Good spells to wand?

[MammonAzrael]

What are some good spells to use in wands and scrolls? Both Arcane and Divine. This will be for a level 6 pixie Spellthief in an ECL 10 game. Allowed books are Core, Core 2, Completes, Races, BoED, BoVD, Expended Psi, and anything else SRD.

[Reel On, Love]

Get wands of first-level swift/immediate-action spells, like Guided Shot and Nerveskitter. Use Wand Chambers (dungeonscape) to keep them availible at all times.

With UMD, check out great 1st-level Ranger spells like Hunter's Mercy and Sniper's Shot.

[Neftren]

For Melee: Wraithstrike, True Strike, Sure Strike (Get Metamagic Spell Trigger Feat and Quicken Spell with these)

All Around: Wands of Cure X.

[Meat Shield]

Now I know several people will jump in and tell me it is a bad idea, but I have always been a fan of the Wand of Fireballs, with caster level ten. Long range, area of effect, and sometimes you just gotta blow stuff up, be it the bad guys or the statue in the middle of town to get the commoners attention.

[Bauglir]

Lesser Vigor might be good. I THINK it's in Complete Divine (not sure where they put it in the SpC from). Generally outdoes the Cure X Wounds spells, specially outside of battle.

[Worira]

Keep in mind that wands need a standard action to cast, even if it's an immediate action spell.

[Chronos]

Since you're a Spellthief, you'll want to make sure to get some Sneak Attack spells, too. Acid Splash or Ray of Frost (or both; they're cheap) will give you ranged touch attacks, Chill Touch with a boosted caster level or Flame Blade will give you melee touch full attacks, and Produce Flame with a boosted caster level will give you ranged touch full attacks.

There are also some spells from other books which are good with Sneak Attack, but I'm not sure what all they are. I think there's some sort of snowball spell from Frostburn that's similar to Produce Flame, and I've heard of one called Cloud of Knives that makes regular (non-touch) attacks, but as a free action.

[Reel On, Love]

Now I know several people will jump in and tell me it is a bad idea, but I have always been a fan of the Wand of Fireballs, with caster level ten. Long range, area of effect, and sometimes you just gotta blow stuff up, be it the bad guys or the statue in the middle of town to get the commoners attention.

This is a BAD INVESTMENT of 22,500 gp. You can buy a lot of things that are useful at ECL 10 with that cash-money.

Keep in mind that wands need a standard action to cast, even if it's an immediate action spell.

No longer! We are FREE of the oppressive rulings of eras past! The Rules Compendium has liberated us from these constraints! We are free! Free! FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[tyckspoon]

Now I know several people will jump in and tell me it is a bad idea, but I have always been a fan of the Wand of Fireballs, with caster level ten. Long range, area of effect, and sometimes you just gotta blow stuff up, be it the bad guys or the statue in the middle of town to get the commoners attention.

It's mostly a bad idea for the extra cost of getting one at CL 10. There are good uses for Fireball, mostly involving taking advantage of its Long range category and ability to set stuff on fire (or just dinging a far away opponent before your better spells get into range.) But most of those uses aren't especially enhanced by getting it at CL 10 instead of the base CL 5. It's already long enough ranged for you to shoot it at things from outside easy sight, it sets stuff on fire just as well at 5d6 as at 10d6, it'll drop or severely injure the sort of mass mook groups that are worth throwing a fireball at for the sake of hurting them. Keep in mind that for the cost of increasing the wand to caster level 10, you could also have bought a full wand of another level 3 spell.

Or just get a few scrolls of Fireball, if you can hit that UMD check without too much trouble; much cheaper if you don't want to use the spell regularly. If you *do* want to use it regularly, Spellthief might be the wrong class.

Edit: Get some source for the Gravestrike/Vinestrike/whichever one is for constructs. They're Swift spells that let you Sneak Attack against undead/plants/constructs. There's probably one for Elementals somewhere, too.

[Falrin]

Silent Image : Endless possibilities.
Summon Monster : Trapfinder.
True strike : When you need to hit, or have a UMD fighter around.
Shield : Easy stackable AC buff for all the friends.
Identify : When you don't want to wait.

