A Technical Treatise on Wands

A Technical Treaties on Wands

By: Kassha Firehart

During my studies of artificing perhaps the most common item I have managed to imbue with the power of the vortex is the humble wand. I am going to gloss over the intimate and sometimes painful steps the budding artificer must take to enchant his first wand and assume that you dear reader have take taken your first steps from dabbling with artificing and are now firmly on the road of being an artificer. If you are in Mikona I recommend Pink's Ink for all your artificing supplies; I am fond of Pink's ample work area, low prices, and convenient location.

The art of wand crafting is an intimate procedure in which mage channels raw power of the vortex into a willing vessel. The vessel in this case happens to be a wand. There are four types of wands: wooden, steel, ivory, and gold. In order to prepare the wand to be a vessel capable of holding arcane energy a mage needs a proper set of tools to score the wand properly and if gems are used prepare the gem slots of a wand. Once the wand is ready the mage merely grips the wand and casts the spell he is wishing to enchant into the wand. Results are instantaneous if the artificer is skilled and capable of creating the wand it is instantly ready; if not the arcane energy overwhelms the wand and reduces it to charred slag ... there are rumors of improperly enchanted wands exploding but I have yet to verify this. While the act of enchanting the wand is instantaneous it is an intimate and very personal affair that is not easily quantifiable. In order to quantify this intimate crafting of a wand into a more dry and technical explanation I have created what I am going to refer to as the Flenken Power Scale or FPS for short. Magus Flenken of the Red Order is both a gifted artificer and a competent mage who is in the prime of his career. He is fond of using himself as a form of measurement in his research; I found that inspirational and have decided to continue that tradition with the Flenken Power Scale. The FPS starts at 1.0 , 1.0 is the normal and ideal representation of Magus Flenken. The scale can scale up or down based on how powerful the item in question is in relation to Magus Flenken.

The first wand we will examine is the humble wooden wand. Most budding artificers will carefully enchant one of these first before moving on to more difficult and more elaborate wands. With out any gems the wooden wand rates as 0.125 on the FPS with enough arcane energy for 5 castings. Most wooden wands are capable of holding up two tiny gems. Wooden wands are also only capable of holding spells of the first circle, higher circle spells are just too powerful for the humble wooden wand.

A step up from the humble wooden wand is the steel wand. Like wooden wands, steel wands are capable of holding up to two gems of regular ring size, but you can pack a bit more arcane energy into it. A steel wand rates as 0.15 on the FPS, a full 20% increase in power and will pack enough arcane energy for 10 castings. Steel wands are also limited. They are only capable of holding up to second circle spells before the power of the spell overwhelms the wand.

Next we have the ivory wand, more expensive than the steel or wooden wands but also more powerful. An ivory wand is capable of holding three large gems and rates at a hefty 0.225 on the FPS and will pack enough arcane energy for 15 castings. Ivory wands are capable of holding up to third circle spells.

At the top of the wand food chain is the gold wand. These wands are incredibly expensive (the wand cost alone could easily feed a family of four for a year) and will properly hold and utilize 3 of the biggest gems you could find. It rates at an impressive 0.3 on the FPS. With out any gems to hold additional power it comes in at a staggering 20 castings. Impressively, gold wands are capable of holding up to a fourth circle spell.

While these numbers seem minuscule compared to the might of a mage it is important to remember that with proper gems it is possible to create wands as powerful if not more powerful than 1.0 on the FPS. I myself have created several wands that rate 1.05 on the FPS; they are quite powerful wands. It is also possible with the proper gems to pack more arcane energy into the wand and get more castings. However, it is important to note that a wand has an upper limit of 50 castings, it is impossible to pack in more energy than that .... and yes I have tried.

Hopefully this book has provided you the budding artificer with enough understanding of how wands work to ease you down the road of becoming a master artificer.