Charging For the Use of Rods, Staves, and Wands

The concept of 'charges' for rods, staves, and wands has never really sat well with me.  It makes sense from a play standpoint; it limits the power of otherwise game-breaking magic items, and it fits well with the sub-game of logistic optimization.  The need for players to balance out the current need for the item versus the future need gives the economist that lives at the center of my three sizes too small heart a nice warm glow.  Choices between easy victory now and deep regrets later are a staple of this game.

That I haven't used these three ugly mugs
as NPCs in a campaign yet is an absolute travesty.

And yet, the cut-and-dried nature of a simple 'shot counter' just takes away a bit of the mystery and uncertainty that should lie at the heart of powerful magics pretty much everywhere in the game. Discussing the game with my son in the car, we devised a neat method for these items that gives players some idea of how much energy they've got to play with, but leaves the exact amount open to some level of uncertainty.  It also gives the three items their own flavor.

• Rods - weakest of the three, the powers of rods are either so powerful you only get one use (such as a rod of cancellation) or so limited to low power things that won't break the game (like the immovable rod).
• Wands - the tool of a wizard, these are basically portable spell holders.  How many spells?  Hard to say.  Each wand is given a die-type, known to the player, that is rolled every time the wand is used.  If that die comes up 1, then the last charge has been used.  Weak wands, like minor illusion, can be assigned a d20, so you can suspect a high number of uses.  Powerful wands, like chain lightning, you'll get an average of 4 uses, maybe more, maybe less.
• Staves - Staves are a little more reliable than wands, but still not completely predictable.  Staves work similarly, each is assigned a die-type, and that die is rolled every time the staff is used.  For these items, when the die comes up between 1 and 3, the die-type drops by one (i.e. the staff drops from a d20 to a d12).  That means staves have a lot more charges, and you have a much better idea how much more use the staff can handle.  You can even assign different dice to different powers of staves - consider a healing staff that has a d20 cure light, but a d4 raise dead.  It's easy to see which one the players will get more use out of.

This gives you the same resource management sub-game, without having to track individual charges.  It gives the players some idea how much they can rely on an item, but doesn't leave them holding a dozen wands each with one charge left, you know, just in case.

Dungeon Plunder: Red Blade of Kir-Kiroth

Powerful magic items with subtle drawbacks are one of my favorite treasures. Players have to decide if the benefits outweigh the costs. This is one such item.

In the old school tradition, a +2 bonus is nothing to sneeze at.  This blade is one such blade, but that bonus comes at a price.  The Red Blade of Kir-Kiroth has a long and glorious history of serving its master well. In all that long history, the companions of its master don't fare so well.  All of the tales include the graphic and gruesome deaths visited upon the sidekicks, faithful friends, and loyal underlings of the hero who chopped his way into the tales of man wielding this blade.  As a result, those who own this sword incur a -1 to the Charisma bonus of its owner's, when it applies to allies.  That means that reaction tests are not affected, but all morale checks for hirelings, indeed for the number of hirelings the owner can possess, all of it.  No one wants to end up another corpse-shaped footnote in the long saga of the Red Blade of Kir-Kiroth.

Dungeon Plunder: True Strike Arrow

This old relic of an arrow is imbued with a powerful and permanent sorcery.  It appears as a stone age arrow with a flint tip and a crooked shaft.  The brilliant red fletching may be attractive, and that an arrow this old should still see use suggests something special.  But seeing just how special this lone arrow truly is requires the aid of magic vision.  So long as line of sight exists between its user and its target, this arrow will simply never miss.  On the other hand, the dull arrowhead and light weight means that this arrow does little in the way of damage.

In game terms, this arrow is +20 to hit every time it is used, but it only ever does 1 point of damage.  That one point may be enough to turn the tide of battle, if it is put in the right place, though.  Blinding an enemy, breaking the right rope, disrupting a spell caster - these are just a few of the many uses creative players should find for this accurate, but weak arrow.  And they won't want to lose an arrow this powerful - watch them hesitate before chancing a shot where they may never see this item again.

Dungeon Plunder: Cursebreaker

This otherwise non-descript steel sword is marked by the blue runic letters engraved along the blade as shown.  Any character who speaks the language of the northern barbarians will recognize the words from an ancient dialect that can be loosely translated as "the breaker of curses".  


In game terms, this is a +1 shortsword that also renders its wielder immune to curses of all stripes.  It cannot cure a curse that has already taken effect; all it can do is deflect the curse from a spell, trap, or anything short of a god's whim.

Dungeon Plunder: The Thunderstaff

If you decide to use this in a game,
feel free to print and give to your players.

The Thunder Staff is a powerful artifact; the secrets of it's construction are literally lost in the mists of time.  Literally - the wizard who created and used it for a century lost his way on the elemental plane of mist.

The staff is a six foot length of whitebark pine carved with whorls and swirls that resemble clouds.  The staff emits a faint vapor mist over its entire length at all times.

When found, this staff has d100-1 charges.  The holder of the staff is immune to electric damage. The following  cost one charge each:

• Predict weather
• Magic missile (2d4 sonic damage, no effect on deaf creatures)
• Call lightning (only usable outdoors in the middle of a storm)
• Striking (a hit by the staff deals 1d6 normal damage plus 1d6 sonic damage)

The following uses cost three charges:

• Thunder (As lightning spell - but does 3d6 sonic damage, save for half)
• Fly (30 to 60 minutes)
• Control Winds

The following uses cost five charges each:

• Weather Control
• Power Word Stun

The staff can be recharged by casting lightning spells into it.  Every level of spell cast into the staff increases the number of charges by 3.  Natural lightning is drawn to the staff as well - an hour of time inside a natural storm will replenish 1 charge.  If the number of charges replenished ever exceeds 99, then the staff detonates in a terrific explosion that does 20d6 electric damage to anyone within 100 feet of it.  The damage is an even split between sonic and electric damage.

Dungeon Plunder: The Leech Wand

Feel free to print this up
and give it to your players
when they find this 'treasure'
in a hoard somewhere.

Welcome to Dungeon Plunder, a new series of blog posts.  Each one details a magic item that you can use in your campaign, complete with history, rules, effects, and pretty pretty pictures.  The first piece of dungeon plunder is a magic item that might force your players to make some hard choices.

The Leech Wand is a magic wand with a handle carved to represent a big fat leech.  To activate it, you grip the back end of it in the palm of your hand, point the business end at a single target, and squeeze the handle good and tight.  The wand will latch onto your palm and suck out a few ounces of your blood (1d4 damage worth).  At the same time it does this, it will drain even more blood from the target (no save), who takes 3d4 damage from the blood loss.  Sated, the wand will not work again for at least another 12 hours.