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"Tom Riddle me this, you bitch: How's your little wand gonna beat my staff?"

A simple staff is quite versatile and coincidentally happens to resemble a really big Magic Wand, so it's no surprise that Wizards and Witches who want to add that extra kick to their spells, or who've decide they're tired of being a Squishy Wizard and want to be able to fight physically, often pick up a Magic Staff.

A Magic Staff is a Magic Wand which is large and substantial enough to be a viable melee weapon. In that sense, it is a Magic Wand first and a melee-weapon second. The magical Martial Arts Staff version is probably the most common and most deadly in physical combat, but canes, clubs and mace-like rods are also viable versions of a Magic Staff, should their shapes be taken advantage of. Sometimes the staff itself is magic, though other times it's just a Magic Focus Object with little inherent ability of its own. Often a Magic Staff acts as a weapon to be used when a character's Black Magic is exhausted or otherwise not working. For a Magic Staff which is often used in melee combat or Full-Contact Magic, the staff is usually much more modestly-sized and decorated than the staff of a mage that isn't taking advantage of the Magic Staff's melee-abilities.

While almost no carrier of this weapon will hesitate to wield their Magic Staff as best they can in physical combat should the need arise, for some the point isn't a Magic Staff's melee attributes but that a Magic Staff is a Magic Wand but better. They are generally considered more powerful than the traditional Magic Wand, and can be elaborate to the point of Awesome, but Impractical. It's not uncommon to see staves with huge gems, floating rings and just plain unlikely hugeness, and since Bigger Is Better, and Cooler Is Also Better a large, decorative staff is usually the sign of a powerful mage. Another common variant is having a skull or bone sticked on a staff, commonly wielded by Necromancers and warlocks to emphasize the motif of death.

Wizards of all kinds are known for carrying Magic Staves, which often go hand in hand with Robe and Wizard Hat. In fact, sometimes the Magic Staff functions almost purely as Stock Costume Traits for magic-users. The Magic Staff is also the signature weapon of the White Magician Girl.

Sometimes, in works based on the Far East, the magic staff in question will be based on a Khakkara, a ring-tipped crosier which is traditionally carried by Buddhist monks and, at times, treated as a tool to cast powerful dharmic techniques.

Note that as a Magic Staff was used by Moses in The Bible, this trope is Older Than Feudalism.

