MrSandman
2018-07-20, 06:33 AM
I've been looking through the rules for magic items in Spheres of Power, and wands seem to be both extraordinarily expensive and nearly useless.
So, basically, the most basic wand has one base sphere and one spell point. I need the base sphere (though not the specific talent) to activate, and I can't use my own spell points to activate it. So, unless I've got Use Magic Device, I cannot gain additional spheres with it and I can't really do much with it. I assume I can use it without spending spell points as much as I want, but that gives me rather underwhelming effects for its price. Then, maybe once or twice I can use some cool effects that spend spell points. Then, if I want to ever use that wand again, I need to recharge it by spending one of my own spell points, and I can only put one every day, so wands with a big amount of spell points (which would be like 5) take quite a bit to be recharged.
I can't help but compare that to a wand of cure light wounds, which gives me 50x 1d8+1 healing points for 750 gp. A simple healing wand in SoP would give me 1x 1d8+2 healing points for 1,000 gp with the possibility to recharge it. This seems to me to be a lot worse for a higher price. If instead of healing I want a wand of blasting, it's pretty much the same, I can get 1x 2d6 for 1,000 gp or 50x 1d4+1 for 750 gp. Granted, in this case the blasting wand can make more than twice the damage of a wand of magic missile, but again, it's still one use against fifty.
And if I want a wand that can do something other than the basic power of a sphere, it gets ridiculously expensive very quickly without giving me very many more uses. If I wanted a blasting sphere that can make fire balls I would need at the very least 9,000 gp (Explosive orb + Fire blast) and that would let me either cast a proper fire ball or do 6d6 damage instead of 3d6 once/day (assuming I recharge it every day). If I wanted to do both at the same time or be able to do it twice (and wait for two days to recharge it completely), it would cost me 16,000 gp. A fire ball wand with 50 charges (and 5d6 damage) would cost me 11,250 gp.
So, the only real use I can think of for wands is to gain access to additional talents of a sphere you already possess, if said talents don't require spell points to be used. Even then, it's probably more than I'd want to pay.
So my question is this: What am I missing? Why does it make sense to buy a wand using the SoP system?
So, basically, the most basic wand has one base sphere and one spell point. I need the base sphere (though not the specific talent) to activate, and I can't use my own spell points to activate it. So, unless I've got Use Magic Device, I cannot gain additional spheres with it and I can't really do much with it. I assume I can use it without spending spell points as much as I want, but that gives me rather underwhelming effects for its price. Then, maybe once or twice I can use some cool effects that spend spell points. Then, if I want to ever use that wand again, I need to recharge it by spending one of my own spell points, and I can only put one every day, so wands with a big amount of spell points (which would be like 5) take quite a bit to be recharged.
I can't help but compare that to a wand of cure light wounds, which gives me 50x 1d8+1 healing points for 750 gp. A simple healing wand in SoP would give me 1x 1d8+2 healing points for 1,000 gp with the possibility to recharge it. This seems to me to be a lot worse for a higher price. If instead of healing I want a wand of blasting, it's pretty much the same, I can get 1x 2d6 for 1,000 gp or 50x 1d4+1 for 750 gp. Granted, in this case the blasting wand can make more than twice the damage of a wand of magic missile, but again, it's still one use against fifty.
And if I want a wand that can do something other than the basic power of a sphere, it gets ridiculously expensive very quickly without giving me very many more uses. If I wanted a blasting sphere that can make fire balls I would need at the very least 9,000 gp (Explosive orb + Fire blast) and that would let me either cast a proper fire ball or do 6d6 damage instead of 3d6 once/day (assuming I recharge it every day). If I wanted to do both at the same time or be able to do it twice (and wait for two days to recharge it completely), it would cost me 16,000 gp. A fire ball wand with 50 charges (and 5d6 damage) would cost me 11,250 gp.
So, the only real use I can think of for wands is to gain access to additional talents of a sphere you already possess, if said talents don't require spell points to be used. Even then, it's probably more than I'd want to pay.
So my question is this: What am I missing? Why does it make sense to buy a wand using the SoP system?