Magic Staves

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There is a reason they're so iconic — Magic staves are powerful!

Magic staves are an unusual item, because they are really a combination of multiple items.

Given that it is long (usually as long or longer than the owner is tall), requires two hands to use with any hope of success, and never has much in the way of useful blades or hooks or anything "weapony", all magical staves are represented in combat as Quarterstaffs.

As with any Quarterstaff, a magic staff must be wielded in both hands in order to be considered 'wielded'. Like any other wielded magic item, magic staves provide no benefits unless they are being wielded. You cannot buy a staff, keep it in your backpack, and expect it to give you bonuses.

Unlike a common quarterstaff, however, a magic staff provides a number of benefits to its wielder, even before taking into account the magical abilities it grants.

First, when wielded, a magic staff can be used to make normal melee attacks against a creature within reach (using the stats of a normal quarterstaff), or it can be used to perform Melee Touch Attacks against a creature in reach. If used to perform touch attacks, the magic staff's basic attributes are still the same as a quarterstaff, but the wielder may not apply their STR modifiers to their damage roll. This has a hidden benefit, though, if the wielder happens to have a negative STR modifier, it has no impact on the damage dealt.

Second, a magic staff counts as an implement, granting the wielder their Implement Bonus, if they get one, any time they must roll a to-hit roll when casting a spell or using a spell-like ability. As with other implements, magic staves can be used to perform a spell's somatic components, waving the staff around instead of the caster's bare hands. Furthermore, as long as the spell caster actually possesses the appropriate material component in a readily available location (like a Component Pouch), a magic staff eliminates any need to have a free hand to draw that component when casting the spell. The component is consumed as normal, but it is pulled from its storage space by the staff itself. If the component is stored in a location that would take longer than the "part of the same action as casting the spell" to draw, the staff cannot draw the component. Don't store your components in a portable hole, or back in town. It won't work.

Lastly, similar to a rod, a magic staff has charges that are consumed when spells are cast from the staff. Unlike a rod, all magic staves have a maximum of 15 charges available to them, and these charges automatically return at the end of each full night's rest (or 24 hours, whichever is sooner.) As a result, magic staves are always of some use every day. In addition, a magical staff can also be recharged with the use of a Large Manastone. Note that instead of a Small Manastone, staves require the purchase of a Large Manastone, so recharging them this way can be a bit expensive, no matter how useful it is.

Building A Magic Staff

To build a magic staff, simply select three Magic Rods, and one Magic Wand, and add the cost of all four items together. This sum is the cost of that magic staff. The staff is able to make use of every effect granted by all four items, as long as it is being wielded in both hands, and as long as it has charges remaining. Effectively, while wielding the magic staff, you are treated as wielding all three of the selected rods and the chosen wand at the same time (and you gain the ability to make melee touch attacks and can apply your implement bonus).

Casting any of the spells from the chosen Magic Rods still requires a command word, uttered as a Standard Action, but instead of only using 1 charge per spell cast, the number of charges used is equal to the spell level of the spell. This means a 4th level spell (such as the Boneshatter spell from the Bonebreaker's Rod) uses up 4 of the staff's 15 charges for the day, but a 1st level spell (such as Magic Missile from the Rod of Darts) would use up only 1 charge. If a magic rod that casts a 0th level spell is chosen to be part of the magic staff's composition, it can be cast an unlimited number of times, since it costs 0 charges (though it still requires a standard action to cast).

The caster level of any spells cast from the magic staff are equal to the caster level of the rod or wand they are being pulled from. That is, while you can purchase the Bonebreaker's Rod as a caster level 7 rod, the damage dealt by its Boneshatter spell is stuck at 7d6+7, and will not increase unless the staff is upgraded to make use of a higher level version of the Bonebreaker's Rod. This means that a magic staff that is able to cast three maximum level spells will be quite expensive indeed. This also means it is necessary to separately track the creator level of each rod and wand used in the staff's construction.

The wand effect chosen for the staff does not use up any of the staff's charges, but it can only be used if the staff has at least 1 charge remaining.

Wand effects can be used to modify/alter the caster's own spells during their spellcasting, or they can be applied to the spells cast from the staff, but only if the caster meets the prerequisites normally required by the wand. (For example, to make use of the Wand of Quickening, the wielder must actually know the Quicken Spell feat. A staff imbued with the ability of a Wand of Quickening would have the same requirement of its wielder.)

You can upgrade an existing magic staff to have a higher caster level for one or more of the rods or wands imbued into the staff. The cost to do this is simply the difference in cost from the old rod or wand to the new rod or wand. This only apples to upgrades within the same rods or wand as are already imbued in the magic staff.

It is also possible to build a magic staff with fewer than three rods, or one that does not include a wand effect. If you wish to upgrade the staff later to add a rod ability (or add a wand ability when there is none), as long as it does not push the magic staff above the maximum possible (i.e. three rods and one wand), you simply pay the cost of the new rod or wand being added to the staff.

It is only if you want to change out an existing ability of the magic staff (swapping out one rod or wand for a different one) that you must purchase a completely new staff.

Special: If you put two of the same rods into the staff (and they must be identical, including their caster levels), the spell effect of those rods may be activated as a move action, instead of a standard action. If you put three identical rods (with all the same caster levels) into a staff, you can cast the spell effect from those rods as either a swift action, or as part of a move action. If at any point the rods are no longer identical (i.e. you upgrade the caster level of one of them but not another), this ability is lost until the rods are identical again.

Example Magic Staves

The magic staves listed below are simply a sampling of the possibilities. Any three rods, and any one wand can be combined to make a magic staff. As a result, there are millions of possible combinations — far too many to attempt to list them all.

Magic Item Name Description Cost
Staff of the Summoner Staff of the Summoner Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[". gp