A subtrope of Magic Wand. Related to Martial Arts Staff and Boom Stick. Often paired with Robe and Wizard Hat as part of the gear for a Wizard Classic.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Eriol has one in Cardcaptor Sakura. It's made out of what appears to be gold, and has a sun motif on the top.
  • Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: the great Demon Lord Vearn is a formidable sorcerer, to the point that his weakest spells have the same firepower of high level spells from ordinary wizards. When he really gets serious he handles the magic weapon forged specifically for him, the "Demon Light Staff" (Kouma no Tsue in original): it appears as a massive ornated staff though rather than allow him to cast spells he connects the staff to his body with a built-in cord and feeds it his own magical energy to manifest an incredibly powerful laser blade from the top. Aside from him, magic staffs (usually of small size) are used by wizards to cast spells and as emergency weapons.
  • Delicious in Dungeon: Staffs that conduct Mana are common among mages, though they can still use magic with improvised tools or none at all. Marcille crafted her staff Ambrosia out of living wood and vines; in magic-rich areas, it forms new sprouts.
  • Mystogan from Fairy Tail uses five different staves in varying combinations for his magic. It's actually because he has no magic himself due to being from the Alternate Universe of Edolas, but his staves contain large amounts of magical power that let him cast his spells. Other wizards do employ staves, among them Brain from Oracion Seis and August.
  • Mage characters in .hack//SIGN use magic staves, including Tsukasa, Helba, and BT.
  • Staves in the world of Lyrical Nanoha primarily serve as Magic from Technology Wizard Wands, and they're Swiss Army Weapons that usually become BFGs, BFSes or both.
  • Negi Springfield in Negima! Magister Negi Magi carries a staff most of the time when doing magic. It serves as a focus for his spells and he also uses it to fly in a manner resembling a Flying Broomstick. Also, as the story progresses and his skills in magic increase, he tends to use the staff less and less: The magic ring Eva gave him is less cumbersome, and he grows to rely less on that as well.
  • Nami's Clima Tact from One Piece is Magic from Technology, but functions within the story like a Magic Staff. Sort of interesting in that it started out life as a regular Bo staff, and Usopp built her what would become her weapon specifically to do parlor tricks and "attacks". Then Zeus the cloud homie has his soul transferred to Nami's Clima Tact, making it technologicaland actually magical.
  • Elie eventually picks one up in Rave Master, also known as the Staff of Space and Time. It's true purpose is to help Elie use Etherion to defeat the Endless.
  • Slaynn, a powerful wizard from Record of Lodoss War, utilizes a simple hooked wooden staff.
  • Sailor Pluto from Sailor Moon wields the stylish Garnet Rod which looks much like a key fitting her role as the Guardian of the Door of Space-Time. The staff is in turn topped by the Garnet Orb, a magical object in itself and one of 3 Magical Talismans that create the holy grail or Awaken Sailor Saturn depending on the Media.
  • Magi: Labyrinth of Magic: Many of the wands used in the setting take the form of staffs. The flashback on Alma Toran reveals that the Orthodox Church of David crafted a large amount of staves to channel magic power: Solomon collected 72 of these staves to his followers, who eventually became the 72 Djinns.
  • Overlord (2012) has the protagonist, Ainz Ooal Gown, wield a majestic gold staff that resembles seven snakes intertwined with each other, each snake holding a jewel in its jaws, each jewel a different color.
  • Mashle: Magic and Muscles is set in a world where people generally use magic wands, but the more powerful are able to upgrade their wands into staves that can summon gods.
    • Wahlberg Baines can wield space magic, and thus summon the sky god Uranus. His staff features four compass points.
    • Wahlberg's rival Innocent Zero wields time magic, and thus summon the time god Chronos. His staff has a clock.
    • Zero's subordinate Cell War has the ability to create/manipulate blocks of obsidian, and he summons Hephasteus the god, turning his wand into a staff that wields diamond rings.
    • Rayne Ames's personal magic involves swords, and he summons the god of war Ares, turning his wand into a partisan polearm.
  • Ushio and Tora: the monks of the Kouhamei Sect can imbue their Shakujo staves with Dharmic power (Houriki) to use demon-slaying techniques. Furthermore, their staves aren't made of pewter as implied, but of specially-forged Cold Iron.

    Asian Animation 

    Card Games 

    Comic Books 
  • In Runaways, Nico Minoru wields the Staff of One, which is said to "make Dread Dormammu tremble". It hides in her body and she needs to shed her own blood to summon it. It allows her to cast any spell she wants, but only once — if she tries to use the same spell again, the results will be completely random (it happens rarely, once summoning a flock of flamingos and once teleporting her into the middle of the desert). On several occasions, as Nico has endured a lot of horrible pain, the staff transforms into a more powerful form. It is later revealed that the Staff of One is actually a prison for a very powerful mage called the One whom Nico's ancestor defeated (though she was no hero — she was simply a more effective villain than the One). All of the annoying and painful elements of wielding the Staff of One are actually the One's means of getting what little payback he can on the people keeping him trapped and exploiting his power.
  • Throne of Atlantis features two magic scepters: Ocean Master's scepter controls the seas, and the Dead King's Scepter controls the Trench and is wielded by Vulko, Aquaman's loyal friend.
  • The version of Ice from Wonder Woman and the Star Riders uses a magic staff capped with an often glowing crystal.
  • While the other Lantern Corps use the standard hand-held lantern, the Indigo Tribe use a staff to power their rings.

    Fan Works 
  • In the Facing the Future Series, we are introduced to the Scepter of Fey, which, when used in tangent with an Amulet of Aragon, can make its user all-powerful. Aragon once used it to transform Amity Park into his new Dark Age kingdom.
  • Kitsune: From "Chapter 9":
    [Tome] fit all the stereotypes of a bookish wizard straight out of fantasy novels, with the added bonus of being of similar size to Warwick Davis. He even had a beard and magic staff... though his was a highly ornamented cane.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Dungeons & Dragons (2000) centers around two of them: the Empress's unnamed staff of Gold Dragon control, and the Rod of Savrille, which can control Red Dragons. After the Big Bad talks the Council of Mages into confiscating the Empress's scepter, the Empress sets her sights on the Rod of Savrille, so that she can still have at least some way to stand up to him. Unfortunately, the Big Bad catches wind of her plans, and from there it's a race to get the Rod of Savrille.
  • In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Auror Mad-Eye Moody casts spells with a heavy staff. He's the only wizard in the saga to do so (wands are the norm), and it's got a practical application: he's missing a leg and uses the staff to aid his walking.
  • As in the books, both Gandalf and Saruman in The Lord of the Rings movies have magic staves. So does Radagast the Brown in the The Hobbit prequel movies.
  • The witch Wanda Grubwort has one in Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster.
  • SHAZAM! (2019) and SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods: The wizard Shazam carries a walking stick that confers/transfers his magic to people. The villains in both films seek the staff for their own use.
  • Medivh from Warcraft (2016) has a staff he uses to aid some of his spells - but mostly as a glorified walking stick.

