Wand

Version 0.31: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

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.

Useful Info

Wands can be zapped with the V key (that is, eVoking it) to release a magical effect, costing one charge. When out of charges, the wand is destroyed. If you pick up multiple wands of the same type, they merge: their charges combine into one inventory slot.

For players, a wand's spell power equals 15 + 3.5 * Evocations, though this is still limited by the spell power caps for the spell cast.

Monsters may start with wands, or pick up them from the ground. For monsters zapping wands, their power is 30 + hit dice. Monsters do not consume charges when they use wands.

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 many status 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. However, low HD monsters can still pick up these wands and use them normally starting from D:3.

• Wand of charming
• Wand of paralysis
• Wand of acid
• Wand of light
• Wand of quicksilver
• Wand of iceblast
• Wand of roots
• Wand of mindburst

Images

History

• Prior to 0.31, monsters would consume charges when using wands. Monsters could use wands of digging. Also, wands of light, quicksilver, and roots were not considered high-level wands.
• In 0.29, the item set mechanic was introduced; wands of the same "type" are now mutually exclusive from each other. Also, monsters in general now deal less damage with "high tier" wands.
• Prior to 0.28, the overall quantity of wand charges were much higher (charges were not halved past D:8). Eleionomae and fenstrider witches (native to the Swamp) did not drop wands, though.
• 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. This 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.
• 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.

Added Wands

• 0.29 - Wand of light, wand of quicksilver, wand of roots (added with the item sets mechanic)
• 0.20 - Wand of clouds, wand of scattershot (replacing rods)
• 0.18 - Wand of acid, wand of iceblast

Removed Wands

• 0.27 - Wand of random effects (replaced by pieces from Xom's chessboard
• 0.26 - Wand of clouds (replaced by condenser vanes)
• 0.25 - Wand of scattershot (replaced by the tin of tremorstones)
• 0.21 - Wand of confusion, wand of lightning.
• 0.20 - Wand of heal wounds, wand of hasting, wand of teleportation
• 0.18 - Wand of cold, draining, fire, fireball, frost, invisibility, and magic darts. (Wands of fire, cold and draining were considered high-tier wands.)