Parry a sword strike while holding only a single straw
 

Can't find the trope entry for it, but there is a magical weightless parry item ITL.

Page 117: "A figure can defend only if it has a staff, sword, club, etc., ready to parry the attack with"

Page 110: "a wand is almost weightless"

Re: Parry a sword strike while holding only a single straw
 

Isn't that just you mis-reading the rule? Yes, the Staff spell can be case on a wand or straw, but I don't see wands or straws listed as things that can be used to Defend. In the list, "staff" is not capitalized.

Re: Parry a sword strike while holding only a single straw
 

Note that club is specified distinctly so it is the magical, not mundane, property of a wand to parry a sword.

Re: Parry a sword strike while holding only a single straw
 

This feels to me like a made-up problem

Re: Parry a sword strike while holding only a single straw
 

Further down the page: "a figure must have a ready physical weapon (staff, sword, club, etc) in hand in order to defend, this weapon is used for parrying."
For me the intention is clear a magic straw does not qualify.
This also supports the idea that the form of the staff is not just ornamental, it has implications for what the wizard can do.

Re: Parry a sword strike while holding only a single straw
 

Yep. The 'staff' in that sentence obviously refers to an actual staff. It is not preceded by "wizard's" either.

Re: Parry a sword strike while holding only a single straw
 

I get that feeling a lot.

Re: Parry a sword strike while holding only a single straw
 

My own house rules for parrying have the following "fluff" text:

----
From the character’s point of view, a “parry” consists of some combination of (a) blocking or deflecting an attack, (b) dodging an attack, and (c) feinting to cause an attack to be aborted. A “parrying” character should be considered to be doing whichever of these is the most appropriate and effective at the moment, with the “roll to parry” determining his success at this. For example, a player might describe his character’s attempt to parry with his sword as “blocking my opponent’s blade with my own” in one case and “dodging like mad while waving my sword around” in another.
----

Yes, my parrying rules use the defender making a Dx roll rather than the standard make-the-attacker-roll-more-dice, as I've found the later unsatisfying.

For one thing, I can apply Dx penalties to parry unarmed, or only with a dagger, or with a St 10 short sword against an ogre's St 30 maul, or against a missile attack, giving a finer granulation than just whole numbers of extra dice.

Now a separate roll to parry does have the drawback of slowing play, but I've tried to minimize this by limiting the routine use of parries to "elite" fighters with two attacks per round. Ordinary characters will only parry rarely, out of desperation, because they have to give up their one and only attack to do so.

Re: Parry a sword strike while holding only a single straw
 

If Hcobb wants to use an extremely liberal interpretation of RAW to house rule (we are in a house rule subforum, after all) that straw wands can parry, that’s his call.