    Literature 
  • All of the Lords and some Hirebrands (wood-wizards) in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant wield magical staves; the High Lord's Staff of Law, created by legendary hero Berek Halfhand, is a particularly powerful and plot-centric artifact throughout the series both the original and its replacement. On a more sinister note, the ur-vile loremasters also tend to channel their powers through rods, spears, or the like.
  • In the Circle of Magic universe, every Trader carries a six foot staff capped at both ends with engraved brass caps. Daja uses hers as a weapon, a walking stick and a magic wand, as needed. However, once she becomes an outcast Trader, she's not allowed to have engraved caps or carvings along the staff showing her life story (until she gets re-adopted by the caravan in Daja's Book). And in Cold Fire, when she gets mage-students of her own, there's an amusing exchange when they ask when they get to have cool staffs and if they can bling them out with jewels and ribbons, whereupon Daja points out that outside of plays they've probably never seen another mage who carries a staff, as they have no magical properties; she just uses hers for magic because she carries it anyway.
  • In Conan the Barbarian, while Conan is king of Aquilonia, a group of evil wizards from Stygia tries to kill him. However a rival evil wizard group from Khitai attacks the first group. These Khitan wizards are armed with staves cut from the Tree of Death, which gives them One-Hit Kill power. With these staves, the Khitans are able to beat the Stygians, though only one Khitan survivor remains, whom Conan cuts down with a sword.
  • Akhlaur, Big Bad of Counselors and Kings, is a necromancer and water mage who wields a staff that's actually a live eel he forced into that shape and petrified, apparently while still conscious. No word on if it returned to normal after he died.
  • The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids has a nameless scepter topped with an intricate batlike design, which seems to be magically keyed to the position of rightful Dark Lord of Shenanig. Lord Nefarious used it as a Magic Focus Object, but after stealing it and taking over the throne, Emperor Steer instead casts magic bare-handed, showing it's not inherently necessary.
  • The Crimson Shadow: Brind'Amour has one he tasks Oliver and Luthien to retrieve in exchange for a reward from inside a dragon's cavern. It helps to focus his powers-without it he's weaker.
  • In the world of Darwath, all objects have at least some inherent magical power, so anything staff-shaped can be used as a Magic Staff. However, Rudy's wizardry gets noticeably better after he acquires a staff that was intentionally made to be a wizard's weapon.
  • In Discworld, the staff is the preferred tool of wizards, and a major plot point in Equal Rites and Sourcery. In Soul Music, Archancellor Ridcully recommends a staff because even if you run out of magic, you've still got six foot of solid bog-oak at your disposal. Works nine times out of ten. The staff is also the subject of a popular Bawdy Song, "A Wizard's Staff Has a Knob on the End", which most wizards don't actually understand. Yes, it does. What's your point?
  • The Dragon Egg Princess: The staff of ki used by Luzee, which was created using Chief Wizard Sejo's staff, three moonstones, and a dragon egg. The staff allows her to drain the essence from magical beings.
  • In The Dreamside Road, Enoa’s staff, inherited from her aunt, somehow enables functional magic use. Part of Enoa’s journey is learning how it works and how to use it. The staff is primarily used for explosions and sudden transmutation. Enoa can wield less deadly magic without a Magic Focus Object.
  • In The Dresden Files:
    • The main character wields both a staff and a blasting rod, as foci for his magic. Harry's blasting rod and his staff have different functions. The staff allows him to use magic more subtly, enabling him to have a much finer control over wind or telekinesis magic. The blasting rod, on the other hand, does Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Harry uses it to control his power and unleash extremely powerful evocations in tightly focused beams - although in a few cases, he ends up using such magic without needing the rod.
    • Staves appear elsewhere in the books as well; Luccio and Ramirez favor much shorter staves, usually under five feet in length, while the Merlin himself goes for a tall, polished white staff. Also, Eldest Gruff uses a staff, though more for walking.
      • It's not universal however: Elaine Mallory uses an enchanted chain, as it can be hidden more effectively. She also makes fun of the old-fashionedness and phallicness of staffs/wands. She has a thorn wand, lariat, and enchanted chain.
      • Ebenezar McCoy normally uses a staff very similar to Harry's, but when he needs to really kick ass, he breaks out the Blackstaff, which is described as a wooden staff covered in pure darkness, and is capable of killing hundreds of men instantly by simply extinguishing their vital functions.
      • Mother Winter apparently used to have a staff as well, although she only described as a walking stick, and since losing it she finds it very painful to travel, making it harder to summon her. There's a fan theory that her walking staff is actually Ebenezar's Blackstaff, mentioned above.
