I'll take a shot at it! First I’d like to say that as someone who likes writing areas and putting the neat stuff that rewards players for indepth investigation with small trinkets and foodstuffs and so forth for their attention to detail, I think it’s wholly unfair to literally handicap several classes by forcing them to do this to gain these things. That being said, I think it’s well and good to reward players for doing this so I’d propose the following changes in addition to the present system.

Leave the system as is, but include the following three spells for transmuters, shifters, conjurers, and invokers.

lvl 37 Spell: Lesser Arcane Foci

This spell requires 1/3rd of the caster’s total mana when cast. Through the use of this spell the caster creates a wand of pure mana that possesses protective properties. The wand grants Aura and has 3 charges when created. The item counts as limited and the spell is on a 48 hour timer. (Creates: a mercurial silver wand)

lvl 47 Spell: Arcane Foci

This spell requires 2/3rds of the caster’s total mana when cast. Through the use of this spell the caster creates a wand of pure mana that possesses protective properties. The wand grants Shield and has 3 charges when created. The item counts as limited and the spell is on a 72 hour timer. (Creates: a glossy golden wand)

lvl 51 Spell: Greater Arcane Foci

This spell requires 3/4ths of the caster’s total mana when cast. Through the use of this spell the caster creates a wand of pure mana that possesses protective properties. The wand created grants Barrier and has 3 charges when created. The item counts as limited and the spell is on a 96 hour timer. (Creates: a cold azure wand)

Created wand details: These wands are nodrop and rotdeath. (The nodrop is aimed at avoiding dropping them to create another and then picking it back up. If there’s another way to do this then by all means.) The Goal: You cannot create a new wand while you hold a wand of that given type, hence you can’t stockpile these wands. If you die, the wands will rot away, and the various timers for each spell carry over through death. Failure to cast the spell successfully sticks the caster with 1/4th the full timer value. Combine this with failed attempts to zap yourself and so forth and it’s not too much, but takes the edge off of driving players to delete from frustration and maintains the value of the present system as well. This grants all mages the chance to have these things without locking them into HAVING to explore and fine tooth comb descriptions for these things.

Anti-Paladins
Same essential setup, but whereas the mage types above primarily gain their juice via mana/magic, Anti-Paladins are cut from darker stuff.

Rather than just mana Anti-Paladins essentially imbue a bit of their own essence into their wands, albeit temporarily.

lvl 37 Spell: Lesser Wand of Fiends

This spell requires 1/4th of the caster’s total mana/health when cast. Through the use of this spell the caster creates a wand of soul chilling darkness that possesses protective properties. The wand grants Aura and has 3 charges when created. The item counts as limited and the spell is on a 72 hour timer. (Creates: a pulsing ochre wand)

lvl 47 Spell: Wand of Fiends

This spell requires 1/2 of the caster’s total mana/health when cast. Through the use of this spell the caster creates a wand of of soul chilling darkness that possesses protective properties. The wand grants Shield and has 3 charges when created. The item counts as limited and the spell is on a 86 hour timer. (Creates: a mottled yellow wand)

lvl 51 Spell: Greater Wand of Fiends

This spell requires 3/4ths of the caster’s total mana/health when cast. Through the use of this spell the caster creates a wand of soul chilling darkness that possesses protective properties. The wand created grants Barrier and has 3 charges when created. The item counts as limited and the spell is on a 108 hour timer. (Creates: a lusterless black wand)

Obviously the times I threw in are just guesstimates, you guys would be better able to come up with what you consider more balanced. If you feel like messing with it, you could even have their creation affect the Veil detrimentally etc. Just depends on what you wanna do really.

Peace,

Jugynheim