Vigor, lesser : One of the best ways to heal.
Detect evil : Who needs a stick-up paladin around anyway.
Prot. from evil : +2 AC and Saves is nice, surpress mindeffecting is great.

Entangle : Hey, why not.
Longstrider : 10 Ft faster, always nice to be able to actually run away.


Basicly go for low spells that don't depend on saves or CL.

Remember that these wands are cheap, don't try to save them. A Quick round of Shield before hitting a door does wonders, even if the room turns out to be emptry 4 out of 5.

[Hal]

Entice Gift. Convinces people to hand you whatever they're holding at the time. Even if you don't find it useful, it's just fun.

[Animefunkmaster]

Lesser Vigor.

[leperkhaun]

1st - shield, mage armor, grease, true strike, floating disk, enlarge, ray of enfeeble

2nd - web, glitterdust, invis, spectral hand, alter self, owls/bulls...etc

3rd - arcane sight, tounges, displacment, magic weapon:greater, fly, haste

4th - stoneskin, globe of invun, evards black tentecales, walls, enveneration, greater invis, poly.

Thats just core. Wands a great for the low level (1st-2nd) spells that are usefull but you dont want to waste a spell slot on.

for 3rd and 4th level spells, they allow you to put things other than buffs in your slots.

For the most part attack spells arnt a good idea since the caster level on wands tend to be low. For those and even for some spells like greater magic weapon a staff tends to be better because it uses your caster level.

[mostlyharmful]

Shatter, why invest in Open lock when you can just blow the bloody doors off.

Acid Splash makes the best christmas present a Rogue is ever going to get. And making it cost pretty much bupkus.

[Burley]

Entice Gift. Convinces people to hand you whatever they're holding at the time. Even if you don't find it useful, it's just fun.

What book is that from? I must know more about this... Entice Gift that you speak of...

[Sofaking]

and I've heard of one called Cloud of Knives that makes regular (non-touch) attacks, but as a free action.

Yeah, my invisible blade is now never without one. The great thing about it is I duel wield so I get 5 attacks and the first one is at my full attack.

[MammonAzrael]

Entice Gift is a 2nd level Enchantment spell from the Book of Vile Darkness. Since it requires a saving throw, it might be a spell I'll want to learn instead of wand. Pretty cool.

And thanks for all the suggestions guys! I've got more than enough spells I want to wand now!

[Artanis]

I dunno if it'd be that good for a Spellthief, but a good wand for anybody who can use it is Cure Light Wounds. It's the single most cost-effective healing wand (in core, at any rate), making it useful(ish) even at level 20.

[Hal]

Entice Gift is a 2nd level Enchantment spell from the Book of Vile Darkness. Since it requires a saving throw, it might be a spell I'll want to learn instead of wand. Pretty cool.

And thanks for all the suggestions guys! I've got more than enough spells I want to wand now!

It's also in the Spell Compendium. Granted, it requires a Will save, but the concept is just so satisfying, especially for a rogue or a bard. Used more for fun than for l33t builds.

[MammonAzrael]

It's also in the Spell Compendium. Granted, it requires a Will save, but the concept is just so satisfying, especially for a rogue or a bard. Used more for fun than for l33t builds.

Indeed. I will steal your spells. Now you will give me all your material possessions. I think it'd be more useful on a fighter type with poor will saves. Give me your weapon. Or your full plate. Even if they get it back it takes them out of action for at least 1 round.

[Chronos]

I think it'd be more useful on a fighter type with poor will saves.

Even a fighter, of reasonable level, has a pretty good chance to make the DC 13 that spell would have on a wand. Good spell to have, but bad spell to get from an item.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Using a Wand is a Spell Trigger, which is a Standard Action to use. To quote:

Spell Trigger
Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it’s even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Anyone with a spell on his or her spell list knows how to use a spell trigger item that stores that spell. (This is the case even for a character who can’t actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin.) The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Emphasis mine.

So wanding swift actions is rather pointless.