    • Harry likes his staff not just for the versatility, but because it has several enchanted functions (it's very hard) that allow him to bend prison bars, among other things. It's also handy for thwacking people. A security guard requires him to check it once for that reason. It's also handy when you want to motorcycle-joust against a limo. Yes, that happened. Yes, it was awesome.
    • Something of note is that most of a focus's power relies on the belief of the wizard using them, although some of them are spelled. Elaine's chain is an interesting example because it also plugs into wall sockets to build up charge. It's one of the few, if not the only, functional mixes of mortal magic and technology in the entire series.
  • In Dragoneyes graduates of the University of the Green Tower get to carry a staff. And Amniel, even though he dropped out.
  • In Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books, wizards trained on Roke are distinguished from mere sorcerers by carrying staves. Ged is awarded a staff made of yew bound with copper in A Wizard of Earthsea. When it is lost in Osskil, Ogion makes him a replacement from a length of wood formerly intended for a longbow. Wizards of Paln, certainly Seppel in The Other Wind, and at first Cob in The Farthest Shore, do not seem to use staves — but Cob does acquire the metal staff of the Pelnish Grey Mage later in the book.
  • In the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, all wizards carry staves which automatically absorb magic from the environment, in order to power their spells. The effect causes an allergic reaction in magical creatures such as dragons, and is harmful to extremely magical areas such as the Enchanted Forest. Wizards store their spells in their staves, so although they are nigh-indestructible, hiding one will seriously inconvenience its wizard, though he will always find it eventually. The fact that their powers rely on magical theft is one of the things that make wizards Always Chaotic Evil in the books.
  • Heralds of Valdemar series includes Tarma and Kethry short stories. In one of those, one of Kethry's classmates at the mage school they attended stole their teacher's staff, convinced that it was a powerful Magic Staff that could propel her to instant mastery. She broke it and fled the school after finally figuring out that it was just a simple staff - the only thing special about it was that it was just the right length to help him with his limp.
  • Justified to some extent in the Her Majesty's Wizard series by Christopher Stasheff. Wands in that series (and staves, to some extent) serve as magical "antennas", focusing a mage's spells and making them directional. Spells will still work without using a wand, or stave, but the effect is both weaker and far more easily able to be picked up by other wizards/sorcerers. Kinda the difference between using a regular radio versus one with a dish antenna. As spells in this universe are cast through poetry, this can make for some interesting duels. "He's going for the extra point!/Throw his kneecap out of joint!", etc...
  • The Iron Teeth web serial's mages use complex mechanical staffs to direct the power of their mana crystals.
  • The staff is the preferred weapon of several magicians in The Kane Chronicles.
  • Gandalf, Saruman and other wizards wield these in Lord of the Rings, using them as walking stick, badge of office, and magical accouterment all in one. Notably, Gandalf sometimes dual wields it with a glowing elven longsword, Glamdring, because he's that much of a badass. Gandalf also gets away with taking it indoors when the rest of his party have been ordered to leave their weapons at the entrance, because he can pass it off as an old man's walking stick. (And because the guard knew that the Evil Vizier was, well, an Evil Vizier, and thought Gandalf could do something about it. That latter interpretation is only in the books; in the movies it really does look like Gandalf put one over on them.)
  • Lyra: Wizards all have magical staves through which they focus their magic. The staves themselves have a core, usually a magical element that enhances the magic being focused through it, with different elements having different degrees of effectiveness. Chipping off a piece of the crystal prison in the Twisted Tower to use as an experimental core was what released the shadow beast in Csught In Crystal.
  • A Mage's Power: This is the weapon of choice for Dragon's Lair mages because they can double as a Martial Arts Staff. They're mercenaries after all, not academic researchers. One way of killing monsters is just as good as another.
  • Laenan Kite of the Mirror Duet books (Catherine Webb) uses a staff, partly to store power but mainly because it's big and heavy and good for hitting people with.
  • In Scott Meyer's Off to Be the Wizard, most "wizards" in Medieval England use staffs in their spells. In fact, a 5-foot staff is necessary for the shell program to recognize the wizard as a user. Alternatively, a wizard can use a 1.5-foot Magic Wand (a number of wizards carry collapsible backup wands in case they get separated from their staffs). A wand is typically topped with an object. Martin chooses a bust of El Santo. Jimmy has a small plasma globe. Phillip uses a bottle of Tabasco sauce (which he occasionally puts in his food and calls dragon's blood). Many Projectile Spells are coded to appear as if coming out of either a pointing hand or a staff/wand. Phillip suggests holding the staff like a rifle for a better aim. And God help you if you make the obvious joke about the staffs or wands.
