>Seems like a definite powerup to mages, across the board.
>Mostly the built-in shield. Mages can now use that in
>situations where they might not otherwise have used a shield
>wand. Ranking, mob killing, walking down eastern road,
>"getting your barrier wand", etc.

Pretty sure we thought of that :)

>"Make wands work like non-a/s/b preps, e.g. stoneskin."
>
>That is to say, make them all limited and get rid of specially
>coded "per-player" locations. Reduce the total number of
>locations to some relatively small number, similar to what
>exists for stoneskin, but set the item limits so that a decent
>number of each wand type can be in circulation at a given
>time.
>
>Add custom code so that no mage can carry more than X wands of
>a given type. If he already has X aura wands in his inventory
>and tries to pick another one up then it just falls to the
>ground. This prevents certain powerful mages from stockpiling
>large amounts of wands and thereby keeping them out of other
>players' hands.

What is a "relatively small number". What is "decent number of each wand type"? What is "X"? I honestly don't think this is any better than what's already out there, and even less so with the proposed changes.