From: Tommy the Terrorist <[m--yd--y] at [super.zippo.com]>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Magic 101:  The Art of Wand-Picking
Date: 14 Jun 1998 06:35:22 GMT

[This is from my old archives, but new to Usenet.  I haven't played since
the time of the old "T$R debate", but have decided to experiment with a
detente.  In any case, this stuff is essentially generic in nature, aimed
at a general description of "how magic works" in the typical fantasy
genre.]

(A) Anti-Copyright 1993, Tommy the Terrorist.  This material is
explicitly public domain, freely distributable, freely modifiable.

SVIRFIN'S HANDY GUIDE TO WAND-PICKING
   or, how to use a wand when you don't know what it is

   People ask me, why would a dwarf study magic items?  The answer's
pretty simple really; if I wasn't a dwarf, I'd never have survived some
of those explosions when I screwed up... Besides, if I could cast spells
I probably would never have gotten around to looking at items.  And, the
Chemistrie Magick and Sage Advice Shoppe has made me rather wealthy over
the years.  But now I'm retiring, going back to the mountains, and before
I go I want to express my thanks to all the adventurers who have done so
much for me by publishing this little monograph revealing secrets known
formerly to but a few.

What is wand-picking?

   Wand-picking is the art of taking a wand you've never seen before in
your life and never heard the command word for, and trying to make it go
off.  I've had a lot of experience with this because you can often get a
wand really cheap if the people who have it don't think they'll ever be
able to use it, and there are enough fool 'sages' out there who just say
it's impossible to figure out that this is usually pretty easy, if you
have any skill as a merchant.  I keep saying wands here, but really this
all goes for rods and staves too, which work almost exactly the same way.

Types of Wands [1]:

   Runed wands are the easiest to make, the most common, the easiest to
pick, and the most dangerous to damage.  Basically, the mage engraves
various runes all up and down the wand which have various functions, and
locks the spells onto those runes.  You'll need to be able to "read" the
magic - i.e. to be able to perceive the identity of complex
higher-dimensional shapes, either through a wizard's training or by some
item that converts the shapes into recognizable two- or three-dimensional
symbols; otherwise they look like they keep shifting and moving and are
pretty disorienting to look at at all.  I have a set of spectacles I
acquired for an astonishingly low price that detects and visualizes the
magic for me, as well as sharpening up my vision now that I've gotten a
little on the old side, but just about any magic-user should be able to
do these things himself. Once you see the runes, you can try to identify
the trigger-rune and figure out the word for it, or damage it either
temporarily or permanently by crude physical or magical means.  I'll say
more about the kinds of runes in a bit.

   Plain wands with magical runes are like runed wands, but you need to
use a spell even to detect the magic, and you still have to "read" the
runes.  Sometimes they're indelibly written into the wand by magical
"marking" spells, and you can still damage them by chipping the wand or
using a spell to physically erase them; other times they're actually
composed of the wand's enchanting magic and there's no way I know of to
actually affect or damage them without affecting the whole wand in the
same way.

   If you use spells to detect magic and still no runes, there are any
number of possibilities:  there might be an illusion cast on the wand
that hides the runes, the runes might actually be inside the wand (which
slowed me down for a few years with one wand, but I finally found a wild
mage who had accidentally acquired "X-ray vision", whatever that is, and
herded him to the wands display before it turned off!), the runes might
be entirely implicit in the materials and shape of the wand, you might be
dealing with a psionically created item with just a little bit of magic
on it just to confuse you, you might be dealing with a lingering spell
effect from a single spell (like, the "wand" is just a stick, with a
secret compartment in it, with "fire trap" cast into the compartment.  I
singed my fingers on that one!), or, you might be dealing with one of the
small-but-too-big fraction of wands that just plain has no runes, where
all the spells are "integrated" with the enchantment in a single blur of
magic.  If it's any consolation, such wands are usually very high
quality, and pretty powerful, if you can ever figure out how to use them.

