Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sunic_Flames 02-02-08, 05:57 PM	Point 1: Listed under creating staffs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm#creatingStaffs): If desired, a spell can be placed into the staff at only half the normal cost, but then activating that particular spell costs 2 charges from the staff. The caster level of all spells in a staff must be the same, and no staff can have a caster level of less than 8th, even if all the spells in the staff are low-level spells. As it does not state you can do something similar with 3, 4, or 5 charges you cannot. Point 2: Listed under staves: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/staffs.htm Just about every single one of those has at least one spell that consumes 3 charges per casting. Woodlands has one that costs 4, and Life has one that costs 5. As all of these list information to craft them, you can craft them and by extension craft any other staff with a spell that consumes > 2 charges per casting as it is in fact legal. Which of the above is correct?
Sildatorak 02-02-08, 08:29 PM	As all of these list information to craft them, you can craft them and by extension craft any other staff with a spell that consumes > 2 charges per casting as it is in fact legal. Which of the above is correct? By a strict reading of the craft staff feat, you can only craft the staves in the DMG and other source materials. By a more reasonable reading, as long as your PCs aren't crafting staves as super-wands with only 1 spell, it should be ok to allow them to consume charges at a rate greater than 2 charges/use. If you do let your PCs craft staves with 1 spell and multiple charges, you may be opening the system to abuse. It depends on what power-level of game you're playing, though.
Sunic_Flames 02-03-08, 09:03 AM	By a strict reading of the craft staff feat, you can only craft the staves in the DMG and other source materials. By a more reasonable reading, as long as your PCs aren't crafting staves as super-wands with only 1 spell, it should be ok to allow them to consume charges at a rate greater than 2 charges/use. If you do let your PCs craft staves with 1 spell and multiple charges, you may be opening the system to abuse. It depends on what power-level of game you're playing, though. It's an arena game. Almost everything legal that isn't an infinite loop is fair game. To give an idea a level 8 PC is forcing 3-4 DC 30ish Fort saves a round every round. Failing any of these means being Dazed for 1 round. Why? Boomerang Daze + very high Strength = high damage. There are examples of it going up to 5. Just not higher.
Sildatorak 02-03-08, 11:34 AM	If it is an arena game, there really isn't any problem. The value of wands/staves in normal play is that the charges are cheap because you're buying 50 of them at a time. In a pure combat game focused on single encounters (which I assume from the "arena" label) the most valuable commodity is actions, and allowing staves that are effectively 10 charges of a single spell won't change the number of those available at all.
Nephlite 02-03-08, 11:38 AM	Point 1: Listed under creating staffs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm#creatingStaffs): As it does not state you can do something similar with 3, 4, or 5 charges you cannot. Point 2: Listed under staves: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/staffs.htm Just about every single one of those has at least one spell that consumes 3 charges per casting. Woodlands has one that costs 4, and Life has one that costs 5. As all of these list information to craft them, you can craft them and by extension craft any other staff with a spell that consumes > 2 charges per casting as it is in fact legal. Which of the above is correct? Well, technically, that means: charges 3 per casting are 1/3rd the cost, charges 4/cast are 1/4th the cost, etc. But you need DM ruling to allow you to do that. 5 charges per is inexpensive bacause that is only 10 uses per staff needs to be recharged (which costs money + exp again).
Merestil Haye 02-05-08, 08:45 AM	If you do let your PCs craft staves with 1 spell and multiple charges, you may be opening the system to abuse. It depends on what power-level of game you're playing, though.There's actually no rule requiring staves to have multiple spells. The Sage discussed this a few months back; single-spell staves are not illegal.
Empirate 02-12-08, 07:17 PM	Also, Lost Empires of Faerūn has the Craft Scepter feat. Scepters are in between wands and staves: they accept up to 7th level spells, and you can put in two different ones per scepter. Costs are calculated as for wands. Caster level and save DC are set by the scepter's creator. There's no stipulation that you can only re-create scepters already published, so you can just go and pick your favorite 7th level spell, and make a scepter of it.
mtbOgre 02-13-08, 09:50 PM	There are no rules regarding creating custom magic items, there are guidelines. Any item crafted outside the ones in DMG (or other sourcebook) is a house rule. Disposable magic items are balanced based on the idea that the item is going to be used over a long time, not burned over single encounter. If you want to make the encounter fair you should limit the player to prefabricated items and stay well clear of the gray areas of the rules. This is definitely a gray area otherwise you wouldn't be asking on the forums.
Empirate 02-14-08, 06:27 AM	Regarding sceptres and wands, it is most definitely not a gray area of the rules: creating your own is explicitly allowed. Regarding staves, RAW say you can't manufacture ones that are not from a published source. Many DMs allow custom wands anyway, and the OP's question was geared towards handling this, not towards the question of legality. Where pricing etc. is concerned, the rules, yes rules, from Core apply, not as guidelines, but as fact. Staves have certain rules going for them, like the pricing formula, and even if you allow custom staves, you're not going to call these mere guidelines, right?
mtbOgre 02-14-08, 01:46 PM	Regarding sceptres and wands, it is most definitely not a gray area of the rules: creating your own is explicitly allowed. Regarding staves, RAW say you can't manufacture ones that are not from a published source. Many DMs allow custom wands anyway, and the OP's question was geared towards handling this, not towards the question of legality. Where pricing etc. is concerned, the rules, yes rules, from Core apply, not as guidelines, but as fact. Staves have certain rules going for them, like the pricing formula, and even if you allow custom staves, you're not going to call these mere guidelines, right? The point I'm trying to make is that magic item creation is not a ruleset but is all based on DM's discretion. There are a ton of completely broken things you can do within the guidelines, thus the rule on magic item creation is "DM Discretion". As an example you can price out a staff with quickened truestrike and a maximized orb spell. An intelligent DM would just say NO and is not houseruling by saying it because there are no rules for creating items.