Staff Spell Item Prerequisites

[Gumby Bush]

By default, to enchant an item with Staff it must be no longer than 2 yards and made of once-living material.

I have concluded that the once-living requirement serves largely to keep a staff from serving as too good of a weapon (I point my sword at him and cast fireball!), while the length requirement obviously limits how much the staff can benefit distance modifiers.

Given that one can fasten powerstones in a staff, am I right in assuming that some of the staff can be non-living? How much metal would interfere?

I am curious what alterations to these two requirements others have tried and found successful.

I am also curious what unusual items people have enchanted Staff on--the jutte seems valid if it's made of wood, for instance, and it looks like the sodegarami could take it--and how those have worked out.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Gumby Bush

Given that one can fasten powerstones in a staff, am I right in assuming that some of the staff can be non-living? How much metal would interfere?

My assumption is that the staff enchantment doesn't apply to the parts that aren't a contiguous chunk of once-living material, and staff must be exposed.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Gumby Bush

I have concluded that the once-living requirement serves largely to keep a staff from serving as too good of a weapon

"Once living" also has it's roots in folklore and tradition, where wands are traditionally made of wood or bone.

Originally Posted by Gumby Bush

Given that one can fasten powerstones in a staff, am I right in assuming that some of the staff can be non-living? How much metal would interfere?

Real "walking staves" would almost certainly have some sort of metal endcap, probably brass or bronze, just as canes today usually have a rubber foot. This is to protect the end from damage and wear.

As Anthony said, and IMO, the Staff spell applies to the "once living" portion of the staff. Any significant modifications to the staff, beyond basic ornamentations, endcaps, and jewel mounts would tend to dissipate the enchantment. Magic is fickle.

[Refplace]

I'm with the add your embellishments, just dont replace sections camp.
I had a character use the Staff spell on a whip once,I doubt I'm the only one.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I
I had a character use the Staff spell on a whip once,I doubt I'm the only one.

It's an item in Magic Items 3.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

"Once living" also has it's roots in folklore and tradition, where wands are traditionally made of wood or bone.

The logic kind of breaks down when you start getting into the higher TLs. Plastic comes to mind especially that super-strength polypropylene as durable as steel they have been working on.

Oil and gas are "once living" materials and certainly qualify.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by maximara

The logic kind of breaks down when you start getting into the higher TLs.

Depends on how much transformation you're willing to allow after the material is no longer living. Fossilized stone and petrified wood was "once living" in some sense -- or if you want to get really extreme, carbon from an ancient race in another star system that's been fused into heavier elements all the way up to iron in a series of supernovas and finally got forged into your steel sword was "once living". But that may well not be true for magical correspondences, no matter how strictly "logical" it might be. Magic isn't physics or chemistry, and may well not be too impressed with convolutions of those modern definitions. "Once living" is a technical term only in the context of the magic system in the setting.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Fossilized stone and petrified wood was "once living" in some sense -- or if you want to get really extreme, carbon from an ancient race in another star system that's been fused into heavier elements all the way up to iron in a series of supernovas and finally got forged into your steel sword was "once living". But that may well not be true for magical correspondences, no matter how strictly "logical" it might be. Magic isn't physics or chemistry, and may well not be too impressed with convolutions of those modern definitions. "Once living" is a technical term only in the context of the magic system in the setting.

The spell doesn't say "once living". It says "organic". While there is overlap in that Venn Diagram, it isn't complete by any stretch of the imagination.

And I doubt it means 'organic' in the sense that petrochems are 'organic'.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

The spell doesn't say "once living". It says "organic". While there is overlap in that Venn Diagram, it isn't complete by any stretch of the imagination.

And I doubt it means 'organic' in the sense that petrochems are 'organic'.

Why not? By the time you can do anything useful with petrochemicals, you can do similar things with carbon compounds of more recent vintage. I think it might have said something about once living in 3e, not sure, but 4e just says organic. That does exclude some petrified materials (which no longer actually contain any of the original material) but it's not otherwise all that limiting.

In any case, the proper way to handle this is cast flesh to stone on someone, cast stone to metal on the petrified form, and forge the result into a sword.

[Kax]

Originally Posted by Gumby Bush

I have concluded that the once-living requirement serves largely to keep a staff from serving as too good of a weapon (I point my sword at him and cast fireball!), while the length requirement obviously limits how much the staff can benefit distance modifiers.

Given that one can fasten powerstones in a staff, am I right in assuming that some of the staff can be non-living? How much metal would interfere?

I am curious what alterations to these two requirements others have tried and found successful.

Part of the point is to increase your reach, but in RAW it's used on sticks from short wand- to staff-sized--the height of a human.

Note, though, that a Giant giant could wield a Staff staff 10 yd long with equal validity (at a cost multiplier of 1 x the number of 2-yd (human-height) lengths).

The use of 'living material only' is a setting limitation based on extending the touch of the wielder magically, using Correspondence magic. A GM could change this, and so could an enterprising enchanter.

The amount of metal or other non-living material you could attach while still having it be usable would be the point where it changes from 'a wooden/bone/boiled-leather staff with metal and gem bits' to 'a metal and gem staff with a wooden core'. So, very generally, about 1/2 the weight or volume should be ex-living material.

It has, in published material, been used on at least one leather whip and been mentioned as a possible addition to a wooden shield.