   Finally there are wands that are living organisms or extensions of
living things, undead creatures or extensions thereof, intelligent
magical constructs, bound spirits or demons, etc.  You can spot such
wands with spells to detect living things, undead things, demons, or you
can pick it up and see if it tries to take over your mind... Trying to
"pick" such wands is a matter of trying to convince them to do what you
want, often against the commands to which they were supposedly bound when
first chained to serve, without accidentally letting them loose
altogether.  I can't say I have much personal familiarity with these
wands --- my advice is if you find one, drop it down the nearest well and
try to be at least five miles away before it hits bottom.

Organization of Runed Wands:

Overall:  The runes on a wand lock the magic in it into particular forms,
and physically direct the magic in channels along the outside of the
wand.  The entire wand is an attuned object created within the context of
a single magical enchantment, so magical runes are all able to affect the
magic inherent in the wand.  If someone trying to modify the wand added a
rune, it wouldn't be part of the magic and would have no effect (unless
adding it scratched out part of one of the real runes!). As far as I
know, all wands with runes follow the Exclusion Principle of Pauli the
Sage: No more than one of each type of magic rune can be present on a
wand.  A pity, since otherwise I think you'd be able to draw the same
thing ten times over and have a wand that would cast ten fireballs at
once, but on the other hand I suppose that would take the fun out of it. 
The Exclusion Principle is also the way command words work:  When a
magic-user holds the wand and speaks the word that corresponds to some
rune on the wand (almost always the trigger rune:  see below), the rune
on the wand temporarily ceases to exist and the magic-user actually
becomes part of the wand, in a sense, in place of that rune.  This means
that at least in theory magic-users can be given a lot of control over
how a wand works, if the wand is built that way.  For instance, a
magic-user using a wand of magic missiles doesn't have to aim; he always
hits whatever he was looking at, just like if he cast the spell himself.

Trigger Rune(s):   This rune is the most important to the wand-picker; it
usually corresponds directly to a command word.  If you can see this
rune, you can start trying to research the corresponding command word
among various of the compilations of runic symbols in common use by
magic-users; most runes are listed somewhere.  If you can't find a rune,
you can look to see if it is a combination of other, simpler runes; then
try combining these words in various ways.

   Sometimes a trigger-rune corresponds not to a word, but to an effect,
such as striking the staff against the ground or an opponent, etc.  If
you can find the rune, you can look up the meaning, which is usually
cryptically related to what you actually have to do.  Often these runes
also have well-known words associated with them, so even if you have a
wand or other item that you know how to activate by an action, it still
can be of benefit to look up this rune so you can use a word if
necessary.  This also applies to other items:  a human was once trying to
rush me along (something about a basilisk...) and my short little legs
couldn't keep up with him.  So I just kept chanting the word for the
trigger-rune engraved inside my feather-falling ring and he could carry
me just fine!

   It is possible to set off a wand by damaging the trigger-rune.  This
can occur accidentally [2], which is one reason why physically runed
wands should always be carried in cases unless immediate use is expected.
 When the trigger-rune is disabled, the wand will discharge about once a
minute until used up.  A trigger-rune can be temporarily disabled by
dispelling magic very precisely at that single rune; it can be
permanently removed with a magical erasure spell, and on physical or
wizard-"marked" runed wands it can be scratched out by hand. Although the
former options often fail on initial attempts due to the power of the
wizard who finished the wand, this last option is very dangerous!  The
damaged trigger-rune can deflect the magic randomly, which can blow the
end of the staff right off, with aiming-rune and sometimes the spell-rune
attached, creating a surge of unaimed spell effect, and if the spell-rune
is knocked off a wild surge or explosion can result!

