Howto set up and use Staff of the Magi in DnD 5E

In this thread I'm going to try and document how I set up and use Staff of the Magi in a DnD 5E game so that others can benefit from my testing and experience. Background: Free basic peasant roll20 account. Logged in as a player in a game that uses the roll20 5E character sheet (OGL I think). Relatively inexperienced roll20 user (me) with help from my generous GM. My PC is a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer 9 who has a Staff of the Magi   (given with the message that it's way OP). I don't want to mix up the staffs spells with my PCs spells and spell slots. After having struggled with this a few sessions I decided to test setting up the staff as a spellcasting character. I'm not sure if the PC or NPC version of the character sheet is best so I'll be testing both in this thread and will report findings and conclusion. Expect edits as I post though I hope this can turn into a reference when completed. I will try an document this as replies to this thread for each part that seems to fit naturally as a step in the process. This is step 1/? 

The GM needs to add the Staff of the Magi as a handout to your Journal, this aids a lot for full text reference of how it works. The GM needs to add a PC or NPC character sheet that you can see, control and edit to your Journal, name it Staff of the Magi . From here on you can do the rest, your GM has other monsters to battle. This is step 2/?

Now we need to add changes to the character sheet of the PC who wields the Staff of the Magi . "Requires Attunement by a Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard". Note the owners spellcasting ability for later (I assume the staff uses it for spell attacks and saves, if not ask your GM, they decide). "This staff can be wielded as a magic quarterstaff that grants a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it." You can drag the Staff of the Magi from the compendium to the owners character sheet but that pretty much only adds its weight to your inventory. Instead or in addition drag a Quarterstaff +2 from the compendium to the owners character sheet twice . This adds two attacks to the Attacks and Spellcasting section with the correct +2 bonus. Edit them so the first says Quarterstaff (one handed) and the second one says two handed. Edit the second ones damage die to a D8. Though actually using the Staff as a melee weapon is unlikely it's nice to get it right (it would also be nice if dragging versatile weapons from the compendium added both attacks but that's another matter). If your game cares about encumbrance edit the weight of the staffs to 0 in the Equipment list. I think you need to keep them there to keep the linked attacks. "While you hold it, you gain a +2 bonus to spell attack rolls." This one is trickier. In the cog wheel next to CORE BIO SPELLS in the first section Class Options change the GLOBAL MAGIC ATTACK MODIFIER(3rd line) to 2. "Spell Absorption: While holding the staff, you have advantage on saving throws against spells. In addition, you can use your reaction when another creature casts a spell that targets only you. If you do, the staff absorbs the magic of the spell, canceling its effect and gaining a number of charges equal to the absorbed spell's level. However, if doing so brings the staff's total number of charges above 50, the staff explodes as if you activated its retributive strike." Add the above text as an item in Features and Traits to maybe help you remember advantage. Name: Spell Absorption. Source: Other. Source Type: Staff of the Magi. Now you can just click the speech bubble to show why you have advantage. This is step 3/?

Now it's time to edit the (N)PC sheet for the actual staff. "The staff has 50 charges for the following properties." You could add this as Class Resource or Other Resource on the owners sheet but the charges belong to the staff and fit better on its sheet. On the PC sheet just use the Class Resource with 50 as Total (top line) and 50 as current charges. Rename it Staff Charges. Paid users might be able to set up auto increment/decrement here, I don't know how this works, if anyone does please help inform us. "It regains 4d6 + 2 expended charges daily at dawn." In the Attacks and Spellcasting section of the sheet add an attack: Name: Dawn Staff Recharge Uncheck the Attack and Proficient boxes, change STR to - Change the Damage to 4D6 plus 2 (change STR to - here too) Damage type: Additional charges Description: The staff has 50 charges for the following properties. It regains 4d6 + 2 expended charges daily at dawn. "If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 20, the staff regains 1d12 + 1 charges." In the Attacks and Spellcasting section of the sheet add an attack: Name: Expended Recharge Uncheck the Proficient boxes, change STR to - Change the Damage to 0 (change STR to - here too), set Crit to 1d12+1 Damage type: Additional charges Description: If you expend the last charge, roll a d20. On a 20, the staff regains 1d12 + 1 charges. This is step 4/?

"Spells: While holding the staff, you can use an action to expend some of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using your spell save DC and spellcasting ability: " Change the sheet to be the same class(es) and level(s) as the owners sheet, in my case Sorcerer 9; also change the value of the spellcasting ability to be the same as the owners (my Sorcerer has 20 charisma). It's probably safest to change all 6 stats to be the same as the owner. "This staff can be wielded as a magic quarterstaff that grants a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it." In the cog wheel next to CORE BIO SPELLS in the first section Class Options change the GLOBAL MAGIC ATTACK MODIFIER(3rd line) to 2. (as in step 3 above).  Check that this correctly changes the Proficiency bonus, spell save DC and Spell attack bonus. They should be the same as the PC owners'. NOTE: You will need to level up the staff when the owner levels up too. "conjure elemental (7 charges), dispel magic (3 charges), fireball (7th-level version, 7 charges), flaming sphere (2 charges), ice storm (4 charges), invisibility (2 charges), knock (2 charges), lightning bolt (7th-level version, 7 charges), passwall (5 charges), plane shift (7 charges), telekinesis (5 charges), wall of fire (4 charges), or web (2 charges). You can also use an action to cast one of the following spells from the staff without using any charges: arcane lock, detect magic, enlarge/reduce, light, mage hand, or protection from evil and good." Adding the spells: For each of the listed spells (man I wish this was easier) find them in the compendium and drag them onto the sheet. Change their names to add the parentheses as in the above text. Eg. change "Fireball" to "Fireball (7th-level version, 7 charges)" The spells that require no charge are cantrips. We'll look at spell levels in a later step, you can optionally change their name similar to above by appending (cantrip). This is step 5/? PS: The compendium has two Enlarge/Reduce spells, tested both in chrome and firefox.