However, Grease is the quintessencial perfect wandable spell, Knock is as well. Neither have level-dependent features, neither allows a save, neither are worried about SR. A wand of Knock, plus Greater Prying Eyes and Dominate Monster on your list of spells in your book/memory, makes a rogue practically obsolete

[LibraryOgre]

IMO, the best things to get wands of are spells that do not have saving throws, but are things you always want to have handy. A wand of Cure Light Wounds is a great investment. A good offensive wand (from the SRD) is something like Acid Arrow or Scorching Ray... touch attack spells that don't rely on the caster's attributes (because the caster is a wand), but the wielder's attributes (i.e. your dex for those ranged touch attacks).

I had a gnome cloistered cleric with the magic domain once. His main armament (after my command-word activation everwands were nixxed by Hzurr, because he is an evil and cranky sourpuss) was a wide variety of 1st level wands. Wands of various lesser orb spells that he'd whip out and slam into people.

I had something like 2-300 charges in 1st level wands. The side effects were what made them fun.

[Mushroom Ninja]

The rogue in my party has endless fun with a wand of greater invisibility. I don't know if it'll help you as much though.

[Squash Monster]

Requirements for a good wand:
1) Saving throw does not matter
2) Caster level does not matter
3) Spell is useful in bursts

Three is the tricky one. If a spell is going to be usable once, some day, it's best to make a scroll. If it's a spell you're going to cast a few times a day at a regular rate, it's better to make an eternal wand.

Good examples include teleportation spells and Lesser Vigor. Wands of Lesser Vigor are probably my favorite item as a DM, as they completely remove the party's need for forcing somebody to play a healer.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Using a Wand is a Spell Trigger, which is a Standard Action to use. To quote:

Emphasis mine.

So wanding swift actions is rather pointless.

That was either errata'd or fixed in the Rules Compendium after Swift Actions were invented.

[Person_Man]

Flame Dagger from Spell Comp. Same thing as Flame Blade (touch attacks for 1 min per level), except it counts as a dagger, so you can use Weapon Finesse.

As others have mentioned, avoid high level spells (expensive) and spells with Save DCs (unlikely to work).

Also, the main advantage to being a Spellthief is that you can borrow spells from your friends. Think about it - why are Druids and Clerics considered so strong? Because they can buff themselves up to insane levels. Well now so can you, except you can take spells from everyone in the group.

Of course, it requires at least 2-3 other casters in your party. And they have to selflessly give up some of their spells for you to use. But if they do, the entire team will be much more powerful.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. When optimized correctly, EVERYONE in the party can share everyone else's buffs. But that's off topic.

[CASTLEMIKE]

What are some good spells to use in wands and scrolls? Both Arcane and Divine. This will be for a level 6 pixie Spellthief in an ECL 10 game. Allowed books are Core, Core 2, Completes, Races, BoED, BoVD, Expended Psi, and anything else SRD.

Suggested wealth by level is 49,000 gp at L10.

How much do you want your PC to allocate to wands?

Can wands be prorated or must they be aquired fully charged (50 charges)?

Most First level spell CL1 wands cost 750 gp.

Most second level spell wands at CL 3 cost 4,500 gp.

Most third level spell wands at CL5 cost 11,250 gp.

Most fourth level CL7 wands cost 21,000 gp.

If you have to buy fully charged wands:

Good first level wands: Cure Light Wounds (Vigor/Fast Healing 1 is twice as effective at 10 + 1 HP based on average CLW healing at 4.5 + 1 HP for the same amount though), Color Spray (still has it's uses in a Heward's Handy Haversack), Grease in a Corridor (One source book has it's reversed cousin Sticky that works through footware), Ray of Enfeeblement still has it's uses, True Strike for that occassional attack that has to hit for whatever reason, Silent Image.

Depends on your game for second level spells with the price bump at 10% of your suggested wealth: Alter Self, Glitter Dust, Invisibility, Mirror Images, Ray of Idiocy, Web.

Third level wands suck up over 20% of your suggested wealth if they can't be prorated and fourth level wands suck up over 40% of your suggested wealth so it really depends on what you want to spend your gold on.