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Wands, Staves and Rods
Wands, staves and rods are magical devices which contain "ready-made"spells. Rods are somewhat different from the other two, and hence have a separate description (here). All three of these are affected by your skill in "magic-device". The higher the skill level, the greater the spell affect, and the lower the chance of failure.
Wands and Staves
Wands and staves (herein refered to as sticks) operate in a similar fashion. Each contains a certain spell from one of the magic schools and will have a certain number of charges. When the spell in the stick is cast, a charge is used up. In order to use a wand you need to 'a'im it. Staves must be 'u'sed, This will cause the wand to discharge, and the spell will be cast. If this is a targetted effect spell, the usual targeting option will appear. Otherwise, the spell will begin to have its effect as normal. Once all the stick's charges have been used, the stick can be recharged in a number of ways. The stick will, however, have fewer charges than it did originally, and recharging is open to failure.
When you pick up a stick, you'll see it has two numbers in the format [x|y] in addition to the number of charges it holds. By increasing your magic-device skill you can increase the level (and hence the power) of the spell in that stick:
The x value shows a skill level bonus which the staff itself holds, and this is added onto your existing magic-device skill for the purpose of using the stick.
The y value is the maximum possible skill level for that stick.
However, things are balanced by the use of a "minimum magic-device skill level required to raise spell level".
For example: A Staff of Sense Hidden [1|10]. Your magic device skill is at 6. If you were to identify the staff and then 'I'nspect it, you would see the following information:
Spell description: Detects the traps in a certain radius around you. At level 15 it allows you to sense invisible for a while.
Spell level: 3
Minimum Magic Device level to increase spell level: 5
Spell fail: 23
Spell info: rad 13
Explanation:
The Spell Description may contain the effect radius, amount of damage, or duration of the spell.
The Spell level is the level at which the spell will actually be cast.
Spell fail is the probability, as a percentage, that the spell will fail.
The Minimum Magic Device level to increase your spell level is just that. If your magic device skill was less than this level, then the staff would be casting the spell at level one. In this example our magic device skill is 6. Therefore we are casting at level 2 (at skill level 5, we should be casting the spell at level 1).
However, we then we add the bonus from the staff of 1 (number x), which gives us our spell level of 3.
The overall spell level can thus be calculated from the formula:
spell level = staff bonus + (magic device - minimum magic device + 1)).
As you get deeper into the dungeons, the bonuses and maximum spell levels increase.
Rods
Rods consist of two parts, the "rod" itself and the "rod-tip". Each rod-tip contains a spell, of which there are a large variety. Many of the spells available are similar to those of the spell schools, and some are not. The rod-tip must be attached to the rod, by 'z'apping it. This merges the rods together into one inventory slot. After this, the rod can be 'z'apped again to cast the spell stored in it.
There are a number of different types of rod available; some have more power than others and each contains different amounts of "mana". When a spell is cast, mana in the rod is used up. The amount used differs according to the rod-tip attached, and this is deducted from the total mana of the rod. This process can be repeated until there is insufficient mana left in the rod for the spell to work. All rods recharge their mana gradually over time, back to the maximum capacity of the rod.