When a wand is broken, does the charge status affect its potency

nethack

I die a lot because I don't trust my wands to be more helpful in clearing multiple monsters that surround me (magic traps and Rodney/summon nasties), and the useful ones are all beams and rays. I've recently learned that breaking a wand acts like a grenade instead of a gun. Also, you need to be resistant to the wand's effect. What I wonder is this, "If I break wand, does a +1 charge have the same effect as a +10 wand of the same type?" Physics would suggest that the energy stored would make the higher charge more powerful, but gameplay suggests that breaking is breaking, nothing more… Please clarify. Also, I know that +0 charge usually does nothing.

Best Answer

It depends on both number of charges and type of wand. The 3.4.3 spoiler on breaking wands has details; the short form is, most wands do from 1 to (charges * 4) damage, with some wands doing nothing, wands of cold or fire doing twice that, and lightning or death doing four times that. Wands also have their normal effects (burning spellbooks, freezing water, teleporting items/enemies, etc).

If you want to really get into the details, it happens in do_break_wand() in apply.c.