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I have asked a question about real benefits of the Heal skill over the Wand of Cure Light Wounds and Wand of Lesser Restoration, and, in short, it seemed like there is none. The skill takes a lot of time to apply, is not 100% reliable and not even really free (you have to expend uses of Healer's Kit).

The wealth by level chart, even if we assume the wealth level to be cut by half as per low fantasy game, suggests that our group, pooling it's wealth, is likely to be able to afford at least one of the wands before they even advance to level 2, and before that healing HP can be done by other (still more reliable) means like Channel Positive Energy, and diseases/poisons being not really very harmful.

However, one answer assumed a party of such a low wealth that they couldn't afford a wand at level 6, where expected wealth per character is 8000 GP in low fantasy game and 16 000 GP in a normal game.

I am not very familiar with the system or various source books written for it, so I would like to know:

Barring house rules, how could it happen in a real game that a level 6 group can't buy neither a Wand of Cure Light Wounds nor a Wand of Lesser Restoration?

Even though I would like the answers to mainly focus on "can't afford" meaining of "can't buy", it can also mean "can't find it for sale"/"can't craft" etc., and those answers are also welcome.

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R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy
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    I feel like this has a bit of XY problem going on. Is your real goal here to keep players from getting consumables for CLW & Restoration? Or is it to get them to actually use the Heal skill? Or maybe just to make healing difficult and slow? – Oblivious Sage Mar 24 '17 at 16:29
  • @ObliviousSage To find a possible RAW situation where characters can't buy the wands while being level 6. If this situation is possible RAW, my optimisation strategy will have to change, I won't be able to assume those two wands as a standard way to handle problems. – R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy Mar 24 '17 at 16:33
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    Are you asking as a player or as a DM? The DM can always say that certain items or spells don't exist in the setting, or just give the players no money whatsoever. – Oblivious Sage Mar 24 '17 at 16:36
  • @ObliviousSage As a player. – R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy Mar 24 '17 at 16:39
  • As a player, there isn't anything you can do stop the DM from screwing you if they really want to, other than not playing with that DM. The most likely way to block access to those items would be to say that they're not for sale, which can be bypassed by having someone in the party who can craft them. Beyond that you're in DM fiat territory. – Oblivious Sage Mar 24 '17 at 16:42
  • I don't really see how there are any real answers to this question, outside of what you included in the question itself. Maybe the PC are poor? Maybe there are no magic shops? Maybe crafting is not allowed in the game? What else are you looking for? – GreySage Mar 24 '17 at 16:43
  • @GreySage The question already addresses some of those by saying without using house rules. Those others are answers. – Hey I Can Chan Mar 24 '17 at 16:46
  • @ObliviousSage I said that I assume that no house rules such as banning "Craft Wand" feat is involved. I want something from official material, such as something that I might find in Pathfinder Society, if I understand it right that they play RAW there. – R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy Mar 24 '17 at 16:48
  • Ultimately, I think this ends up just being a semantic argument about what is or isn’t a “houserule.” Also, Pathfinder Society has its own set of houserules that make play there distinct from Pathfinder in general (RAW or not). – KRyan Mar 24 '17 at 16:55
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    It feels like the question you're trying to ask is "Why did Umbranus's group not have access to magic items?", which is a question better suited to asking Umbranus in chat than on the main site. I voted to close this question as too broad because there are literally dozens of scenarios where you would have limited access to particular magic items in a PF game, and that sort of list isn't a good format for questions here. – DuckTapeAl Mar 24 '17 at 17:03
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    @Baskakov_Dmitriy I don’t think anyone here honestly wants to get into that semantic argument about what does and doesn’t count, though. And it would be an argument, which is why I don’t think this question is likely to ever get re-opened. Note I upvoted it—I think it’s a good and useful question—even though I voted to close it. It’s a good question in the sense that the answer would be valuable. I just don’t think you’ll be able to get an answer here, or anywhere else really, because of differing semantic preferences. – KRyan Mar 24 '17 at 17:20
  • This is trivially easy in D&D 3.5e by using Generating Towns (DMG 137-9) and never letting them find a town bigger than a village, which has 200-gp cap on individual item purchases. If randomly generating towns, there's even a 50% chance each roll that the town will be the size of village or smaller! (Admittedly, that's a lot of heads though.) Unfortunately, that part is omitted from the D&D 3.5e SRD so it's not in Pathfinder. – Hey I Can Chan Mar 24 '17 at 18:09
  • @HeyICanChan What if I use Black Market Connections (Rogue talent) to buff said village to a level of Large Town? Are you going to only let the adventurers enter Thorps? – R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy Mar 24 '17 at 18:31
  • Then I guess that such a limit would be bypassed? I mean, there ain't no rogue talents in 3.5e, after all. :-) – Hey I Can Chan Mar 24 '17 at 18:34

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Creating a wand requires the feat Craft Wand which requires caster level 5 as a prerequisite. If a group doesn't have access to a level 5 spellcaster NPC, they can't commission the creation of a wand.

Pathfinder describes various settlement sizes here; it's not until the settlement size "village (61-100 people)" that spellcasting services of third-level spells (so caster level 5) become available.

Player characters might try to find a wand of healing for sale, even if they can't find someone to craft one. This depends on the "base value" of the town; the base value isn't high enough to have wands of healing for sale until the party finds a "small town (201-2000 people)".

There are no rules describing the group's ability to find a settlement of size "village or greater". This depends on the setting. I do know there are some settings which involve spending time far from civilized lands (Wrath of the Righteous, perhaps, or Out of the Abyss from 5e). There are other settings in which player characters might be unwelcome in towns -- for example I'm running an adventure right now in which the player characters have a strong fear aura and NPCs evacuate the village when they get close.

Honestly I think most published settings would make magical healing available; I would view it as a flaw in the setting if they didn't.

Dan B
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  • The purchase limit describes how much the settlement will spend to buy the PCs items. The base value describes the items that will probably be available in the settlement. A small town has a base value of 1000 or more. – BobTheAverage Mar 24 '17 at 16:59
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    Also these are optional rules. It is debatable whether they are RAW or not. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/ – BobTheAverage Mar 24 '17 at 17:06