Good spells to put on a wand?

[Tatsel_Ganav]

Making a level 20 warlock, and she has a lot of gold left for utility gear. I hear wands are always good. Any particular spells of note for them?

[Mando Knight]

Game and edition, please?

[AslanCross]

Assuming this is 3.5:

-Dispel Magic. Can't go wrong with that unless you have the dispelling invocations.
-True Strike if you're the blaster type.
-Lesser Restoration if you're a Hellfire Warlock.
-Vigor.
-Glitterdust.
-Scorching Ray is incredibly good even if you have your built-in boomstick.

[Raging Gene Ray]

Assay Spell Resistance from the Spell Compendium...unless Warlock powers don't allow for resistance. I don't really know.

[DementedFellow]

Why not cure light wounds?

[Jergmo]

Why not cure light wounds?

Can Warlocks use Divine wands?

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Do Warlocks get UMD?

[Bibliomancer]

Assuming you put max ranks in UMD, which makes a lot of sense for a warlock, Alter Fortune from the PHBII is great. Immediate action to reroll any d20 roll, be it an attack, save, or skill check. Also, since you're buying it as a wand, you don't have to pay the xp costs.

Total cost: 50*3*5*15 (3rd level spell, minimum caster level because increased caster level doesn't improved it) + 200 (xp cost per spell) x 5 (5gp = 1 xp) x 50 (number of charges) = 61250 gp, less than 10% of overall wealth, and it allows you to avoid the next 50 1's your party rolls. If you're using the Eberron Campaign setting, you can make it an eternal wand (changes to use 2/day) for less than 5,000gp more, I believe.

[Grumman]

Why not cure light wounds?

Isn't that healing belt from the Magic Item Compendium generally considered to be better?

How about an Eternal Wand of Heroics? Twice per day you can give yourself or an ally the benefit of any Fighter feat. This includes Martial Study, which means that this one wand can do anything from topping off the tank's feat tree to giving you or an ally 50ft teleportation.

[Glimbur]

-Dispel Magic. Can't go wrong with that unless you have the dispelling invocations.

Here I must disagree. Wands should be spells not too dependent on Caster Level, so they're cheaper.

Enervation is interesting, if you cast it on people with no SR the only loss from the minimum CL is the shorter range.

Lesser Vigor is your most efficient out of combat healing at first level spell for 11 hp a charge, but you might have free out of combat healing at 20th level.

I'll second Lesser Restoration.

Stone Shape could be interesting.

See Invisible can be a lifesaver, but at 20th level people might cheat past it.

Knock would have been better earlier, but by this point your fighter type should be able to break almost any door.

tl;dr Get spells that just work without relying on Caster Level.

[deuxhero]

Can Warlocks use Divine wands?

Bard spell list (or dragon if you want exotic) has them as arcane, so no matter.

Do Warlocks get UMD?

Yes, they acctually have class abilitys geared to it (can imitate casters to make items like an artificer, and another to take ten on UMD)

[Starscream]

Grease is a good one at low levels. Battlefield control is not usually something Warlocks excel at.

[Navigator]

If you have maxed UMD, just buy an assortment of scrolls. At 20th level, few wands will have great usefulness other than out-of-combat healing.

This also depends on what the other players are rolling. If you're looking for some personal utility, just makes sure you'll always be able fly, see invisible things, dispel stuff, and get out of combat if needed. I would also recommend potions of remove blindness.

[Animefunkmaster]

Dispel magic, Web, entangle, Alter Self (so many things you can do with this including fly), invisibility, shivering touch, various buff spells for self or alley (enlarge person, fist of stone, bite of the XXX, bear's endurance), ANIMATE DEAD, Invisibility Purge or glitterdust, Wind Wall, and Augury are some handy spells that would be handy to have in wand form.

Also a nice wand of remove disease would be handy for when you wake up and don't know the name of the person(s) you made grapple checks with in bed all night.

[LurkerInPlayground]

Freedom of Movement

[oxinabox]

warlocks are the UMD masters.
Take 10 even when threatened or stressed
How about:
Kelgore's Fire Bolt
It's a lvl 1 spell, so cheap even when you have to pay for high caster lvls.
You might just want a base lvl one, as it's best party is Damage targets with SR.

Though really it depends on what innocations you have.
Fell Flight?
the one that gives True SIght?
Viscous Dispel? (dispel and damage)
Eldrich Blast AoE, 2 negitive Lvls?

[LurkerInPlayground]

warlocks are the UMD masters.
Take 10 even when treatened.
How about:
Kelgore's Fire Bolt
It's a lvl 1 spell, so cheap even when you have to pay for high caster lvls.
You might just want a base lvl one, as it's best party is Damage targets with SR.

Though really it depends on what innocations you have.
Fell Flight?
the one that gives True SIght?
Viscous Dispel? (dispel and damage)
Eldrich Blast AoE, 2 negitive Lvls?

Don't warlocks match 5d6 damage by level 10?

[oxinabox]

Don't warlocks match 5d6 damage by level 10?

Yes, but they don't do anything agaist targets with high SR.
Trust me, my warlock spend the whole of the last session, just healing with a wand since he couldn't overcome SR.
1d6 damage is better than nothing.
Though if you have Spell-like ability penetration then SR shouldn't be a problem.

