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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Chapter 5: Treasure Trove / Trappings of Power / Staves

Preparing a Staff

Source GM Core pg. 278
During your daily preparations, you can prepare a staff to add charges to it for free. When you do so, that staff gains a number of charges equal to the rank of your highest spell slot. You don’t need to expend any spells to add charges in this way. No one can prepare more than one staff per day, nor can a staff be prepared by more than one person per day. If the charges aren’t used within 24 hours, they’re lost, and preparing the staff anew removes any charges previously stored in it. You can prepare a staff only if you have at least one of the staff’s spells on your spell list.

Prepared Spellcasters

Source GM Core pg. 278
A prepared spellcaster—such as a cleric, druid, witch, or wizard—can place some of their own magic in a staff to increase its number of charges. When a prepared spellcaster prepares a staff, they can expend a spell slot to add a number of charges equal to the rank of the spell. They can’t expend more than one spell in this way each day. For example, if a wizard can cast 3rd-rank spells and prepared a staff, the staff would gain 3 charges, but wizard could increase this to 6 by expending one of their 3rd-rank spells, 5 by expending a 2nd-rank spell, or 4 by expending a 1st-rank spell.

Spontaneous Spellcasters

Source GM Core pg. 278
A spontaneous spellcaster—such as a bard, oracle, or sorcerer—can reduce the number of charges it takes to Activate a staff by supplementing it with their own energy. When a spontaneous spellcaster Activates a staff, they can expend 1 charge from the staff and one of their spell slots to cast a spell from the staff of the same rank (or lower) as the expended spell slot. This doesn’t change the number of actions it takes to cast the spell. For example, if a sorcerer can cast 3rd-rank spells and prepared a staff, the staff would gain 3 charges. They could expend 1 charge and one of their 3rd-rank spell slots to cast a 3rd-rank spell from the staff, or 1 charge and one of their 2nd-rank spell slots to cast a 2nd-rank spell from the staff. They could still expend 3 charges from the staff to cast a 3rd-rank spell from it without using any of their own slots, just like any other spellcaster.