Personal Staves

When the local shops' offerings don't quite match up with the needs of an adventuring spellcaster, they might want to make their own staff to reflect their personal brand of magic. Doing so isn't easy, and only a chosen few know the techniques to create a brand new staff.

A custom staff is always unique, and you need your GM's permission to create one and introduce it to your game. Additionally, personal staves can only be created by members of the Staffcrafters Guild.

Creating a Personal Staff

Establishing magical pathways to turn a simple piece of wood or metal into a staff is no simple matter. Without some structure to bind multiple disparate spells to a single staff, the magic would surely fail. Thus, a custom staff must always be created around a central theme, often (but not always) represented by a common trait-- for example, an elemental theme (air, earth, fire, or water), an energy theme (acid, cold, electricity, sonic, force), or the light trait, and so on. Whatever the theme, the staff and all of its spells must correspond to that theme. However, some themes may be too broad to use, such as an entire spell school or tradition; your GM might add additional restrictions.

Determining Level and Price

Your level sets a personal staff's maximum item level, which determines the price as well as the number and level of spells the staff can have, as shown on the table below.

Picking Your Spells

Once you and your GM have agreed on a theme for your staff, choose the spells to inscribe. They must belong to the theme. For example, a water malakim sorcerer might create a deep sea themed staff, inscribing it with spells such as create water and hydraulic push. You can inscribe a number of #Common spells on the staff depending on its level, as shown on the table above. You can place the same spell into the staff at multiple levels to provide yourself with heightened versions, though doing so uses up one of your picks for that spell level. You can add a spell you cannot normally cast to a staff by supplying a casting of it via another caster, or by using Trick Magic Item; however, since you can only cast a spell from a staff if it is on your spell list, this option is not useful (or recommended) for most characters.

Example

Lin, a 15th-level druid, wants to create a staff themed around interacting with the plants she encounters. Next, she selects some common spells for the staff, starting with one cantrip and adding one or two spells at each level, up to the staff's maximum spell level. To build a 15th-level staff with 6th-level spells, she selects the following combination of spells:

Cantrip: tanglefoot
1st: protector tree, shillelagh
2nd: entangle, shape wood
3rd: tree shape, wall of thorns
4th: Barkskin, speak with plants
5th: plant form, wall of thorns
6th: nature's reprisal, plant form

Note that some of these spells are duplicates of lower-level spells, which can be a great way to fill in levels if new spells don't appeal to you. It's usually best to choose a spell for one of these slots that has an extra benefit when heightened (such as plant form giving you better statistics), but even if you don't find a spell with such a benefit, it's worth filling every open slot.

Crafting the Staff

Once you've themed and designed your staff, you can Craft it with the following guidelines, while following all other established rules for Craft. As with normal staves, one casting of all listed levels of all spells in the staff must be provided during the crafting.

Next, the staff needs to be crafted. In Sharum Mal'Kari, custom staves may only be crafted in the workshops of the Staffcrafters Guild, under the supervision of their master artisans. If your character is good at Crafting, they may choose to aid in the crafting process, but if you are not good at Crafting you can choose not to participate; either way, you must be present for the entire duration. Since the creation of a custom staff is #Rare , the GM may decide to have a special quest for esoteric ingredients and/or methods as a prerequisite to the completion of its creation.

Naming the Staff

When your staff is complete, give it a name-- though skeptics might sneer, spellcasters have a strong superstition that naming a staff upon creation will help it attune to its new master.

Revising the Staff

You may decide that you want to make revisions as you play if you come to dislike the spells you chose. To change the spells already in the staff, visit the Staffcrafters Guild and use Craft with a price equal to 1/10th the staff's total price. You can swap out any of the spells in the staff when you finish. The new spells have to belong to the staff's theme and be an appropriate level, just as though you were choosing them when initially making the staff, and you must provide castings of each of them as normal.

Upgrading the Staff

As you level up, your staff will likely become less useful unless you upgrade it. Upgrading the staff is similar to upgrading an item to a higher-level version. Decide the staff's new level. Visit the Staffcrafters Guild, pay the difference in price, pick the new spells, and use Craft to perform the upgrade. You are not required to do the crafting yourself, but you must supply castings of the new spells. Upgrading does not allow you to switch any of the spells you'd previously chosen.