3.5: Little question: can wands be recharged?

[pasko77]

Hi all,
i have a question as per the topic title.
My group has the rule: "a caster who knows spell X, can recharge a wand of such spell".
Maybe this rule is just a reminiscence of some old ruleset of previous editions, maybe this is just a misinterpretation of something... anyway i couldn't find any paragraph on "recharging" items, only for creating them.

What is the actual rule?
Thanks,
Pasko

[Grynning]

IIRC, there is no way to recharge wands, you use it until it runs out then pay the costs to create a new one (you could probably rule that it might be slightly cheaper since you already have the carved stick or whatever). There are feats in a couple of books that allow you to substitute charges with spell slots, and there is a PrC in Magic of Eberron that lets you get free wand charges.

[Siosilvar]

You could use the rules for creating them, but subtract the cost of the wand you have before halving it.

[arguskos]

There's an artifact in one of the Faerun books that can recharge items like wands and staves, but it's pretty tough, and can overcharge them, so they explode horribly and do Bad Things(tm).

-argus

[ericgrau]

Ya I don't think there's a rule, but it'd be easy to house rule. I'd say that you must recharge the wand back up to full each time. Doing it 1 charge at a time would just be a cheap way to circumvent scrolls; at least after you put up with burning through all the wand charges once. But I don't think even recharging a 49 charge wand back to 50 would be horribly broken (though the DM might want to establish limits). In that example you still paid for a lot of charges in advance.

[kamikasei]

You could use the rules for creating them, but subtract the cost of the wand you have before halving it.

This is how I'd do it. Being able to use a depleted wand to store spells amounts gives you a result similar to crafting a new wand but without the expenditure of gold and XP, or for that matter the need for a feat. Seems a bit of a gimme.

[Bayar]

Rules for recharging wands and staffs are in Unearthed Arcana.

[pasko77]

Ok thanks.
So i'm just telling my DM that my wands have run out of bullets.

This came from the following facts:
1) i'm a bard, so i'm useless :)
2) i have one wand of magic missiles and one of fireballs, so the sorcerer kept refilling them with level 8 spells.
3) every single action i take in combat is to use one of them.
4) other party members started whining that it was over powered.
It turns out they're right :)

So i'll simply drop the wands.

[PnP Fan]

My group uses something similar. I think it's a hold over from OD&D. I think it's a little silly myself, but I'm outvoted.

[kamikasei]

You can get eternal wands. I think they first appeared in the Magic Item Compendium, and are just a fancy term for a twice-daily wondrous item of spell X. That might satisfy your needs without being too cheesy. You can up the costs to get something more useful than two magic missiles in a day.

[pasko77]

You can get eternal wands. I think they first appeared in the Magic Item Compendium, and are just a fancy term for a twice-daily wondrous item of spell X. That might satisfy your needs without being too cheesy. You can up the costs to get something more useful than two magic missiles in a day.

I remember there should be a magic ability (worth a +2 or a +3) that makes the object able to be IMBUED by a spell. If i'm not wrong, i'll get a couple of knives and i'll have the sorcerer put a couple of fireballs in them.

Otherwise i can search for one of these wands, but i don't think our DM allows them.

I've just ended a session in which alone i kept a corridor from 20+ enemies, with the old trick "grease - fireball fireball fireball" :)