Wand

Version 0.29: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

An unusually magical sort of stick. "[The principle of selection] is the magician's wand, by means of which he may summon into life whatever form and mould he pleases." -William Youatt, _Sheep: their breeds, management, and diseases; to which is added the Mountain Shepherd's Manual_, ch. III. 1837.

A wand is a magical device that contains several charges of a specific spell or effect.

A player may zap a wand in the inventory with the V key (that is, eVoking it). This releases its magical effect at a target of the player's choice and expends one charge. The number of charges on a wand is always known, and wands of the same type will merge when picked up, taking up only one inventory slot and having the combined number of charges that the two previous wands had.

Once a wand's charges are used up, the wand is destroyed.

A wand's spell power equals 15 + 3.5 * Evocation Skill, though this is still limited by the spell power caps for the spell cast. For monsters zapping wands, the power is 30 + hit dice. Some monsters, particularly uniques, may start with wands in their inventory, which are identified upon seeing a particular monster for the first time.

List of wands

Image	Wand	Description	Max charges per instance	Type	Monster version
	Acid	Fires a bolt of acid that may temporarily corrode targets	15	Beam
	Charming	Temporarily charms the target	15	Hex	Confuses the player
	Digging	Creates a tunnel through rock walls	9	-
	Flame	Shoots a puff of flame at the target	32	-
	Iceblast	Creates a 3x3 explosion of cold damage that partially ignores cold resistance	15	Blast
	Light	Fires a bolt of light that blinds the target.	24	Beam	Confuses the player
	Mindburst	Deals damage to the target, no effect on mindless targets. Ignores armour, but checks willpower.	24	-
	Paralysis	Temporarily paralyses the target	15	Hex
	Polymorph	Changes target into a random creature of similar strength	15	-	Turns the player into a bad form
	Roots	Constricts the target; prevents movement Deals increasing damage over time	15	Blast
	Quicksilver	Fires a bolt of quicksilver that removes effects.	24	Beam

Item Types

Some wands may belong to an "item set", or type, of wand. Only one item from each type may generate in a specific game, though Artificers may start the game with wands that have not generated in a game.

Beam - highly damaging bolt

• Wand of acid
• Wand of light
• Wand of quicksilver

Blast - never misses, 3x3 area

• Wand of iceblast
• Wand of roots

Hex - status, checks willpower

• Wand of charming
• Wand of paralysis

High-tier wands

Some wands are considered too dangerous to be generated in the inventory of monsters with HD less than 5. Monsters with the No high tier wand flag are also excluded. Ijyb is the exception to this rule.

• Hex wands
• Wand of acid
• Wand of iceblast
• Wand of mindburst

Images

History

• In 0.29, the wand of light, wand of roots, and wand of quicksilver were introduced. Wands of the same type are now mutually exclusive from each other. Monsters in general now deal less damage with "high tier" wands.
• In 0.28, overall wand charges were reduced, but eleionomae and fenstrider witches (native to the Swamp) now drop them.
• In 0.27, wands of random effects were replaced with pieces from Xom's chessboard, an XP evocable. Wands of disintegration were renamed into wands of mindburst, which are useless against mindless creatures. Wands of enslavement were renamed into wands of charming.
• In 0.26, wands of clouds were replaced with condenser vanes.
• In 0.25, wands of scattershot were replaced with tins of tremorstones.
• Prior to 0.24, monsters couldn't use wands of iceblast, clouds, or scattershot.
• Prior to 0.22, wands couldn't be used in many transformations.
• In 0.21, wands were 'goldified'. Prior to this version:
  • They did not merge on pickup, so you could have separate wand items of the same type.
  • Wands had an unknown number of charges on pickup. They could be discovered by identifying the wand or by zapping the wand (dependent on Evocations skill). Zapping unID'd wands would waste charges.
  • Once all their charges were used, wands would remain inert in your inventory. Scrolls of recharging would recharge about half the wand's capacity.
  • 0.21 also removed wands of confusion and lightning.
• Prior to 0.20, another type of evocable item called rods were available. Wands of clouds and scattershot were introduced in their stead. The "big three" wands (heal wounds, hasting, and teleportation) were removed. Also, Deep dwarves had an innate ability to recharge wands.
• Prior to 0.18, wands did not display the maximum charges possible when identified. 0.18 also removed the wand of cold, draining, fire, fireball, frost, invisibility, and magic darts, but introduced wands of acid and iceblast. Wands of fire, cold and draining were considered high-tier wands.
• Prior to 0.16, wands were not automatically identified when picked up. However, zapping a wand with an unknown number of charges did not waste any charges.
• Prior to 0.15, wands weighed 10.0 aum each.