   Some wands, which are usable by anyone, even fighters, work by having
a plunger which separates the halves of a trigger-rune to set them off. 
Such runes, when done properly, should be composed magically with each
half loosely associated with the plunger or the plunger holder, so that
the halves merge even if a slight gap remains in alignment. The wand
construction should strive for durability, because fighters tend to jam
the button in as hard as they can over and over again as if the wand
could deliver more power faster.  The best wands actually have the
plunger holder cored from the outer material of the wand, reinserted with
plunger and runes, and sealed with a mending spell before enchantment to
permanently exclude all dirt from the works, to insure that the wand will
stop firing when desired.  But, alas, good craftsmanship is all too hard
to come by...
   Using a wand this way has the disadvantage that the wielder does not
actually integrate himself into the magic of the wand when he uses it, so
it cannot receive information from him; for instance, a fighter using a 
wand of magic missiles must actually aim the wand and hope that he hits,
whereas a magic-user with the command-word can just look at the target,
and that information is known to the missile.

   As a safety feature, wands often have more than one trigger-rune to
guard against accidental activation.  No two runes can be identical on a
wand, but it is still possible to have two or three release-runes in a
row, with a single command-word of multiple syllables.  The innermost
rune-name should always be said last to make sure the magic is released
without premature stops to waste its energy. [3]  It is a good idea to do
magic detection even on wands you know a command word for to make sure
that the parts of the command word are in the right order, watching to
make sure the magic spurts out, all at once, only after the end of the
command word.

Power Rune(s):   This rune or runes actually stores the raw magical
energy of the wand.  Power runes often represent basic elemental forces
(fire, gravity, death, etc.), and usually if you look at a scroll or
spellbook of the spell the wand casts you will find some or all of the
power runes of the wand listed as diagrams for study by the mage (though
often with subtle differences). These runes are occasionally named as
verbalizations for a spell or as a note in a tome about magic to
facilitate memorization by the mage.  Naming any one of these runes
usually prevents a wand from firing more than one charge, as long as the
rune is chanted.  (The first charge is stored between the spell rune and
trigger rune and cannot be disrupted this way).  This may come in handy
if you've damaged another rune and the wand won't stop shooting lightning
bolts! Damaging any power rune usually destroys all but the first charge
and defeats all attempts to recharge.  If the wand does fire more than
one charge with a damaged power-rune, the spell is usually miscast in
some way (often the same way!) each time; rarely, it can be fired
normally, but only with some time to rest between each charge (this is
the case of multiple power-runes of a related types providing the same
power because one gives an insufficient supply to keep up)

Spell Rune(s):   These give the magic form as an actual spell,
constraining its power to a single task at which it becomes powerful. 
These also are familiar from spellbooks, though I've never heard them
spoken during spell casting.  Damaging this rune allows raw magical power
to flow through the wand, generating a wild surge or an explosion
whenever it is released by the normal method of triggering the wand. 
(This is the easiest way to accidentally create a "cursed wand" [4]).

Name Rune:   This lets the magic-user who created the wand keep track of
it more effectively, together with some spell-casting on his end.  The
name rune is a unique function of the magic-user's true name, and is
specially attuned to him. Since there is only one name-rune per wizard,
and one of that rune per wand, he is forced to content himself with one
of two options.  If the name rune is "downstream" from the trigger-rune,
it is only activated when the wand is fired, but the wizard can easily
detect it from thousands of miles away due to the great flow at that
moment.  If the name rune is "upstream" from the trigger, then the wizard
can only find it when it is within a dozen or so miles [5]. The wizard
has to have some spell up to detect anything.  I've heard that it is
theoretically impossible to work backward from a name-rune to deduce a
wizard's true name, though I wonder if someone has different theories...
This rune is usually set up so that damaging it causes some nasty effect,
like the magic shooting sideways out of the wand and detonating in the
defacer's face; if the rune is downstream of the trigger there is no
immediate ill effect from defacing it, but there could be when you try to
use the wand!

Aiming Rune   Aims the magic to fly straight out the far end of the wand.
This rune often is drawn with trailing lines that go back along the wand
and loop behind all the runes, to insure that magic never goes backward
and that everything is channeled uniformly to the tip.  These lines often
spiral around the wand, supposedly providing enhanced accuracy by
creating a spinning ("riffled" or "rifled", they call it) magical field. 
Damaging this rune ruins the wand's accuracy.  One of the few differences
rods and staves have from wands is that they don't require this rune,
because the natural grain of wood directs the spell forward.

