This situation came up:

A rules lawyer obtained the wrathborn wand and elected to use it in a battle.

The wrathborn wand has the following abilities: It adds one to craft in psychic combat, and as a secondary ability, if your attack roll is less than your craft, you may roll an additional die and add this to your attack roll.

We had never previously had anyone attempt to use the wand in battle and so ruled against this, as it is thematically a "craft weapon" and I am a social conservative who abhors change.

However, the rules lawyer has a valid point. There does not appear to be any rule stating that you cannot use craft based weapons in battles, and the secondary effect on the wand triggers off the attack roll, which does not appear to specify battle or psychic combat.

This would obviously make the wand a guaranteed better weapon than any +1 str weapon if your craft is higher than about 4+.

I would like to hear others thoughts on this as to how you would have ruled.

-Bubba

In my opinion I would not allow a player to use an item in battle if it states it should be used for psychic combat, regardless of whether or not one or more of the abilities would not work.

In this case I do not think the player should have been allowed to use the wraithborn wand as the first ability states that it is used for psychic combat. As he was entering in to battle he would not be able to use the wand and thus gain the secondary effect.

If he really is a rules lawyer he would have ruled against using the Wand in battle. It can only be used in psychic combat!

Ell.

Sorry about the duplicate post!!!

A good rules lawyer will always argue the rules in his favor.

Is there a specific rule that states that the one weapon which you use in battle must be beneficial to the battle? In the case of something like the Ice Fang, you could declare that it is the one weapon you are using, but it would do you no good. In the case of the wrathborn wand it becomes a bit more ambiguous. Especially since there are weapons with two different abilities such as the sword of light which add to strength in battle and add to craft in psychic combat and can clearly be used in either situation.

-Bubba

P.S. I agree though, per the post above, we disallowed use in battle. I would just like more of a rule to stand on than "it doesn't make thematical sense."

A Weapon such as the Wrathborn Wand, Rage Talon or Windlord Amulet need to be activated by the player having one of these Weapons, before he engages in battle or psychic combat.

If the Weapon gives a bonus in battle, then the player may only use that weapon in battle. He may not use it in psychic combat. Any secondary effect of the Weapon only comes into force if it was used in battle, not psychic combat. The same rule applies to a Weapon being used in psychic combat.

Ell.

Thanks !

-Bubba

We had this same situation and ruled the exact opposite way than you did. As there is no rule in the rulebook nor in a FAQ that would require the weapon used to grant a bonus to the stat that is being used in the combat mode. This weapon and a couple others have after effects that are separate from the bonus they offer to the character participating in the battle. If it was the intent of the designers to have these weapons only usable in the modes of combat they give bonuses in then there would be a rules entry for them.

Warderbrad said:

Jon New and myself did help with the design process when the Wrathborn Wand, Rage Talon & Windlord Amulet were conceived! Hopefully this issue will be resolved in the next FAQ update. If you want to house rule it the other way then that is up to you!

Elliott Eastoe.

I just had this come up in a DE game. (In fact, I am posting this before finding out how the DE is going to handle it.)

I just cast Enchant Blade on the Wrathborn Wand. It is now adds +1 to my strength in battle.

Does the effect of my attack roll being lower than my craft value now apply to battle as well?

I can't come up with a valid reason why not.

<later edit>

***The DE allows the Wrathborn Wand with Enchant Blade to use the secondary effect in battle.***