[KaganMonk]

Too bad you can't get Vitriolic Blast until 11th level. No save, no SR, continuing Acid damage.

You might cover those elements you don't have an essence for (electricity and sonic) and Magic Missile might not hurt against ethereal opponents. If you're going to use lots of offensive spells that go up by Caster Level, you might get the feat Wand Mastery, It increases the CL of the wand by 2 I think? Craft Wand is a prereq, though.

[PId6]

1. Polymorph
2. Polymorph
3. Polymorph
4. Polymorph
5. Polymorph
6. Polymorph
7. Solid Fog
8. Enervation
9. Polymorph
9. Polymorph
9. Polymorph
10. Divine Power
11. Polymorph
12. Polymorph
13. Lesser Vigor
14. Polymorph

[oxinabox]

entropic warding (IIRC) (unless you have that as an invocation) 20% miss chance with arrows and rays is nice
Windwall, protection from arrows, also not without use.
Slaying Arrow (if there is someone with a bow in the party)
expensive though

[Bayar]

warlocks are the UMD masters.
Take 10 even when treatened.

I could argue about this since artificiers are better at creating and using items with UMD.

Artificiers get to take 10 on UMD and spellcraft checks at level 12 even when stressed.

They get almost all craft feats as bonus feats.

They have a craft reserve, letting them conserve their own XP somewhat. Plus, they can recharge it with retain essence and it always fills up when they level up.

They get to emulate ANY spell from ANY spell list.




Actually, it boils down to the warlock's invocations being better or worse than an artificier's infusions.

[The_Scourge]

Some of the Rays from SC are great on wands.
My two personal favorites are Ray of Dizziness (no SR no save. Target can only take half actions) and Ray of Stupidity (1d4+1 Int damage)

If you can afford a rod of many wands, put three ray of stupidity wands in there. BAM! 3d4+3 Int damage in one go. wizards become very sad. This trick is also great if you've got an arcane buddy who knows maze

[oxinabox]

I could argue about this since artificiers are better at creating and using items with UMD.

Artificiers get to take 10 on UMD and spellcraft checks at level 12 even when stressed.

They get almost all craft feats as bonus feats.

They have a craft reserve, letting them conserve their own XP somewhat. Plus, they can recharge it with retain essence and it always fills up when they level up.

They get to emulate ANY spell from ANY spell list.

Actually, it boils down to the warlock's invocations being better or worse than an artificier's infusions.

I can say irrelevant things too, warlocks are better at UMD cos they have higher BAB (IIRC). jk.
Seriously, the ability to craft wands has nothing to do with UMD (as the skill), although it's very handy.
It doens't really matter either way since the important thing is take 10 on UMD.
Warlocks are the Master of Ray attacks delivered via wands.
See I'm the smartest man there is, within a 1 m radius of my computer.



off topic: isn't artificers setting specific? it sound cool, what books it from?

[Bayar]

Eberron.

Warlocks are the Master of Ray attacks delivered via wands.

Yeah, but artificiers can stack metamagic feats on their wands. Im not denying the warlocks prowess with wands though.

[kme]

Some that were not mentioned:
Dimension Door
Improved Invisibility
Haste
Mirror Image
Blink
Displacement
Resilient sphere
Silent Image
True Strike
Wall of Ice
Sleet Storm

[olentu]

I can say irrelevant things too, warlocks are better at UMD cos they have higher BAB (IIRC). jk.
Seriously, the ability to craft wands has nothing to do with UMD (as the skill), although it's very handy.
It doens't really matter either way since the important thing is take 10 on UMD.
Warlocks are the Master of Ray attacks delivered via wands.
See I'm the smartest man there is, within a 1 m radius of my computer.



off topic: isn't artificers setting specific? it sound cool, what books it from?

Er for artificers and warlocks do they not have to use the use magic device skill to make wands and so their ability to craft wands has everything to to with their use of use magic device.

[Tiktakkat]

The two primary qualifications for spells on wands should be:
1. Not save based
2. Limited or no level dependence

Wands are always going to have sucky saves. Placing a save dependent spell in a wand is increasingly wasteful to thoroughly useless at high level where you are giving up DC 4+ because of ability score modifier.

Wands are also level limited if you want to control the costs. Spells that have level based durations and effects are increasingly less useful when in a wand. While this can be overlooked with healing, particularly with lesser vigor, for blasting spells it makes them a waste of effort, even more if they have a save. A 5d6 fireball with a DC 14 at level 20 is just plain silly.

Together, it usually means wands are a good place to dump those utility spells you always want but never want to waste time and effort memorizing. Endure elements, with a 24 hour duration, is a prime example if there are any environmental effects to deal with.

[Paul H]

Hi

Benign Transposition (SC). Allows you to swap places with a willing partner.

Got grappled? Then just swap with the enlarged raging barbarian, or monk, or..

Then there's the Orb series of spells from SC. Lssr Orbs - no saves, no SR. Orbs, save for secondary affect only, no SR.

Cheers
Paul H

[oxinabox]

Eberron.
Yeah, but artificiers can stack metamagic feats on their wands. Im not denying the warlocks prowess with wands though.

I concead, artificers win