    • In the sequel, a pair of "magicians" in Victorian England use their white canes for the same purpose. They do make the obvious joke, which greatly annoys Martin.
    • In the third novel, it's mentioned that the "regalia" are no longer necessary, as the wizards have realized their Achilles heel.
  • In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy, Prospero made all his children magical staffs.
  • "The Staff in the Stone" by Garth Nix: Crafting a staff is one of the final prerequisites to become a wizard. It serves as a magical reservoir that they can feed power at leisure and draw on in times of need. This makes them tempting prizes for unscrupulous mages, who can "absorb" others' staves into their own and gain their power, and who can intuitively sense an unowned staff in the region.
  • Ubiquitous in Ra. Making one of these Summon to Hand, however, is an item on the main character's list of "impossible things".
  • Retired Witches Mysteries: Witches in the series have a specific tool, depending on their respective element, that helps them focus their powers and retains some of their magic after years of use. Air witches, like Olivia, have a wand or staff; hers is a limb from a rowan tree, carved with magical runes.
  • So This is Ever After: Matt, a mage, has one that serves to focus and strengthen his spells.
  • The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: Both Good and Bad Wizards use these. There is frequently a head or face carved onto the top. If owned by a Bad Wizard, it may bite or shock people, and be made of metal (if not from some unrecognizable material). Staffs Good Wizards have on the other hand are always made of wood. They will light up when necessary. In the different Tours, a Staff may contain all the Wizard's spells, be merely an aid, or an actual living thing.
  • Villains by Necessity: Mizzamir and Kahlana both have these, which help enhance their magical abilities.
  • A couple of subversions in The Wheel of Time:
    • Moiraine wields a staff in the first book, but when Egwene starts fangirling over how powerful it is, Moiraine quickly shuts her down, pointing out that all the power comes from her and the staff is just a largely superfluous aid to concentration, borne out by the fact that no other Aes Sedai uses one.
    • Ba'alzamon wields a quarterstaff, but it's to all appearances a perfectly mundane staff despite the fact that he's the most powerful of the Forsaken and the local equivalent of an Evil Sorcerer. Even the Wound That Will Not Heal he inflicts with it appears to be a function of the True Power rather than any function of the object itself.
    • Played with and ultimately inverted with Nynaeve: one of the most powerful mages in the series and the village healer, she starts off carrying a staff but she only ever uses it for smacking sense into the woolheaded men of her village and eventually loses it somewhere and it's never brought up again.
  • The Knights of the Word in Terry Brooks' The Word and the Void books use a Magic Staff as their primary weapon.
  • The House With a Clock in Its Walls features two magic staves:
    • Jonathan Barnavelt has a staff with a snow globe on it.
    • Florence Zimmerman's staff has an orb with a purple star in it, and she can transform it into an umbrella.
  • The staff of the palmer from The Faerie Queene is able to stop storms and calm rampaging monsters because it is made of the same material as Mercury's caduceus. It has the same powers as Mercury's, so it can theoretically tame the Furies and other demons of the Underworld.
  • The Witch of Knightcharm: Starlyght Mornyngmyst, a rookie witch at an evil Wizarding School, acquires a magic staff after completing the school's deadly orientation. The simple staff fits her Granola Girl personality (in contrast to the clubs and edged weapons some other students use), and she uses it to cast her spells.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Ace Lightning: Lord Fear's staff can fire energy blasts and can talk and move on his own.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The Dweller carries with her a staff having an eye symbol on its tip. She always uses the stuff for creating powerful spells.
  • Merlin, from Merlin has two staffs, a Sidhe staff he's used on a couple occasions, and a staff from the Crystal Cave in the series finale. Both are capable of channeling lightning (or at least something that looks like it) and utilizing it as a weapon. There's also Alator, a sorcerer who uses a staff, and the Disir, three female soothsayers armed with staffs.
  • The title character of the kids' game show Raven has a Staff of Power starting in Series 2 which is apparently the source of most of his magical abilities. A Staff of Power is also given to the winner of each series from series 2-series 10 in-universe (in real life, the winner of each series got a different prize such as a holiday).
  • Super Sentai/Power Rangers:
  • Father Time, a villain from Odd Squad who appears in Season 2's "Flawed Squad", has one of these. It allows him to freeze opponents while leaving him and other villains intact, but has a downside of only freezing opponents for a minute at a time. In addition, he can only use his staff once per hour.

