Rods should fall into 'Staves' category

[white_noise]

Right now all kinds of rods fall into 'maces & flails' category (at least it says so in description).
Which is pretty strange to me.
It's half way between wand and staff (no way close to mace/flail).
It definitely looks like staff on a tile.
Scroll of aquirement thinks it's a staff (at least it gives me rods when I ask for staves).
It shoots freaking magic (what mace shoots magic?..)
I can only assume it's some kind of mistake that they end up with maces and I suggest to move them to staves.

[Hurkyl]

(what mace shoots magic?..)

Devastator. Firestarter. Sceptre of Torment.

Rods.

I think the intent was that you're supposed to envision their use in melee as being more like a makeshift club.

[wheals]

Rods should probably just not be melee weapons (and then be acquired in the misc category instead).

The only effect this would have that I can think of is that you couldn't use them and have your hand bound on an Ash worshipper. I doubt anyone uses rod melee seriously.

[Sprucery]

Could they be then evoked straight from the inventory...?

[Jeremiah]

Would that mean felids could use them?

[bcadren]

I doubt anyone uses rod melee seriously.

Rods and clubs cause confusion on a successful stab.

[Sprucery]

Rods and clubs cause confusion on a successful stab.

Wasn't that removed?

[neil]

Rods and clubs cause confusion on a successful stab.

Wasn't that removed?

It was removed by wheals in 0.16 development, but even before that it didn't apply to rods, only actual clubs (OBJ_WEAPONS WPN_CLUB).

[partial]

Could they be then evoked straight from the inventory...?

this would pretty much turn them into wands

[Arrhythmia]

Could they be then evoked straight from the inventory...?

this would pretty much turn them into wands

So?

[partial]

So the suggestion boils down to "Remove rods and make new wands w/ old rod effects"

Which I'm not saying is a bad idea

[Hurkyl]

Could they be then evoked straight from the inventory...?

this would pretty much turn them into wands

Except that they would have a different charging mechanic and maybe retain the hunger cost too, so we should call them by a different name. And since we would have just gotten rid of rods, the name "rod" would then be available for this new class of things.

[partial]

Not different enough imo.

[johlstei]

they auto-recharge though, so they're more like...well, evocables than wands

[le_nerd]

Evoking Rods straight from inventory: a mighty fine buff for Ash-users, I thoroughly approve!