Each of the spells from the staff can only be cast at one level. When we cast a spell we don't want to be asked at which level to cast, we just want it to happen at the correct level. This step is only relevant for the spells that roll dice; for example the first level spell Detect Magic is a cantrip for the staff but clicking it only outputs the description and it can't be cast at other levels. For each spell that rolls dice check that the spell rolls at the correct level. Those that do change the HIGHER LVL CAST DMG dice to NONE. For example Flaming Sphere was changed from 1d6+0 to 1 NONE+0. Spells that don't roll dice but still ask you to choose which level to cast at: remove any text from the AT HIGHER LEVELS: text box. For example Invisibility. The spells that are not rolled at their default level are  fireball (7th-level version, 7 charges) and lightning bolt (7th-level version, 7 charges). For fireball change the damage roll to 12d6 remove the  HIGHER LVL CAST DMG as above. For lightning bolt my test didn't even output damage so I had to: Change OUTPUT from SPELLCARD to ATTACK. DAMAGE 12D6, type: Lightning, SAVING THROW: DEX, Effect: Half damage. Set INCLUDE SPELL DESCRIPTION IN ATTACK to Partial to show that it is a 100 foot line. Now you should have a mostly usable spell list which all only require one click to cast This is step 6/?

This step is optional. Ideally you want the spells to be organised by a level that more appropriately reflects what they do and cost. This mostly effects detect magic and  arcane lock which should be cantrips and the two upcast spells fireball (7th-level version, 7 charges) and lightning bolt (7th-level version, 7 charges). I have tried to move the spells (click the padlock at the bottom of each spell level) but I only seem to be able to move spells up or down among other spells of the same base level. To move these 4 spells it seems the only way (please correct me if you know better) is to recreate each spell at the desired level and laboriously manually copy the text and setting for each. I'm not going to do that right now. This is step 7

" Retributive Strike: You can use an action to break the staff over your knee or against a solid surface, performing a retributive strike. The staff is destroyed and releases its remaining magic in an explosion that expands to fill a 30-foot-radius sphere centered on it. You have a 50 percent chance to instantly travel to a random plane of existence, avoiding the explosion. If you fail to avoid the effect, you take force damage equal to 16 x the number of charges in the staff. Every other creature in the area must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes an amount of damage based on how far away it is from the point of origin, as shown in the following table. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage. Distance from Origin — Damage: 10 ft. away or closer — 8 x the number of charges in the staff 11 to 20 ft. away — 6 x the number of charges in the staff 21 to 30 ft. away — 4 x the number of charges in the staff" Add the above text in the staffs "Features and traits" section on the Core page. Source: Other, Source Type: Staff of the Magi You could add attacks to do all these rolls but 1) I don't know how to access the current number of charges in the staff (or if that's even possible with a free peasant account) and 2) this is hopefully only a one time event and not worth the bother. This is step 8/?

Conclusion I have to test it in-game but I think I'm about as happy as I'll get with what I have. I only set up the PC sheet, not the npc sheet. The difference doesn't really matter and the PC sheet has the class resource field to track charges. My Staff sheet now has 5 attacks and 2 recharge "attacks" plus all the spells on the spell sheet with required save DC etc. It should make having and using this cool item a lot easier. Other Considerations If you too get this you should discuss (DC30 WIS or CHA) or fistfight (online only!) with your GM about whether the material components with associated gold cost needed for the staffs detect magic, arcane lock and plane shift are provided by the staff or if you still need to get them. You may also want to discuss how concentration works with the staffs spells. Does it have its own concentration or does it require yours? Paying customers might want to find out how to auto-increment and -decrement the staff charges. For now I'll make do with doing it by hand based on the spell name in chat after I cast it. Comments, criticism and improvements welcome. I hope someone finds this useful too! t00t t00t

I did forget one special thing: My red (fire) draconic ancestor Sorcerer has "Elemental Affinity Class: Draconic Bloodline Starting at 6th level, when you cast a spell that deals damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry, add your Charisma modifier to that damage. At the same time, you can spend 1 sorcery point to gain resistance to that damage type for 1 hour." For each damage spell that deals damage of the relevant type click the tickbox in the spell where it says "add ability mod to damage and healing" There's only 5 spells in the staff that do damage and they should all be listed in the attacks list on the core page now so should be quick and easy to find. I didn't find a way to set that for a character sheet, luckily not important for the Staff-as-a-PC