Are there any ranged magic weapons like staves??

[Kheryn 🩸]

I made a cleric and i have to use a crossbow, i tried looking it up online but i didn't find any mention of staves on the wiki, but the wiki also seemed very incomplete.

[Gracey Face]

No. There are no "dragon age" style staffs which fire magic bolts and function like ranged weapons. There are some items (including staffs) that can have spells stored on them, and some of those are reusable, and some of those have infinite casts (though I can't remember any specific ones off the top of my head) but they're not quite the same as having ranged weapons.

Your casters will spend most of the game just ineffectually pinking at things with crossbows since your spells aren't worth spending on chaff mobs. It's part of the flavor of DND. Later on as you gain a greater supply of these stored spellcasting items (such as staffs of fire) you can then use them more freely, but you will still end up plinking a lot of the time.

This is part of why 5th edition completely changed the way cantrips worked, so that casters can actually spend most of their time spellcasting.

[ajfusch]

There are staffs, which are melee weapons.
Also wands, which aren't weapons at all but belt items.

Every type of weapons can be magic and the more you progress in the game the better the weapons you find or can buy. "Magic weapon" in this game means a weapon with a bonus to hit and damage and sometimes special effects, all caused by magic.

[Schlumpsha]

There are sling staffs as well if you're looking for ranged alternatives to bows and crossbows. They're like personal catapults hauling stones. If your character is a halfling you get to use them as long as you have martial weapon proficiency. Otherwise sling staffs require exotic weapon proficiency.

[Cutlass Jack]

Its also worth mentioning that if you make your cleric an elf they can use normal bows for free.

But quarterstaves in this game are for bonking enemies over the head with. Not ranged attacks.

[fauxpas]

Honestly I'm shocked no one has pointed out that kineticists allow for the gameplay that fits best stylistic with an unlimited caster mage.

[Cutlass Jack]

I didn't mention it because he's looking to arm a cleric.

[Kheryn 🩸]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Honestly I'm shocked no one has pointed out that kineticists allow for the gameplay that fits best stylistic with an unlimited caster mage.

Kineticist seemed cool but it said it's a difficult class and i bought this game yesterday so i wanted to learn it first with a simple one.

So what i'm getting from these replies is i can either use a crossbow as i have so far or use a melee weapon (maybe a mace to be at least a little cleric-like a-la Darkest Dungeon)

[ajfusch]

I never played kineticist and don't know anything about them. Muddled my way through in Kingmaker with the companion but pretty much ignore it otherwise. Also, yeah, they talked about a cleric.

[Raven]

Originally posted by Kheryn:

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Honestly I'm shocked no one has pointed out that kineticists allow for the gameplay that fits best stylistic with an unlimited caster mage.

Kineticist seemed cool but it said it's a difficult class and i bought this game yesterday so i wanted to learn it first with a simple one.

So what i'm getting from these replies is i can either use a crossbow as i have so far or use a melee weapon (maybe a mace to be at least a little cleric-like a-la Darkest Dungeon)

It's marked hard because of managing burn and stuff (plus this was how it was sold on PnP), but in reality once you get used to the class its reaaaaaaaally straight forward and easy (well what is considered "easy" will vary by individual). The only down side is you're going to basically deadly earth everything and trivialize a lot of encounters and thats what 90% of kineticists builds will push you towards.

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by Kheryn:

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Honestly I'm shocked no one has pointed out that kineticists allow for the gameplay that fits best stylistic with an unlimited caster mage.

Kineticist seemed cool but it said it's a difficult class and i bought this game yesterday so i wanted to learn it first with a simple one.

So what i'm getting from these replies is i can either use a crossbow as i have so far or use a melee weapon (maybe a mace to be at least a little cleric-like a-la Darkest Dungeon)

As Raven says it's not actually that difficult. It looks more intimidating than it actually is. Basically you just have an Eldritch Kinetic blast that you can throw out and that you upgrade over time. If you want to use the extra abilities it might get a little more difficult but no more difficult than any real caster (like a Cleric).

In actual fact because it gets bonus damage from con and is the only class in the game which its a good idea to push con on it ends up being wierdly survivable due to having a big meaty hitpoint buffer and certainly more survivable than any other type of caster (before factoring in buffs).

[AlexMBrennan]

It's marked hard because of managing burn and stuff (plus this was how it was sold on PnP), but in reality once you get used to the class its reaaaaaaaally straight forward and easy (well what is considered "easy" will vary by individual).

Not really - e.g. if you have an archer then you need to click once per turn to shoot the enemy you want to kill but your kineticist requires about 10 clicks per turn to switch to the correct attack.

And then there is a 50% chance that the attack won't be executed as displayed because the whole concept of gathering power for the next round just doesn't work.