    Myths & Religion 
  • In The Bible:
    • Moses's staff transforming into a snake and back is one of the signs God gives Moses of his calling from God, and foreshadows the miracles God will perform through Moses and the staff.
    • God tells Moses to raise his staff (or tells Moses to tell his brother Aaron to raise his staff) to cause the ten plagues on Egypt. Then, when the Israelites are fleeing Pharaoh's army, God tells Moses to raise his staff to divide the sea so they can cross safely on dry land.
    • Moses strikes a rock with his staff to cause water to come out of the rock. God did not authorize him to do this, and warned that Moses would have to pay for it later. (He gets to see the land the Israelites will settle, but dies before he can go there.)
    • Soon after, in a battle with the Amalekites, the Israelites would trounce their foes as long as Moses held his staff high. They start losing when his arm gets tired, so some folks get a rock for him to sit on, while his brother and another fellow help him hold the staff up the rest of the day.

    Pinballs 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • In general magic staffs in D&D are Limited Use Magical Devices that allow a spellcaster to cast specific spells without using their own spell slots by expending “charges” stored in the staff, similar to wands. However, unlike wands, a staff can cast multiple different spells and can be used as a melee weapon. In earlier editions staffs couldn’t be recharged while later editions have them automatically recharge daily but reduces their capacity (from 100 or more charges to 10). Some specific staffs have additional abilities:
      • A Catstaff gives a variety of powers that help thieves, such as climbing walls, moving silently and hiding in shadows.
      • A Demon Staff allows the wielder to summon a minor demon or change themselves into one.
      • A Staff of Command is exceptionally good at Mind Controling opponents.
      • The Staff of Power and Staff of the Magi allow you to cast a very broad variety of spells, and the Staff of the Magi can absorb enemy spells to recharge its own powers on the fly. They also share the Retributive Strike power: when deliberately broken, the staff explodes like a bomb, almost certainly killing all nearby opponents. The wielder has a 50% chance of traveling to another plane and a 50% chance of being annihilated.
      • A Staff of the Elements stores elemental spells, and its powers depend on which type of elemental is trapped inside of it. For example, a fire elemental gives fire-related powers.
      • A Staff of the Serpent turns into a snake to attack your enemies. Comes in python (constriction) and adder (poisonous bite) versions.
      • A Staff of Striking, for when you want to administer a personal beat down.
      • A Staff of Swarming Insects can summon swarms of flying insects or individual giant ones.
      • A Staff of Thunder and Lightning can be used to throw lightning bolts or create peals of thunder.
      • A Staff of Withering can cause the victim to age ten years and suffer a withered arm or leg.
      • A Staff of the Woodlands can cast a number of plant- and anima-related spells, and can be planted into the ground to turn into a tree that can be turned back into the staff on command.
    • An Immovable Rod is an iron rod with a button at the end that forces the rod to stay in one place and hold up to 8000 pounds of weight before failing. One "clever" way of abusing it is to have the rod be really immovable from that one spot and have the planet's rotation force people into hitting at high speeds... that is if you're in a heliocentric system and not a geocentric one, or even within another plane (or your DM is not a total idiot).
    • In 4th edition, magic staves can be used both as weapons and as a means of empowering magic attacks, if you happen to belong to one of the few classes that allows it. Also, some wizards can get defense bonuses for using one, possibly by spinning it if you choose to think of it that way.
  • Fabula Ultima: The arcane weapon category includes various rods and staves. All of them can be used as melee weapons, and some of them provide passive benefits to the wielder's magical abilities. The Caduceus makes any healing spell cast by the wielder more effective, for example, while the Rafflesia Staff makes any offensive spell cast by the wielder also poison its target(s).
