedom of Movement.
Solid Fog.

[Efrate]

Summon monster 4? Mephits give a nice chunk of options. Summon nature's ally 4 gives you a unicorn for neutralize poison and a bit of healing, plus other options. Tongues, comprehend languages, knock, glitterdust, heroics are all awesome. Bands of steel, assay spell resistance, haste also worth mentioning. Dismissal, freedom of movement, mass conviction, mass lesser vigor all solid. Wall of sand is 4th level I think.

[Faily]

Level 1)
#1: Lesser Vigor
#2: Magic Missile (I call it my tiny laser-pistol)
#3: Snake's Swiftness (1st level for Druids)
Honorable Mention: Protection from Evil

Level 2)
#1: Lesser Restoration
#2: Web (even if they manage their save, its still good)
#3: Invisibility
Honorable Mention: Silence

Level 3)
#1: Remove Blindness/Deafness
#2: Stone Shape
#3: Wind Wall

Level 4)
#1: Neutralize Poison (almost never prepare it, but poison sucks sooo much when it hits)
#2: Deathward
#3: Wall of Ice (has often been useful for me for utility)

[CDTalmas]

Eternal Wands of Healthful Rest & Endure Elements are standard equipment on many of my characters; so handy!

Lesser Restoration is a good choice, as it means you never have to prepare it - save your slots for less-situational spells. See also Cat's Grace, Bull's Strength, Animalistic Power, etc. Basically, any spell where the lower CL of the wand isn't going to unnecessarily hurt, either in duration, save, or effect. Note that a wand CAN be made at higher-than-minimum caster level per standard DMG rules.

Obscuring Mist or Fog Cloud is a good choice for some quick battlefield control. (Note that per the movement rules, anyone moving in a vision-hampering cloud who relies on sight is paying double movement cost.) Entangle is a great spell even at CL 1 and DC 11.

Comprehend Languages (or Tongues), unless your party already includes a cunning linguist.

Some others:
Blur; Displacement, sadly, is rounds/level, but Blur lasts 3 minutes from a wand.
Knock.
Silence.

Arcane Sight.
Glibness.
Invisibility Sphere.
Zone of Silence.

Freedom of Movement.
Solid Fog.
I hadn't even thought of the eternal wands on those spells... If you have at least one spell slot remaining by the end of the night, definitely worth it. Thank you for those. As for higher CL wands, the DM is allowing "as is" wands. Basically, if it's 4th level or lower, it can be made as a standard-type wand (assuming all proper creation rules apply). No CL increases. I imagine those will come later in the campaign. Things have been high-powered for a while!

And I completely forgot that Freedom of Movement is so low-leveled. Almost feels cheesy to make a wand of it... but not cheesy enough not to! Awesome spells altogether. Rod of Many Wands ahoy for buff spells!


Summon monster 4? Mephits give a nice chunk of options. Summon nature's ally 4 gives you a unicorn for neutralize poison and a bit of healing, plus other options. Tongues, comprehend languages, knock, glitterdust, heroics are all awesome. Bands of steel, assay spell resistance, haste also worth mentioning. Dismissal, freedom of movement, mass conviction, mass lesser vigor all solid. Wall of sand is 4th level I think.
Mephits, huh? The SNA's and SM's I'd considered but I felt like their durations would be too short for the effectiveness, at least without a CL boost. Sadly, these are all standard wands created at minimum caster level. That said, as Randomguy mentioned above, more creatures on the battlefield is controlling the battlefield, even if just as bodies and probably an effect or two. And Heroics! I'd almost forgotten about that. A good fighter feat here or there could be extremely useful. Assay Spell Resistance is always awesome. Talking about the Wall of Sand made me look into a few more of those [walls]. Thank you again! I'll look into each of those.


Level 1)
#1: Lesser Vigor
#2: Magic Missile (I call it my tiny laser-pistol)
#3: Snake's Swiftness (1st level for Druids)
Honorable Mention: Protection from Evil

Level 2)
#1: Lesser Restoration
#2: Web (even if they manage their save, its still good)
#3: Invisibility
Honorable Mention: Silence

Level 3)
#1: Remove Blindness/Deafness
#2: Stone Shape
#3: Wind Wall

Level 4)
#1: Neutralize Poison (almost never prepare it, but poison sucks sooo much when it hits)
#2: Deathward
#3: Wall of Ice (has often been useful for me for utility)
And you lined them up perfectly for me. Lesser Vigor is definitely the go-to for efficient per GP healing (and isn't nearly as random!). And I finally took a second look at Web... 20-ft. radius. Radius! I kept thinking it was a flat plane, like a wall! Rock on there! Silence is always golden (bad pun, I know). And Death Ward, thanks for that. Negative levels SUCK on spellcasters... so that's a good thing to have on hand! Thanks again. These are all awesome ideas.

[Barbarian Horde]

Wand of Blockade....

[frost890]

Grease is useless on a wand as its duration is only 1 round.

Unless you have a torch or someone likes fire spells

[Troacctid]

Unless you have a torch or someone likes fire spells

Still useless. No interaction with either of these things.

[Thurbane]

Heightened (lvl 4) Grease, CL 7 = 10,500gp fully charged. DC 16.

[Divide by Zero]

Heightened (lvl 4) Grease, CL 7 = 10,500gp fully charged. DC 16.

You don't even need to go that far if you don't care about the save effect, since you can craft a wand above the minimum CL.

[CDTalmas]

I wanted to thank everyone for their contributions to this thread. My healer has more than doubled in effectiveness. I've used the mount wand to great effect, wall of ice to block hallways, and the protection from evil wand saved our skins from our party's rather dangerous charmed uber charger! Thank you tremendously folks.

[thethird]

Firstly, you should get a livewood staff made by create devise with a bio charger built in. +1 charge per 1d4 rounds isn't much, but it would sure as hell make your staff worth it no matter what you put in it.

What's the source on that?

[Mystral]

And I completely forgot that Freedom of Movement is so low-leveled. Almost feels cheesy to make a wand of it... but not cheesy enough not to! Awesome spells altogether. Rod of Many Wands ahoy for buff spells!

I personally find Freedom of Movement to be a terrible choice for a wand spell.

First of all, you would have to draw and use it. When you need Freedom of Movement, you most likely will have trouble with either. And it's going to set you back 21k. That money can buy you a whole arsenal of usefull lower level spells. And if someone dispells it, which most wizards who cause those status effects can easily do, you're back to square one.

If you really want to have that effect, I suggest that you save for a ring of Freedom of Movement. It costs 40k and is always active.

[ksbsnowowl]

Benediction (Clr 2, Comp Champ?)

Best use of a wand, ever.