Recharge Rune:   This rune is only present in rechargeable wands.  It is
specially designed to drink spell energy (cast directly at it) and
channel it to the power runes. Damaging it has no effect other than to
prevent recharge of the wand.

Safety Rune   This rune is a separate spell-like power of some wands
which flows from the back rather than the front.  The best safety-rune
I've seen actually acted as a special-purpose "auto-abjuration" that
never failed, which would destroy all power from the wand that flowed
near to the user for any reason. Since it was a wand full of lightning
bolts this was really handy, because you could shoot at any range without
worrying about rebounds!

Facilitation Runes:   These little, simple runes direct the power
pathways from rune to rune across the wand, forming intricate networks.
One wand I saw had a channel of facilitation runes curving back toward
the user, so that if you erased the name rune the undeflected magic would
run into the channel and fire straight backward.

Ornamental Runes   These are designed to have no magical effect and just
make the wand look prettier/more imposing and confuse efforts to
interpret the runes.  Sometimes the runes are more interesting, telling a
story or riddle, giving clues to the wand's creation, purpose, or use. 
Of course, the runes drawn on priestly items have no effect on an item
enchanted by a mage, and vice versa.  The extreme example of this is the
layout of two legendary magical masterpieces, the "staff of magi" and
"rod of power".  Incredibly, the pattern reported to be enchanted into
these wands is exactly the same, although it seems inconceivable that
anyone could ever draw both sets of interlocking runes perfectly on a
single wand, since it would have to be unimaginably precisely shaped for
the runes to reach exactly around the wand (Normally the ornamentation
runes are slightly misdrawn to make up for imprecisions).  Nor does it
seem credible that the wand could be successfully enchanted by both a
mage and a priest.  Yet the pattern seems to prove that such an artefact
was once created, and that the staves of legend are only pale shadows of
its full power.

How to Pick a Wand:
1) get the name of the trigger-rune and use as command word.
2) Dispel the trigger-rune (which causes the wand to shoot off a few
times before the dispelling is ended)
3) destroy the trigger-rune and use all power in the wand as quickly as
it can rapid-fire.
4) resort to extraneous methods:  looking up wizard lore, communing with
gods, using magical means to augur information, speaking with the dead,
etc. to find out the command word.

PLEASE DON'T!!!!!!
   There is a company that bills itself as a wand-picking company in
Cameron, which hires hundreds of untrained youths at extremely low wages.
 They are set to work chanting command words around wands in shifts,
night and day, saying every conceivable phonetic combination ever uttered
in a systematic pattern. There have been numerous accidents, often fatal.
   It isn't immediately obvious perhaps, but I believe that this is an
example of the Mass Productionist fallacy in operation; in this case,
they mass produce _command words_!  Like with the other operations of
this odious group of heretics, they pay youths a little bit more than
they would make as apprentices, but give them absolutely no skill in
anything.  Their days are made up of endless boredom, without hope for
improvement.  The difference between the "Workers" and the "Owners" is
absolute, and only the Owners see the tremendous profits from the
business.  Only the Workers suffer the explosions, surges, and curses
which are inevitable with untested magic items, and the Owners don't even
care, much less do anything to help.  If you've ever seen these
"Workers", it seems like they are reduced to passivity like slaves, or
animals dulled from too many hours at the wheel, that still circle
endlessly to one side even when they are led outdoors.
   In the name of all that is good, I ask you, PLEASE do not support this
exploitation with your money.  As in all cases with Mass Productionism,
you can find a better, cheaper deal getting the same thing done quickly
and skillfully by an expert, someone you can trust not to bleed off a few
charges from your wand before he gives it back, someone whose employees
are apprentices who will someday be as skilled as he is.

