Wands and Scrolls Questions

[Wilecoyote]

I've got a few questions about Bards and their ability to make the most out of wands and scrolls.

1 - Aside from the Wand and Scroll Mastery and Wand Heightening enhancements, does anything improve the effect of wands or scrolls (I realize it may be different between the two)? Spell Focus? Items that have +DC's to a spell school? The Potency or Devotion enhancements on an item?

2 - As I understand it, the default DC's for spell usage are 10 + spell level + caster stat mod. When casting a spell from a scroll, do I (as a bard) get any effect to this formula from my charisma? What if it's a bard spell I'm casting from scroll? What if it's a cleric/favored soul spell (does it add my WIS mod, CHA mod, or none at all)?

3 - Do the Wand Heightening enhancements add enough to the DC's of the wands to make them desirable (or even usable) in the teens and at 20th level?

Or is the bottom line that there's little I can do with offensive wands/scrolls that have a save and I should be sticking to the utility/heal/buff/remove debuff wands and scrolls?

[XCodes]

1 - Aside from the Wand and Scroll Mastery and Wand Heightening enhancements, does anything improve the effect of wands or scrolls (I realize it may be different between the two)? Spell Focus? Items that have +DC's to a spell school? The Potency or Devotion enhancements on an item?

Spell Focus definitely not. Item bonuses probably don't add either, but I haven't found any that were worthwhile yet to check.

2 - As I understand it, the default DC's for spell usage are 10 + spell level + caster stat mod. When casting a spell from a scroll, do I (as a bard) get any effect to this formula from my charisma? What if it's a bard spell I'm casting from scroll? What if it's a cleric/favored soul spell (does it add my WIS mod, CHA mod, or none at all)?

AFAIK the save DC for all scrolls and wands is 10 + 1 1/2 Spell Level (rounded down, priority goes to Cleric/Sor/Wiz/FvS levels for stuff like Otto's). Your ability scores don't enter into the equation at all.

3 - Do the Wand Heightening enhancements add enough to the DC's of the wands to make them desirable (or even usable) in the teens and at 20th level?

Even if you max Wand Heightening, the best you can hope for is high 20's on 8th and 9th level scrolls, which you probably won't be able to UMD in the first place. I don't think they're helpful.

Or is the bottom line that there's little I can do with offensive wands/scrolls that have a save and I should be sticking to the utility/heal/buff/remove debuff wands and scrolls?

Later on definitely stick with the utility scrolls. At low levels, however, you won't be far behind a dedicated Sor/Wiz in terms of damage output on a Wand of Fireball, but that's a really expensive way to do damage.

[Wilecoyote]

Not the answer(s) I was hoping for but thank you for taking the time to answer nonetheless. I just find it frustrating that a non-warchanter's combat options aside from buff/debuff/cc/heal, in other words if you actually want to do damage, amounts to three lack-luster damage spells, wands that don't work, ranged that everyone agrees stinks and without the depth of feats to make it "work", or being melee with a d6 hit die which doesn't lend itself to survivability.

I know that you can build a bard to do melee but only at the expense of giving up some or a lot of the bard's core abilities. I'm not out to have my cake and eat it too by having a character that can do everything, I'm just looking for combat options that might allow me to contribute 60% of a DPS character. Oh well, I guess it's back to being a half-as#$ed melee'er for me.

Again, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions XCodes. It was very much appreciated.

[transtemporal]

1 - Aside from the Wand and Scroll Mastery and Wand Heightening enhancements, does anything improve the effect of wands or scrolls (I realize it may be different between the two)? Spell Focus? Items that have +DC's to a spell school? The Potency or Devotion enhancements on an item?

Nothing increases the DC of wands and scrolls, except those specific wand/scroll enhancements. Potency/devotion items have no effect on wands or scrolls.

3 - Do the Wand Heightening enhancements add enough to the DC's of the wands to make them desirable (or even usable) in the teens and at 20th level?

Nope. Not even close. In fact, those enhancements are so bogus, I'm surprised they're still in the game.

Or is the bottom line that there's little I can do with offensive wands/scrolls that have a save and I should be sticking to the utility/heal/buff/remove debuff wands and scrolls?

Correctomundo! Teleport and gtr teleport are two of the best reasons to get UMD btw.

[XCodes]

I know that you can build a bard to do melee but only at the expense of giving up some or a lot of the bard's core abilities. I'm not out to have my cake and eat it too by having a character that can do everything, I'm just looking for combat options that might allow me to contribute 60% of a DPS character. Oh well, I guess it's back to being a half-as#$ed melee'er for me.

The answer here is likely UMD once again. Using UMD you can blow charges off of wands of Divine Power and swing around a couple shortswords. With a buffed strength of about 20, maxed Inspire Courage, and Power Attack you should be able to manage damage in the mid 20's before other properties.