Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SunTzuWarmaster 03-11-07, 10:10 PM	Maybe I am confused, can you recharge a staff? In not, I appear to be confused..., what can you recharge? I know you can't do wands or scrolls.
Jaxgaret 03-11-07, 10:20 PM	You can buy a new staff with charges on it.
RavenDrake 03-11-07, 10:46 PM	There isn't really a way to consistantly recharge staves. I think there's an item (Glowstones maybe?) that can add charges back, but for the most part Staves are disposable items like wands. Once the magic is gone, they're pretty much mundane. Balance wise, too, it's better to have your party purchase new items than recharge an existing one(though, to be honest, I allow recharging by paying the differnece of producing the staff's missing charges, with a minimum cost of 1/2 the staff's price) The primary prohibition against recharging is that most characters expect to get some discount on recharging. Better to simply outlaw it than to have to explain why, for balance reasons, they still have to spend as much, per charge, to recharge the item as they would to create it new.
jacobi289 03-11-07, 11:20 PM	yeah, just buy a new one, because the price of the staff itself is minimal. Any wooden dowel could function as a possible charge holder, and its cost is mere cp compared to the charges' thousands of gold.
RavenCorvus 03-11-07, 11:35 PM	I thought there was a way to have something like that auto recharge or at least ive seen people talk about it on the boards
Endarire 03-11-07, 11:40 PM	My method is thus: For each additional 25% you add to a staff's cost, it will recharge 1 charge per day, usually every sunrise, so long as a least 1 charge remains and the staff isn't full. If you get multiple charges per day, you still can't exceed the staff's limit. A staff reduced to 0 charges can't be recharged via this method, though if you pay the appropriate crafting costs, you can reuse the staff by effectively building a new one. -EE
ClementWillowbreaker 03-11-07, 11:44 PM	It is best to make the player expend gold as if he was buying a new one (less the masterwork quarterstaff if you are nice) and just pretend that his very wizardliness lets him recharge the staff. You never see Gandalf throwing his stuff away. Balanced rules + economics != heroic fantasy all the time. Squint a bit.
runestar 03-12-07, 12:32 AM	The problem I have with recharging staves is the same problem with recharging wands. You receive a discount on the item creation process to compensate for the fact that you are effectively purchasing spells in bulk. Wands/staves usually cost only about 60% of what scrolls cost, because you get 50 uses of the former, which you might not always need. If you are able to recharge staves, would that not mean that you are effectively able to purchase spell scrolls at a unpopular discount? :P
Daosus 03-12-07, 01:10 AM	Before any players try to convince you to let them recharge the staff by casting spells into it (as opposed to sitting down for 8 hours minimum and using the item creation rules), I'm gonna say don't. Other forms of recharge mentioned here are somewhat balanced, but jsut so you know, do not let them use spells they haven't used during their day to recharge a staff.
SunTzuWarmaster 03-12-07, 07:57 AM	Okay, got my answer. Thanks guys. I'm pretty sure that you could do it in 2nd ed., but it didn't make sense in 3rd edition. I've got a staff of fire. I recharge it with Burning Hands at the beginning of the day, it is worth a fireball later....
tarkin 03-12-07, 11:16 AM	There are official, non-variant ways to recharge a staff in 3.0/3.5 They require an artifact. All staves that can recharge themselves published by WoTC are artifacts. In addition, there is an artifact called Dwarven Glow Stones, which come with as much as 100 charges. Each charge may be transfered to a staff or wand on a one:one basis. Each charge can also be used to allow a 1/day item to be used one more time per day. ------------------------ In addition there is a variant rule in Unearthed Arcana that spells out how to recharge staves. Note it is expensive.. Specifically, to recharge a staff costs more than 1/50 of the cost of a fully charged staff. So it usually makes more sense to buy a new staff. Note, that you get a discount for wands and staves, as compared to scrolls. For wands, this discount is for buying in quantity, as such it it makes sense to cost extra when you are no longer buying in quantity. -------------------------------------------------------- If you want something that does not run out of charges, buy a Rod. Accept the fact that rules exist and that means you don't get to make something with the advantages of both a Rod and a Staff.
armnaxis 03-12-07, 11:19 AM	In Dragon Magazine 338, there is an excellent article about wizard's staffs, and I remember some staff-related feats as well. One of them (high-level one) allowed to store ununsed spell energy into a staff, albeit at a minimal rate.
WinDReiN 03-12-07, 11:56 AM	There is a place on Faerun that has magical energies which recharge staffs...
Inkubus 03-12-07, 03:12 PM	You can summon a couple Nishruu, kill it and have your staff recharged.
SunTzuWarmaster 03-12-07, 05:46 PM	If you want something that does not run out of charges, buy a Rod. Accept the fact that rules exist and that means you don't get to make something with the advantages of both a Rod and a Staff. Believe it or not, this is in a low-magic world. I don't get to choose what I get, selling is a problem, and there will be nothing I can buy with the money. I was just asking a simple question of what was possible (yes, I would prefer to have a rod, I take what I get).
Shadowmind64 03-12-07, 08:57 PM	As mentioned before, there was an issue of Dragon with a "staff wizard" varient, that gained an imbued staff instead of a familiar, they were able to take a feat (that had craft staff) as a prerequisite that allowed them to use a fifth level or higher spell slot to rechare a staff by one charge. I am personally a large fan of this varient and use it frequently.