* Notes *

1:  Types of wands
 1-39     physically runed
40-74     wizard "marked" runes
75-84     runes formed directly from the enchantment (visible, but not
alterable)
85-86     runes hidden by illusion
87-89     runes inside the wand
90-94     runes implicit in materials used for the wand
95-98     not really a magic wand (psionic item, frozen magical spell
effect, etc.)
99        integrated magic (usually for more powerful wands)
00        DM's choice

2:Accidentally damaging the runes

If a wand is just barely damaged - just precisely as little damage as it
can take and still be damaged - then one of the following runes may be
affected:

1 Aiming rune       (wand's magic is aimed randomly when it's used)
2 Trigger rune      (wand acts as if command word is spoken each round)
3 Name rune         (curse devised by creator is implemented)
4 Spell rune        (see note #4)
5 Power rune        (wand will only work one more time and can't be
recharged)
6 Recharge rune     (wand cannot be recharged)
7 Safety rune       (user is no longer protected against wand's magic)
8 Facilitation rune (wild magic spurts out with some random effect,
usually 
                               somewhat related to the wand's original
purpose)

   Damaging any of the first five runes accidentally or by purposeful but
physical means can cause misaimed magic that destroys all lower-numbered
runes as well (30% chance).  (This won't happen with magical erasure or
complete physical erasure).  A wand with a damaged recharge rune has a
30% chance of destroying runes 1-5 if and when an attempt is made to
recharge it (which will fail).
   Note that IF the wand has a safety rune, and that rune is not
destroyed, the wand's magic cannot harm the *wielder*.  Only one person
can wield a wand at one time, they must be holding it in their hand, and
they must be qualified to use that item.  The probability that a wand has
a safety rune is the maximum damage it can do in one round, or 50% in the
case of lethal or incapacitating spells like polymorph.  A safety rune is
designed NOT to protect against the effects of damaging a name rune, if
one exists.

3:  Placing multiple trigger-runes on a wand that must all be released is
a safety device to prevent accidental discharge.  The chances that a wand
has an extra trigger-rune are the same as for having a safety rune (max
damage% or 50%). If the wand has such an extra rune, either of the runes
may be erased without any ill effect (the command word or phrase becomes
shorter).  Damage to the first rune in the series still has the
possibility of destroying lower-numbered runes described in #2, including
the extra trigger-rune.  If the portions of the command word are spoken
in the wrong order, the effective power level of the caster for
determining spell effects is halved.

4:  Roll once for a wand whose spell-rune has been removed:

1-50:  roll 1d4 under the appropriate school each time the wand is used.
51-90:  roll 1d100 and use the second column each time the wand is used.
91-00:  use the "wand of wonder" table (i.e. the wand is now a "wand of
wonder", i.e. the wand is now a "wand of I wonder what it will do!")

All rolls are done secretly; the user does not know what range of effects
the wand is now capable of unless he researches the effects of the
uncontrolled power-runes present (treat as researching a 5th level wild
magic spell).  A character who does this research may (by erasing power
runes) reroll the first roll governing the range of effects up to three
times.
   The wielder has no chance of avoiding any of these effects unless
there is a safety rune; all others have a normal random chance of
escaping them unless stated otherwise. The wand becomes nonmagical after
its charges have all been used, or after any result marked * is rolled. 
Wands cannot be recharged after an * result is rolled.

Necromancy:
1 01-03 Everyone within 30 yards takes 1d6 points of damage, no saving
throw.
2 04-06 1d4 dead creatures within 100 yards are animated as undead and are
         under the control of the wielder.
3 07-09 User is empowered with the ability to drain lifeforce like a
vampire, but  must
         use it within the next minute or suffer the effects himself.  He
is aware of this.
4*10-12 Caster is affected by "feign death" magic, but cannot end the
spell willingly.

