Wands and rods

Wands and rods let anyone use magic, caster or not. Both are readied in the missile weapon slot and used the way you shoot: t, then aim. A wand holds one spell and a number of charges, and runs dry. A rod holds an effect no spell has, never runs out, and is paid for with your own mana.

Wands

A wand holds one spell and a number of charges. Ready it in the missile weapon slot, where it takes a launcher’s place (and a launcher takes its place). Use it as you would shoot: press t, aim, and it casts its spell. Each cast uses up a charge instead of your mana.

A wand casts its spell at a rung of its own on the spell’s ladder (see How a spell grows). The rung is rolled when the wand is made, and you see it once you know the wand. In the table below, “Strength” gives the rolls at the lowest and the highest rung a wand of that kind may have; every rung in between is as likely. Your stats never change it, so a warrior with no magic fires a wand as well as a wizard does.

Otherwise the spell works as it always does:

• A ray rolls to hit like any spell attack, with your Dexterity.
• Magic missile never misses.
• An area catches whoever is in it.
• How far it reaches is in the spell’s row and depends on your Willpower, just as for your own casts.

A cast that cannot go off (aimed at yourself, or out of reach) uses no charge and takes no time. One that goes off takes a cast’s time.

An empty wand does nothing (“Nothing happens.”) and takes no time. It stays a wand, to sell or to keep. Wands are never recharged. No skill governs wands: anyone zaps one as well as anyone else. There are no magic staffs; what no spell does, a rod does.

Wands are found unknown. Each kind has its own look for the whole game (“an oak wand”). Using one tells you its kind, and from then on every wand of that kind shows by name. Its charges stay unknown until you identify that wand, with the scroll of identify or a merchant’s Merchant’s eye. Wands lie in the dungeon and are sold in general stores.

The Wand mastery talent (Weaponcraft) moves every wand you use one rung up, and magic items of Wands add their rungs too, never past the ladder’s last rung. Once you know a wand, its description and the aiming line say what it does in your hands, with your talents and items counted (“Holds Fireball: 8d6 fire, radius 2”).

Each wand is made with its own number of charges (in the table above).

Rods

A rod holds an effect no spell has: digging, sleep, terror, or sending a creature away. Like a wand, it goes in the missile weapon slot and is used the way you shoot (t, then aim). It has no charges. Each use costs your own mana (the rod’s cost), so it never runs out while you have the mana to feed it.

Without enough mana a rod does nothing and takes no time (“You have not the mana to use it.”). You cannot use one while something stops you casting, such as raging. A use takes a cast’s time.

A rod’s row in the table says how far it reaches, how much further your Willpower takes it, and the strongest creature its sleep or terror affects. Its reach (how far a line digs, how far a bolt flies, how far away a burst may land) reads like a spell’s: the first number is what anyone reaches, and each rung after it is the reach of a user whose Willpower is at least that rung’s score.

Sleep and terror only affect creatures of a level up to the rod’s own (20); the others shrug it off. Your own level plays no part. No skill makes a rod better or cheaper: in the hands of anyone with the same Willpower, it costs the same and reaches as far.

• Digging breaks every wall on a straight line toward where you aim, as if dug through. It stops at a wall too hard for it (granite), a door, or the level’s edge.
• Teleport other sends the first creature its bolt meets to a random free cell of the level. It counts as an attack: a shopkeeper will not forgive it.
• Sleep puts the creatures in its burst into a true sleep (not the drowsiness of the Sleep spell). They take no turns until a noise, a blow, or a cry wakes them.
• Terror makes the creatures in its burst flee from you for a few turns.

Rods are found unknown. Each kind has its own look for the whole game (“a pewter rod”). Using one, or identifying it, tells you what it is; from then on its cost and reach show when you look at it and aim it. Rods lie in the dungeon and are sold in general stores.

Channeler (Spellcraft) makes every rod cost a quarter less mana (rounded to the nearest, at least 1). Frugal caster then takes a fifth off what is left.

See also: Magic items, Ranged combat, and Scrolls.