Craft Wand
Craft Wand is the second type of artificing implemented. This is the act of putting the power of a spell into a specially prepared wand.
Materials
To craft a wand you need special base wands. Not just any stick will do. The better the base wand you use, the better the spell you can put into the wand. Wands are limited in the range of spells they can hold. Wands have minimum caster levels and minimum charges varying with the base wand used, minimum caster level for a given spell is not applicable. It is possible to increase both caster level and the number of charges in the crafted wand with gems. Each base wand can hold a certain number of gems. Further information about base wands and gems must be gained ICly. Information about base wands, gems, their in-game locations and how to use them in wand crafting should be treated the same way as crafting recipes. This information can only be shared ICly.
Using Metamagic Feats
When crafting wands, it is gems that enhance the spells as they are released, the wand itself only stores the base magic of the spell. When crafting a wand, you need not cast the spell with any metamagic feats, with the exception of energy substitution. All metamagic for a wand requires a certain kind of gem, however with energy substitution you still must substitute the energy to atune the gem to the proper energy.
XP Cost
As with all artificing, every wand carries with it an XP cost. This cost is similar to that outlined in 3rd edition PnP, but only half that cost. Thus the formula for a given wand is:
- (Ajusted spell level) x (Caster level) x (Charges) x 0.5
Determining Success
Difficulty Categories and Difficulty Classes
Crafting a wand is the same difficulty as scribing a scroll of a spell four levels higher. However there is no base DC for the differnt difficulty categories. The DC for crafting a wand depends on its adjusted spell level, caster level, number of charges and it difficulty for the artificer. Certain gems also affect the difficulty class.
There is also no minimum chance of failure, if the DC is lower than your modifier then you will always succeed.
Additional Craft Wand Modifiers
In addition to the modifiers listed in the overview section, the following modifiers are also added:
- +2 for the Scribe Scroll Feat
Creation Time
Crafting wands takes only as much time as is needed to prepare the wand and then cast the spell.
Crafted Wands
Artificed wands are named according to who crafted them, the power of the spell relative to its minimum power and metamagic effects that it has. There is no way to determine a wand's caster level once crafted, short of using it and judging its effects.
Important OOC Information
Player-created wands are p-merchant, ep-chest and p-chest safe. Player-created wands in these types of storage will retain their power. There is no extra information about wands when they are put in p-merchants or ep-chests.
Note that artificing is intended to be a gold sink. You are not meant to make money crafting wands and selling them to Bioware vendors for large markups. Bioware vendors are ingorant of wands true power or lack thereof and do not adjust their prices accordingly. Selling wands with higher Bioware caster level than the caster level on the wand is exploiting the engine and is a bannable offense.
Definitions
DC - Difficulty Class. A number that you must equal or beat after rolling 1d20 and adding appropriate modifiers.
Spell Casting Ability - This is the ability score that is tied to a spell caster's ability to cast spells. For assassins and wizards this is Intelligence. For bards and sorcerers it is Charisma. For blackgaurds, clerics, druids, rangers and paladins it is Wisdom. When casting a spell the score that is used is always based on the class used to cast a spell.