Evocation:
1 13-16 Each time the wand is used one of these magic effects occurs at
random,
         centered on the caster:  1 web, 2 dig, 3 shout, 4 wall of fog,
iron, stone, fire, 
         ice, force  (30' radius), 5 stinking cloud, 6 cloudkill
2 17-20 A bolt of force doing damage of whatever type the caster chooses
shoots
        from the end of the wand doing damage equal to the power level of
the creator
        of the wand to a single target.  The caster must roll to hit.
3 21-24 Wand explodes doing 1d6 points of damage per charge within 10
feet,
        half that within 20 feet, one-quarter within 30 feet, etc.  A
        successful save halves damage.  Damage is of whatever type is most
        appropriate or random:  fire, cold, electric, acid, impact,
poison.
4*25-28 A cage of magical force surrounds the wielder and anyone within
about 
        5 feet of him, remaining until someone can dispel it.

Abjuration:
1 29-31 All creatures within 10 yards have a curse bestowed on them.
2 32-34 All creatures within 120 yards are affected by repulsion.
3 35-37 Freedom, the reverse of "imprisonment", releases 1-100 creatures.
4*38-40 The wand destroys the next magical item it touches - such as
robes, rings, 
        gloves, etc., that the caster is wearing.

Conjuration:
1 41-43 Monster summoning effect; monsters are not controlled by the
wielder.
2 44-46 Monster summoning effect but the monsters are controlled by
wielder.
3 47-49 An elemental or extraplanar creature of random type is gated in
to the
        wielder's position; they may be either friendly or hostile.
4*50-52 The wand has no immediate effect.  However, one statement,
request, or
        exclamation made by the wielder will be granted as a wish during
the
        next month.  The wielder will not know that the wand or wish was
        involved, although the nature of fulfillment might suggest some
sort of
        powerful magic!

Alteration:
1 53-55 One living creature other than the wielder within 30 yards is
polymorphed
        into a random monster type.
2 56-58 Wielder is affected by shape change.
3 59-61 Wielder is affected by 2 of the following:  stoneskin,
wraithform, 
levitate, item, haste, disintegrate.
4*62-64 All creatures within 100 yards are affected by Otiluke's resilient
        sphere with unlimited duration; the spheres must be broken by one
of
        the means listed in the spell description.

Enchantment/Charm:
1 65-67 All creatures within 30 yards forget everything that happened
within the
        past 1-10 minutes.  Thus the wielder invariably forgets he used
the wand!
2 68-70 All of the user's items are affected by enchanted weapon for the
        listed duration.
3 71-73 All creatures within 30 yards are affected by Otto's irresistable
dance
4*74-76 All creatures within 100 yards are charmed by all other creatures
        within the same radius and treat one another as trusted allies. 
Even
        evil creatures will try their best to protect and defend others
        affected by this magic.  There is no saving throw allowed for any
        creature at any time.  Creatures are not forced to do anything
directly
        against their alignment, and may indirectly oppose one another.

Illusion:
1 77-79 All creatures within 30 yards are affected by magical blindness,
deafness, 
        and fear for the ordinary duration of the spells.
2 80-82 The wielder can control a spectral force spell powered by the
wand for
        1-4 rounds; after that, the spectral force is free to do whatever
it
        would like (based on the form the wielder gave it) until it is
dispelled.
        (the wielder does NOT know that this will happen).
3 83-85 Roll a random result from the evocation school of this table. 
This is
        the effect that appears to happen, but it is in fact an illusion
and
        can be disbelieved normally.  The illusionary forcecage does not
drain
        the wand of its magic.
4*86-88 The caster is permanently rendered invisible; nothing but a true
wish can
        break the spell.

Divination:
1 89-91 The wielder learns a random fact of the ref's choosing.
2 92-94 The wielder learns a random falsehood of the ref's choosing.
3 95-97 All creatures within 30 yards gain the ability to see through the
wielder's
        eyes and hear through his ears for the next 1-6 days.
4*98-00 The caster may ask any one question, and receive a true answer
(to the
        extent that the answer is knowable at all; events that haven't
happened
        yet can't be predicted with certainty unless Fate is unavoidable.

5:  If the wizard who created the wand routinely uses a spell to hear
when his true name is spoken, then a name rune "speaks" for purpose of
his spells.  The range for detecting wands with this spell is 500
miles/caster level/charge expended (downstream) or 1 mile/level
(upstream).