Smaller creatures need smaller wands?

[ayvango]

Wands, Rods and Staffs have predefined sizes. Does that sizes scale for small and smaller creatures? Should small gnome wizard carry oversized staff matched for a medium human? If gnome could use size-adjusted staffs how would human use such staff traded from a gnome wizard?

Wands are handy, staffs are bulky, so wizards would like to made staffs with size of wand. Could they create tiny-sized staffs and use them as medium-sized wands?

[mehs]

magic items typically can change size automatically.

[ayvango]

magic items typically can change size automatically.

Magic swords require Sizing (+5000 gp) property to do so.

[MisterKaws]

Magic items, unless specifically made by seclusive or racist groups, automatically resize and reshape to fit most humanoid or monstrous humanoid forms. This can actually go pretty far: Magic boots, for example, are described as being able to open varied numbers of openings on any part of the foot portion to accommodate for clawed toes, even the Raptorans' eagle-like feet, with one toe protruding from the heel, are covered by that. They can also resize automatically to fit a giant or a pixie, just by holding the items with the intent of wearing or wielding.

In fact, magic items with racist, religious, or skill restrictions actually have an inferior market price to their 'inclusive' counterparts, but in standard lore, I think only Dwarves, Elves, and a few smaller, less common races do this at all.

[Vaern]

There's a bit on the size of magic items specifically calling out magic armor, garments, and jewelry as being essentially one-size-fits-all, whether by being easily adjustable or by nature of being able to resize themselves magically. It doesn't mention weapons, but does note that "size should not keep characters of various kinds from using magic items."
It's not unreasonable to think that magic items would also be able to magically resize themselves to the size of their wielder. In the case of the Sizing enchantment, it's plausible that the enchantment exists for people using things like monkey grip who specifically need a weapon that's too large for a normal character of their size category.
But, as far as the "default" size of a random magic item goes, the stats listed in the book are for medium items, though it does say that there is generally a 30% chance that an item will be found sized for a small creature, a 60% chance that it will be medium, and a 10% chance of any other size category.

[ayvango]

Resizing magic items seems an interesting question. I found short wordings in DMG and MIC. I'm unsure if I get all things correct.

Magic weapons are explicitly non-sizing but there are rules for wielding inappropriately sized weapons (MIC)
Magic armor are explicitly non-sizing and character simply couldn't done inappropriately sized armor. (MIC) Armor still could adapt to wearer shape as long as it matched size and general form.
Magic shield are explicitly non-sizing and useless if character doesn't match the size (MIC)

Jewelry works for any size. It's pretty obvious.
Boots and cloaks adjust size and shape to wearer per explicit examples in DMG. It's a magic.
Horses could done gloves on the fore legs and shoes on hind legs. (MIC) Magic gloves and shoes would magically adjust to fit hoot. Well, magic is supposed to defy common sense.

The question is should staffs be treated like weapons or like magic clothing?

[Vaern]

It looks like the MIC and the SRD might be in disagreement. The SRD and the DMG say that magic armor and clothing can be adjusted or resized to fit the wearer in a way that suggests that they should be able to fit creatures of other size categories, going so far as to say that you should only say that an item doesn't fit if there's a good reason such as selfish creatures making items that only function for their race specifically. The MIC specifically says that they can only be adjusted to the extent of fitting other creatures of the same general shape and size category, which makes it much easier to exclude characters from using magic items. Either way, this particular bit only applies to clothing and armor, and they both go on to list the chances of armor and weapons being found in various sizes.

For the purpose of using its magical properties (ie expending charges to activate a spell effect) size is irrelevant so long as the user is capable of holding the item. Wands don't have stats as a weapon and their weight is already basically negligible unless you're buying in bulk, so having them change size to fit the wielder or simply function regardless of size difference wouldn't be a significant game-breaking decision.

In the case of staves, they explicitly use a masterwork or magic quarterstaff as a base item. Their size is determined as a weapon because they are made from a weapon. The size should be determined by the creature that the staff was originally intended for and would reflect how difficult it is for other creatures to use that item. The only major impact this is likely to have is in regards to carrying capacity, though, as staves are typically used for their spellcasting ability rather than for making melee attacks. Their magical ability should function regardless of size as long as the user can hold the item. Whether they can magically resize may be debatable, but if you wanted to, for example, make a tiny-sized staff that a medium creature could use as a wand, it would likely still function the same way (and have the same market price).

[Crichton]

It looks like the MIC and the SRD might be in disagreement. The SRD and the DMG say that magic armor and clothing can be adjusted or resized to fit the wearer

Uhh... No they don't:

Armor and Weapon Sizes

Armor and weapons that are found at random have a 30% chance of being Small (01-30), a 60% chance of being Medium (31-90), and a 10% chance of being any other size (91-100).

Link here



SRD says that for magic clothing and jewelry, size isn't an issue. It says the above about magic armor (and weapons)

[Remuko]

Horses could done gloves on the fore legs and shoes on hind legs. (MIC) Magic gloves and shoes would magically adjust to fit hoot. Well, magic is supposed to defy common sense.

Tell that to the LA-assignment thread. We just had/are having a debate there about this and it seems the majority there are suggesting magic items can't do what you're saying they can.

[ayvango]

MIC page 219, multilegged creatures.

[Vaern]

Uhh... No they don't

Fair enough. I guess I saw "garment" and just interpreted it as "any worn item," though I suppose that's not necessarily the case.

[tiercel]

Seems likely and relevant for a special case: familiars. If you’re packing ranks in UMD, so is your lil buddy, which means you can actually get moderately useful extra actions in combat (even if it’s low-profile, don’t target-me tactics like hanging in back with a CLW or resurgence wand).

—Presumably, your familiar buddy doesn’t want to be dragging around a wand longer than his/her/its body, so I’d guess wand sizing is a thing. (Though the image of your Medium-sized staff of fire thrust into the ground with your raven buddy perched atop it and throwing fireballs like a winged lighthouse beam of fiery death is kinda metal.)

[MisterKaws]

Though the image of your Medium-sized staff of fire thrust into the ground with your raven buddy perched atop it and throwing fireballs like a winged lighthouse beam of fiery death is kinda metal.

'Scuse me, I'll just steal this idea.