PDA

View Full Version : Wand Wizard (Alternate Class Feature)



Dire Reverend
2011-01-09, 12:10 AM
I was wondering if people would give an honest review of my Alternate Class feature for Wizards/Sorcerers.


Wand Wizard (http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Wand_Wizard_%283.5e_Alternate_Class_Feature%29)

A Wand Wizard uses a wand instead of somatic components. A Wizard also stores his spells in his wand instead of his Spellbook.

Class: Wizard, Sorcerer

Level: 1st

Replaces: If you select this alternative class feature, you do not get a Familiar.

Benefit:Your spells are now cast through a Wizard's Wand (http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Wizard%27s_Wand_%283.5e_Equipment%29). Spells that have somatic components use the wand instead of a free hand. Material and Focus components without a cost also use the wand instead of the usual item. An enchanted Wizard Wand grants an enhancement bonus to ranged and melee touch attacks, save DCs as well as damage/healing rolls.

Special: This alternate class feature can be adapted to other spellcasting classes. Ask your DM.
Wizard's Wands (http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Wizard%27s_Wand_%283.5e_Equipment%29)
Wizard's Wand

Simple Light Melee
Cost: 35 gp
Damage (Small): 1
Damage (Medium)1: 1d2
Critical: 20/x2
Weight: 1 lbs
Type: Piercing
HP: 10
Hardness: 10

A Wizard's Wand is a pointy stick to most people. However, in the hands of a Wand Wizard, it becomes much more. A wizard's wand can be enchanted like a regular weapon giving a bonus to ranged and melee touch attacks as well as saves. however, they cannot be enchanted with any special abilities.

A Wizard's Wand can be made out of any material.

Broken(Sundered) Wizard's Wands can still be used, but any spell cast through it has a 25% chance to backfire. A spell targeted at someone else is instead targeted at the spellcaster, and a spell cast at the spellcaster is cast on a random person in range. If the spell cannot backfire (for example, a spell is personal only), It simply fails. Wizard's Wands are amazingly easy to repair. A single Mending spell will fully repair the wand, restoring it to full HP. Once repaired, it also retains it's enhancement bonuses, unlike other destroyed magical weapons.
Do you think no Familiar is too much? Is this an overpowered, underpowered and/or stupid? Are the Wizard Wand rules too complicated?

vonFelsenheim
2011-01-09, 12:21 AM
Does the enchantment apply to ranged touch attacks as well? That would be worth the trade, certainly. Maybe a tad overpowered, but pretty even.

Dire Reverend
2011-01-09, 12:49 AM
Ranged touch attacks as well.

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't unarmed melee touch attacks provoke attacks of oppritunity? (if spellcasting defensively)

Should Scribe Scroll be removed as well?

I priced the wands by doubling the price of a spellbook and adding the cost of a spell component pouch (because spellcasters do not use materials of foci)

Soren Hero
2011-01-09, 03:44 AM
i like this class feature, as it can give wizards more flavor options...my only questions are in regard to the wand and its storage...u specifically said that the "spells are stored" in the wand, which is very similar to the SRD wand ...how does this mechanic work in game? is it like charges...if so, could a rogue use a "wizard wand" via UMD and in essence gain full casting? what about wizard A capturing wizard B's wand? is it like a spellbook with all the wizard's spells? if so, can wizard A now cast all the spells in wizard B's wand?

i think it needs more explanations for how the mechanic should work, otherwise there can be lots of room for abuse.

could this feature use a staff instead? maybe leave it open ended, so that way a wizard can use any item they like as a somatic focus/spell book

Dire Reverend
2011-01-09, 04:27 AM
It replaces a wizards spellbook, and it would not be usable by anyone who could not cast the spell themself. It's like telling a rogue to use a spellbook.

About wand theft, I might make some rule about how when you take someone elses wand, you have to do something special to allow it's use.

The one thing about it being any object is that it can't be used for anything other than spellcasting. Staffs could be interesting.

Do you think the bonuses from the wand should affect the damage and the saves, along with the touch attacks?

Wizards benefit from this much more than sorcerers.

The Antigamer
2011-01-09, 05:27 AM
If I sunder the wizard's wand, is he out of commission until he finds a new one?

