Questions about Staves

[Krill]

Some slightly random questions... Thanks in advance. I think.

a) Are staves necessarily wooden?

b) If not, can you silver a staff?

c) The spell shillelagh specifically states that it impacts 'your own nonmagic club or staff'. Does that mean that it stacks with things like masterwork?

d) Could you have an Animated Object that's a staff? And, if so, any thoughts on using it in combat?

[oriong]

a) If you're talking about a quarterstaff (as opposed to a magic staff). Then yes, they are typically wooden. A staff made from steel or metal would be a lot more like a double ended mace than a quarterstaff (if for no other reason than it now weighs a whole lot more)

b) You can only add alchemic silver to a weapon made from steel.

c) Shillelagh can be cast on a masterwork weapon but it does not provide any additional benefit. Both provide an enhancement bonus, which does not stack.

d)No reason why you could not. However it would not be terribly effective. It would be a medium animated object just like any other.

[Draz74]

Some slightly random questions... Thanks in advance. I think.

a) Are staves necessarily wooden?

b) If not, can you silver a staff?

a) Magic staves (the ones that have 50 charges and let you cast several spells) aren't. The quarterstaff weapon, however, is always considered wooden. If you try to make a metallic quarterstaff, it will be a custom weapon (or, if you re-write the fluff, I suppose it could use the mechanics for a Dire Flail or something).

b) Again -- magic staff or quarterstaff? You can't silver a quarterstaff.
If for some bizarre reason you wanted to silver a magic staff, I'd say you can, but for the same price upgrade that it would take to normally silver a similar weapon.

c) The spell shillelagh specifically states that it impacts 'your own nonmagic club or staff'. Does that mean that it stacks with things like masterwork?

Masterwork gives a weapon a +1 enhancement bonus to hit. Shillelagh gives the staff a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and to damage. Enhancement bonuses don't stack with each other. A Shillelagh-ed staff is no different whether it is masterwork or not.

d) Could you have an Animated Object that's a staff? And, if so, any thoughts on using it in combat?

You can Animate a staff, yes. It would fight like any other Animated Object. Since it would probably be ruled to be Small at the biggest, I think you'd usually have a more effective target to Animate with your spell (though the flavor is kind of cool). See also: Dancing Weapons.

[Caelestion]

Magical staves can be fashioned out of anything. My characters' staves (to name just a couple) have varied between a thicken oaken staff, a slim silver birch staff with silver caps and a magically-strengthened rune-carved bone from a dragon's forearm.
Magical staves can be given an enhancement bonus to hit on both ends and treated as a magic quarterstaff as well as their magical abilities.

[Krill]

Awesome. Thanks all!

[Thomas]

Actually, if you want to enchant a magic staff as a weapon, wouldn't you have to add 600 gp for the double-masterwork quarterstaff to the price, before adding any gp for the special abilities and enhancement bonus?

[Caelestion]

Well you would, yes, but I was somewhat naively expecting that a magical staff would be a masterwork quarterstaff first. (I know - faulty assumption!)

[Stormcrow]

A stave is one of the most dangerous weapons of the ancient world. The use of wood stems from it being a common and easily worked material as well as light weight but there are sources on "Iron Cored" Staves that are designed to block blades with.

A steel staff is possible to be sure, and not "like a double ended mace" because of the style with which you use the staff. I myself have a steel staff at home for sparring against live blades.

[Caelestion]

The tetsubo, eh?

[Ethdred]

And there shouldn't be anything to stop you having a silvered quarterstaff - made of wood (or whatever) but shod with silver at each end

[Yuki Akuma]

And there shouldn't be anything to stop you having a silvered quarterstaff - made of wood (or whatever) but shod with silver at each end

There is something stopping you; the fact that a weapon has to be made of steel normally to be silvered. Quarterstaves are wooden.

[Thomas]

Well you would, yes, but I was somewhat naively expecting that a magical staff would be a masterwork quarterstaff first. (I know - faulty assumption!)

Nope. Most of them aren't quarterstaffs at all. The staff of power is, I think.

There is something stopping you; the fact that a weapon has to be made of steel normally to be silvered. Quarterstaves are wooden.

Yeap. Them's the rules. If there's an all-metal staff weapon in some book, then you can go nuts.

[Hoggmaster]

The conan rpg treats the staff as a reach weapon which you can strike adjacent targets...

[Ethdred]

There is something stopping you; the fact that a weapon has to be made of steel normally to be silvered. Quarterstaves are wooden.

To be coated in alchemical steel perhaps, but all you're looking to do is add a bit of silver to the thing you're hitting the werewolf with. Or am I the only person who's ever seen a wooden stick shod with metal?

[Yuki Akuma]

Elemental silver and alchemical silver are not the same substance. Alchemical silver hurts lycanthropes; elemental silver doesn't.

Elemental silver is too soft to be used for a weapon, anyway. Same with elemental gold.