SRD:Staffs

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Staffs

A staff is a long shaft of wood that stores several spells. Unlike wands, which can contain a wide variety of spells, each staff is of a certain kind and holds specific spells. A staff has 50 charges when created.

Physical Description

A typical staff is 4 feet to 7 feet long and 2 inches to 3 inches thick, weighing about 5 pounds. Most staffs are wood, but a rare few are bone, metal, or even glass. (These are extremely exotic.) Staffs often have a gem or some device at their tip or are shod in metal at one or both ends. Staffs are often decorated with carvings or runes. A typical staff is like a walking stick, quarterstaff, or cudgel. It has AC 7, 10 hit points, hardness 5, and a break DC of 24.

Activation

Staffs use the spell trigger activation method, so casting a spell from a staff is usually a standard action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. (If the spell being cast, however, has a longer casting time than 1 standard action, it takes that long to cast the spell from a staff.) To activate a staff, a character must hold it forth in at least one hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for nonhumanoid creatures).

Special Qualities

Roll d%. A 01–30 result indicates that something (a design, inscription, or the like) provides some clue to the staff ’s function, and 31–100 indicates no special qualities.

Staff Descriptions

Staffs use the wielder’s ability score and relevant feats to set the DC for saves against their spells. Unlike with other sorts of magic items, the wielder can use his caster level when activating the power of a staff if it’s higher than the caster level of the staff.

This means that staffs are far more potent in the hands of a powerful spellcaster. Because they use the wielder’s ability score to set the save DC for the spell, spells from a staff are often harder to resist than ones from other magic items, which use the minimum ability score required to cast the spell. Not only are aspects of the spell dependent on caster level (range, duration, and so on) potentially higher, but spells from a staff are harder to dispel and have a better chance of overcoming a target’s spell resistance.

Furthermore, a staff can hold a spell of any level, unlike a wand, which is limited to spells of 4th level or lower. The minimum caster level of a staff is 8th. Standard staffs are described below.

Table: Staffs

Medium	Major	Staff	Market Price
01–15	01–03	Charming	16,500 gp
16–30	04–09	Fire	17,750 gp
31–40	10–11	Swarming insects	24,750 gp
41–60	12–17	Healing	27,750 gp
61–75	18–19	Size alteration	29,000 gp
76–90	20–24	Illumination	48,250 gp
91–95	25–31	Frost	56,250 gp
96–100	32–38	Defense	58,250 gp
—	39–43	Abjuration	65,000 gp
—	44–48	Conjuration	65,000 gp
—	49–53	Enchantment	65,000 gp
—	54–58	Evocation	65,000 gp
—	59–63	Illusion	65,000 gp
—	64–68	Necromancy	65,000 gp
—	69–73	Transmutation	65,000 gp
—	74–77	Divination	73,500 gp
—	78–82	Earth and stone	80,500 gp
—	83–87	Woodlands	101,250 gp
—	88–92	Life	155,750 gp
—	93–97	Passage	170,500 gp
—	98–100	Power	211,000 gp

Epic Staffs

Staffs have 50 charges when created, and they can’t be recharged.

Staffs use the wielder’s ability score and relevant feats to set the DC for saves against their spells in such cases where those values would be higher than the listed values for the staffs.

Epic Staff Descriptions

Standard epic staffs are described below.

Table: Epic Staffs

d%	Staff	Market Price
01–09	Spheres	228,375 gp
10–18	Mighty force	265,000 gp
19–27	Walls	275,625 gp
28–36	Winter	292,500 gp
37–45	Prism	326,812 gp
46–54	Rapid barrage	417,750 gp
55–63	Planar might	460,000 gp
64–71	Domination	464,400 gp
72–79	Fiery power	500,000 gp
80–87	Nature’s fury	500,000 gp
88–95	The hierophants	501,187 gp
96–98	Cosmos	683,487 gp
99–100	Necromancy	1,505,312 gp

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