Rods for DRev

There are multiple ways to make a more traditional rod, staff or wand in DRev without creating new rules.    We'll start with the hard one in part 1 

Classic Rods

Too silly?  Nope.  At least their not
hi-def 1600x900, 500 DPI, 50000 shades of
color for just browns and grays.

Now Rods are a strange thing in 3.5 to handle,  Don't giggle.

  According to the Hypertext SRD  "A rod is a scepter-like item with a special power unlike that of any known spell."    So looking through the list of rods I see a couple of themes.   

Many rods simulate having a meta-magic feat.   While in DRev we did go down the rabbit hole a little bit in purchasing character powers (such as our Psychic Tattoo rules in the Book of Arrogance) we tried to level gauge it as best we can.  While we have feats coming out of our wazoo, characters are often limited to maybe 10 to 15 over the career max.  This makes them pretty special, and I wrote up the Feat Achievement rules in the Book of Adventure to demonstrate the special nature of feats.  Buying feats makes me a little uncomfortable.   

Many other rods are just weapons with extra ongoing special powers.  Maces of all sorts fill the list.  

Here's one of the shorter examples...and super cheap for what it does.  Direct quote with links from Hypertext:

Withering

A rod of withering acts as a +1 light mace that deals no hit point damage. Instead, the wielder deals 1d4 points of Strength damage and 1d4 points of Constitution damage to any creature she touches with the rod (by making a melee touch attack). If she scores a critical hit, the damage from that hit is permanent ability drain. In either case, the defender negates the effect with a DC 17 Fortitude save.  Strong necromancy; CL 13th; Craft Rod, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, contagion; Price 25,000 gp. 

A few rods are extremely unique, like everyone's favorite:  The Immovable Rod.   If you've never taken one...what were you doing?!   I once played in group were all but one of the player's had one for their character just so we could use the effect of making a ladder out of it.     Now sadly we cannot reproduce the Immovable Rod as in DRev, thus yes maybe the GM may want to McGuffin this item.   As for the Rod of Withering or others, what can we do?

Rods in DRev

 Solution 1, Fetish Rods: Reskin a TIER Fetish into something you must hold in your hand instead of wearing in an item slot.   This could work for virtually any strange wondrous item or rod quite well.  Just remember the same item effects do not stack.  So if you possess two of the same Fetishes their effects do not stack, take only the highest.  

As a simple rule change, you must draw a Fetish rod as move action or standard action if clearly stored in backpack (even if if your BAB is +1 or higher).  But Fetish Rods follow the same rules as quick drawing as potions (which means if you can quick draw a potion, you can quick draw your rod--again quick giggling).

As another simple rule change,  Fetish Rods must be in an hand for their bonuses or effects to apply.  If disarmed their effects end immediately.  As a balance for this flaw, you have freed up an item slot for something else by holding a Fetish Rod in your hand.   An off handed Fetish Rod does not trigger any off hand or two weapon fighting penalties since you are technically not attacking with it.

So for the Meta-Magic rods instead of purchasing access to a feat, in DRev you might choose a hand held Fetish of Mojo (increases spell save DC's),  Fetish of Spell Power (increases spell resistance penetration of your spells), or Talisman of Karma (pool of extra spell points).  You can even have an off handed Weapon Fetish boosting your main hand's weapon (attack and damage bonus).

This is clarinet.  Which
suspiciously could be a magical
rod in disguise with all of its
pretty BUTTONS!

 Solution 2, Woo Rods:  We already have rules for holding Woowear in your hands.  So reskinning one as a Rod is fine and dandy.  Just remember this is no longer a magical rod, but a psychic rod.  See The Book of Arrogance for details.

 Solution 3, Mystic Charm Reskin:  In the DRev Book of Magic we have Mystic Charms as TIER items.  These grant special bonuses to using spells from a certain school of magic.   These were skinned to look quite different just for flavor text.   You can easily reskin them to rods (or whatever) without changing the rules.  Any Use Magical Device rolls with them can be roleplayed as pressing those magical buttons you find on rods...really buttons.

 Solution 4, Artifact Rods:  In the DRev Book of Adventure there are full rules on creating an Artifact.  So you'll have to go there for the full rules.  But in brief, by spending a feat or talent slot you may purchase a magical item the you can level up its TIER as you level up, plus add additional features to it.   Although honestly I'm going to save most this for Staves.  So rather than a direct rip of the classic Rod of Withering above, here's an example of what I'd do for DRev as an artifact weapon.

 DRev Rod of Madness

Artifact (Must spend Talent of Feat slot to gain this item's full powers);  Starting TIER:  3 (9000 GB, min level 5).   Base item:  Nightstick (1d4, 20/x2, special: may do non-lethal damage without usually attack penalty; tiny basic traditional melee weapon).  TIER Effects:  Enhancement bonus of +1 (attack and damage),  Disorienting prominence (increase save DC of any blindness, confusion, daze, dazzle, or deafness conditions you cause equal to enhancement of weapon,  1/day: cause target to become blinded for 1 round.  Renew: restore daily use of blind effect if you make a critical strike against a creature suffering from a blindness, confusion, daze, dazzle, or deafness condition).    Artifact Powers:  Madness (Once per round, you may declare one single target attack to be Maddening. This causes the target to act as confused until the end of its next turn. The target may make an initial Will DC save equal to your attack roll to negate the effect. Bonuses and immunities against mind influencing affects apply. This does not cause cumulative duration with additional hits if possible).

Continued in Staves next week.