Best Wands, Baldur's Gate 1 Original

Best Wands in Baldur's Gate 1

Dozens of wands are sprinkled throughout Baldur's Gate 1 Original as loot, though perhaps only several can reasonably be found before we reach the city of Baldur's Gate.

Being pre-loaded, wands have no casting time: they can be fired in the blink of an eye, a huge advantage over conventional spellcasting.

Wands not only have a limited number of charges: how many charges remain is also unknown to the player - a nice touch. If we expend a wand, it's simply removed from our inventory and forever lost, but cashed-up players can sell wands on the verge of depletion to a vendor, then buy them back fully recharged.

Moreover, players who haggle with Halbazzer may discover wands are sold in an unlimited quantity at Sorcerous Sundries, so only our cash flow limits the use of these powerful consumables.

Of the ten types of wand, I've found the best to be:

Wand of Fire

(WAND05, Fireball: 6d6 save vs. wands for half, "switchable" to Agannazar's Scorcher: 6d6 +6 save vs. wands for half)

The Wand of Fire, of which several can be found independent of Halbazzer's infinite stock, is an attractive replacement to memorizing the popular Fireball spell itself, freeing up third circle spell slots for the effective and underrated AoE debuffer, Slow.

Wand of Paralyzation 

(WAND04, Stuns a single target for 10 rounds at a -4 save vs. wands penalty)

Those who survive the cave at Black Alaric's treasure cove will emerge waving a Wand of Paralyzation in the air, smiling from ear to ear, because the -4 save vs. wands coupled with Greater Malison means not much in the campaign won't stand still while we cut its rigid body to pieces.

Wand of Monster Summoning 

(WAND10, summons 12 HD of monsters for 2 turns)

The Wand of Monster Summoning is mainly effective for laying down decoys in a pinch, or spamming it to create a swarm to overwhelm a stronger foe (there's no summon cap), a fave tactic for new or lazy players.

Wand of Lightning

The "ricocheting" Wand of Lightning (WAND07, 6d6 electrical, save vs. wands for half) is perhaps the most striking and fun to fire, though, just like the spell, it can easily backfire and electrocute the entire party, leaving them as nothing more than scorched corpses on the cobble-stone pavement.

Bzzt! (TPK)

The area field of the item description is amusing: "Area: Path of Bolt" -- but the "path" is uunpredictable after the bolt ricochets, so we should exercise caution.

To cap off this section and end this post, wands are fun to use and powerful overall, but just how so depends on the number we find and how many Mages and Bards we have to readily wave them.

Baldur's Gate 1 Original (Index) | Baldur's Gate 1 Review (Index).