  • GURPS features an enchantment spell called Staff, which can be used to turn a staff into a magic device which lets a wizard cast spells through it (so, for instance, touching them with the staff counts as touching the target directly). Since GURPS magic has very limited range, this is rather useful.
  • Ironclaw: Most mage careers (Paladins have a sword) start out with a "rod" made from wood or metal associated with their school of magic. They can load spells into them for easier counterspelling, and they have a bonus to parrying attacks just like a regular staff.
  • LEGO Games: In Heroica, Mage is shown wielding a staff with a flaming head. A copy can be bought by other characters, who can use it to defeat enemies from afar. Sage is also shown with one, but it doesn't appear in the shop.
  • Pathfinder:
    • A number of magic staff items exist in the game:
      • The Shadowstaff grants its wielder power over shadows.
      • The Staff of Heaven and Earth is an ancient artifact that can be used to cast several spells pertaining to the elements of earth and air.
      • The Staff of the Slain is an intelligent quarterstaff with two personalities — a wizard and a dragon which switch control of the staff at morning and dusk — that can be used to make any given energy-based spell deal electric damage.
    • Four of the game's iconic magic-user characters — the sorcerer Seoni, the wizard Ezren, the witch Feiya and the Necromancer Nyctessa — carry staffs of varying degrees of ornateness, which they are sometimes depicted as using as foci for their spells.
    • Magical staves are usually usable as quarterstaves, but since the typical user is a Squishy Wizard this tends to be strictly a desperation tactic. However, there is an interesting archetype of the Magus class that specializes in staff fighting; at higher levels a Staff Magus treats a magic staff as if it were enhanced for combat and can even cast spells from it while striking.
    • In Pathfinder second edition staffs gain a number of daily charges equal to their wielder’s highest spell level, who can further use their power to supplement the staff. Prepared spellcasters (like wizards) can convert one or more of their spell slots into staff charges during daily preparations, effectively making them into a partial spontaneous caster. Spontaneous spellcasters (like sorcerers), on the other hand, can spend spell slots to reduce the charge cost of casting spells from their staff, making staffs that contain spells the caster doesn’t already know the most useful for them.
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • An odd example come as a type of force weapon, rare weapons designed to channel a psyker's potential and release it in melee. While swords tend to be just as common, force staves tend to be elaborately decorated and may also confer other bonuses, such as acting as a psychic focus. Because psychic power is treated in a way that means it kind-of-is, kind-of-isn't magic, the trope stays in full effect.
    • Harlequin Shadowseers carry miststaves, staffs crafted from psychically-reactive materials and designed to channel and augment their wielder's powers. Instead of being used to cast long-range effects, however, miststaves are intended to be used in melee, clouding the minds and senses of those they strike.
  • Warhammer Fantasy:
    • In the '80s supplemental book Realms of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned, one magic item is the Staff of Nurgle. Point it at an enemy and maggots will geyser out of their orifices and strip the flesh off their bones. The remaining pile of maggots becomes a battlefield hazard.
    • The symbol of office for the Supreme Patriarch of the Imperial Colleges of Magic is the Staff of Volans, an Amplifier Artifact that was crafted (and named) for the first Patriarch soon after the Colleges' founding.
    • More generally, wizard models are almost always depicted as wielding tall staffs. These range from the Jade Wizard's simple gnarled stick to one topped with a saber-toothed beast's skull for the Amber Wizard, a scythe wrapped in black roses for the Amethyst Wizard, a metal staff tipped by a lit brazier for the Bright Wizard, and a staff topped by an elaborate orrery for the Celestial Wizard.