Dire Reverend
2011-01-09, 01:06 PM
I am thinking of making a broken wand have a 25% failure rate, but wands can be repaired easily. Even if it is magic, an spell that could repair an object (such as mending) will restore it to it's original function, including the enhancement value.

AtlanteanTroll
2011-01-09, 01:14 PM
If I sunder the wizard's wand, is he out of commission until he finds a new one?


I am thinking of making a broken wand have a 25% failure rate...

*Thinks back to the Chamber of Secrets*

You could always have it backfire on the caster.

*Throws up a slug*

Dire Reverend
2011-01-09, 01:21 PM
Any harmful effect is backfired, and any other spell fails?

AtlanteanTroll
2011-01-09, 01:31 PM
Any harmful effect is backfired, and any other spell fails?

I'd let it backfire too (as in it buffs the enemy). I'd also make it 50%, but that's just me.

TheGeckoKing
2011-01-09, 01:49 PM
50% backfiring is a bit harsh when you get to the higher levels

"I cast Apocalypse From The Sky!
*Backfires*
"Oh for the love of Pelo......."

AtlanteanTroll
2011-01-09, 02:05 PM
50% backfiring is a bit harsh when you get to the higher levels

"I cast Apocalypse From The Sky!
*Backfires*
"Oh for the love of Pelo......."

Dont let your wand get broken.

Thrice Dead Cat
2011-01-09, 03:25 PM
This looks a little better than the Eidetic Spellcaster option, which gives up the familiar and I believe scribe scroll to just memorize spells rather than using a spellbook. I don't think it's terribly noticeable.

A note on the free eschew materials: you should probably change it to allow for items that cost less than 1 GP.

TheGeckoKing
2011-01-09, 03:45 PM
Dont let your wand get broken.

That's a bit hard at the higher levels when people are slinging 9th level spells at you or the idiot Warlock cultists uses their Baleful Utterance. Maybe it could be (Spell Level*10)% failure? That way, if you can't cast Mending because your out of Cantrips, you can still cast low level spells with some reliability.

Dire Reverend
2011-01-09, 04:03 PM
I'd let it backfire too (as in it buffs the enemy) As long as they are in range.

It's not a free eschew materials.

Also, broken wands can have their spells transferred from one wand to another.

Dire Reverend
2011-01-30, 08:06 PM
Necroposting in my own thread.

Anyways, I am going to make it so that you study from the book normally, but you still use the wand.

Roderick_BR
2011-01-31, 11:04 AM
Looks good to me. You need a good balancing with it, like, it's an ACF that trades away familiar. What you get?
Eschew Materials that can be lost.
Ability to scribble spells on the wand instead of the book. Maybe allow a number of spells to be cast spontaneously, like a storing weapon?

And answering your question, casting a spell provokes AoO, but touch attacks don't, cause you are considered armed when you have a spell ready. It's somewhere in the PHB.

"Armed" Unarmed Attacks
Sometimes a character’s or creature’s unarmed attack counts as an armed attack. A monk, a character with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, a spellcaster delivering a touch attack spell, and a creature with natural physical weapons all count as being armed.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsincombat.htm

Hazzardevil
2011-01-31, 12:30 PM
I have 2 questions,
1. Can you get 2 wands and share splls between them? (IE: I have double wand weilder and can dual weild wands for double teh blasting)
2. What is stopping a warforged abjurant champion from making himself invincible with a wand he can't lose with their crazy abilities?

Dire Reverend
2011-01-31, 06:49 PM
Not familiar with that feat, could you explain it to me?

And how would the abjurant champion become invincible?
A wand's crazy ability? Which ability is crazy?

Hammerhead
2011-01-31, 11:21 PM
This would solve a lot of problems for gishes. Especially if it works in a wand chamber. And it makes grapples a lot less scary.

But it gives up a familiar, so I guess that's okay.

Overall, I like it. Wands always seemed silly as spell containers; this is more what I expected when I started playing D&D.

Dire Reverend
2011-01-31, 11:53 PM
How does this make grapples less scary?

Hammerhead
2011-02-01, 12:20 AM
How does this make grapples less scary?Ohp. That was a mistake. When I first read your wand entry, I thought the wand replaced somatic components, as with a disposable wand.
That would make it a bit less of a gish's wet dream then (but would make more sense).