This spell allows the caster to arm himself with a basic staff when needed. (The staff is conjured up from the surrounding materials.)
Conjure Staff: Ob 3, 3Actions
Origin: Personal.
Area of Effect: Caster.
Element: Earth.
Impetus: Create.
Duration: Sustained.
Resource Points: 6
Staff is Pow 2 / Add 2 / Spd 2 / VA - / Two Handed / Long (a Basic Staff) and last as long as the spell is sustained and the staff is held by caster (does not interfer with spell casting).
Neat!
If it’s from surrounding materials and sustained, you might be able to get away with the Control facet, rather than the costly Create facet.
I choose create over control as once created he can take it with him as long as he doesn’t drop either the staff or the spell it’s with him. If he was just controlling the elements of the area he was in to form a staff they would still be tied to their area. (Would’nt they?)
The only difference is the source from which the staff is made. If it’s from create facet, it teleports wood in from somewhere else (or from the ether) and forms a staff. Using control, it literally pulls wood from trees around the caster to assemble a staff, once it’s made, its a staff like any other. The downside is that if you’re locked in a cell under the earth the spell might not work unless there’s a table nearby or something of that nature. Just like shards is an awesome spell until you find yourself in a wizards crystal castle.
Also, sustained seems a bit weird For what the spell actually accomplishes.
Sustained was chosen as it is the casters will that keeps his creation viable, least it returns to its natural state and elements. Permanent would be required to just up and make a staff. (Timed could be used to set a duration).
The idea behind this spell is that a wizard on the run could pull together a staff without the need of a scrap of a broken one to use minor maker with.
Why not a sword? I mean any character can pick up an improvised weapon that does the same damage as a staff right? Would a wizard prefer to conjure a sword if he’s forced to conjure a weapon, why not a good one?
A staff is a traditional weapon for a mage simply because of its availability and ease of use. It is also something worth having along on your travels as it can be used to check the ground ahead for sink holes and such as well as poke and prod suspicious things that lay in your path.
Sure, but if the sorcerer is outdoors, he can just use a tree branch as an improvised staff. I’m just trying to envision the circumstances where someone would spend the resources on this as well as wish to sustain a spell for a commonplace effect. The only one I could come up with is that a wizard is caught empty handed and wishes to defend himself post haste, but you are describing it as summoning a walking stick that has to be sustained. I’m not saying the idea isn’t cool, I’m just at a loss for when to use the spell.
It can be used to hastily pull together a staff to defend yourself with. It can also be used to create that staff you need to see yourself through your travels while you are looking for a suitable, more permanate, replacement.
For example: After flying for an hour or so in Falcon Skin form you land behind a house with a full clothes line. Naked and exhausted you manage to find something to wear when a low growl informs you of the presence of the family dog. No time to search for a weapon you conjure one instead to deal with the animal rather than risk leavIng frost or fire burn marks that could announce the fact that there had been a wizard in their midst!