    Theatre 
  • In William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero has a staff not a wand, and resolves to bury it when he gives up his magic: "this rough magic/ I here abjure... I'll break my staff,/ Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,/ And deeper than did ever plummet sound/ I'll drown my book."

    Theme Parks 

    Toys 
  • LEGO toys have featured several variations of staffs made of various pole-shaped pieces and decoration, though there aren't any pieces designated solely for the purpose of being a staff.
  • Playmobil toys have featured several magical characters, and so there are three different varieties of magical staffs. One looks like it's made of metal and holds a magic orb between its two prongs (this is used by evil sorcerers), one looks like a twisted tree branch with a gem inside it (this is used by fairies, nature spirits, and wizards), and one appears to be made of magic energy with pearlescent decorations around the orb and bottom end (this is used by fairies or related magical females).

    Video Games 
  • In .hack franchise several mage classes in the in-universe MMORPG "The World" and its many revisions use various staves.
    • The first revision of The World has Wavemaster as its primary (and the only seen in the game proper) mage class, and has them using staves.
    • The second revision splits Wavemasters into Harvest Clerics (healers) and Shadow Warlocks (damagers). Harvest Clerics retain staves, while Shadow Warlocks get Spell Books instead.
  • The Cresceptre in The Adventures of Square, which can shoot homing projectiles at the nearby enemies.
  • Afterimage: Staves are a classification of subweapons that allow Renee to cast spells. Unlike spellbooks, wands, and scrolls, staves usually focus on longer-lasting or complex spells. 42 also exclusively uses a staff to launch magic spells in her playable version.
  • Staves are the chosen weapon of Alice, Routier and Apli in Agarest Senki Zero.
  • Apocryph have you playing as a spell-casting Templar in a medieval-inspired verse, and your first ranged weapon is an enchanted Cobalt Staff that can blast energy bolts on the undead.
  • Riannon channels magic through this staff in Aquapazza.
  • In Arcanum, staffs can store Mana that can be used instead of a mage's own Fatiguenote  or even contain spells of their own.
  • Arc Rise Fantasia: Ryfia wields these. While she's primarily a mage, she still uses it for her basic attacks. In one cutscene she manages to deflect a thrown knife with it.
  • Arknights: The basis of Originium Arts is stimulating a mineral called Originium to create various effects, requiring users to carry items fashioned from Originium (called Arts Unit) to use Arts. Arts Units can be built in many forms, with staves being one of the most common. People infected with Oripathy (a disease where Originium fuses with living cells and turns them into more Originium) can use the Originium in their own bodies to use Arts, essentially making themselves into living magic staves.
  • The Staves of Eden in the Assassin's Creed series are an artifact left over from the Precursor civilization that have shown up several times in history as Moses' Staff, the Papal Staff and Russian Imperial Sceptre, among others, the Staves allow the users to exercise Mind Control. Eventually Nikola Tesla and the Assassins decided to destroy the facility where the Templars were keeping it and take it for themselves, but the resulting explosion destroyed the staff itself and was so large that it came to be known as the Tunguska Event.
  • Atelier Series:
  • In Avencast: Rise of the Mage, every mage wields a staff; for the player character, they augment his magical or combat abilities in various ways, and he can't use magic without one. The staff serves as a magically-augmented melee weapon of choice for the Path of Blood Magic Knights, while for the Pure Magic-wielding Path of Soul, it mostly makes their Magical Gestures that much more grandiose.
  • Lolo the druid sorcerer from Battle Axe uses a staff as his main weapon, which he can shoot projectile attacks from.
  • All the mage-like units in Battle for Wesnoth have these. The only exceptions are the White Magi and Magi of Light, who carry morningstars for melee instead, and the Dark Adepts, who need to carry nothing for their spellcasting, but are also completely helpless in melee.
  • In Cobra Mission, Faythe has an affinity with the equivalent, called an Esper Rod.
  • Lian Xing the wizard from The Crystal of Kings wields his trusty Thunderstaff as his default weapon, and can use it to summon thunderbolts and electrocute the forces of chaos. Most of the magic-based enemies have magic staff as their weapons, too.
  • J.P. Dummond in the "Vendettas" section of The Darkness II wields The Midnight Stick, which amounts to this.
  • In the fourth Dark Parables game, The Red Riding Hood Sisters, Briar Rose carries a magic staff that shoots out thorny vines to combat the wolves.
  • Dark Souls calls them Catalysts, but the idea is the same, and they still look like a traditional staff, only usually rougher and unshaped by tools. Dark Souls II straight-up calls them staves, and gives them a more polished form. Dark Souls III goes back to calling them Catalysts.
  • Diablo loves these:
    • The first game had elaborate staves with some of them even having blades on either end. Almost all of them had some powerful spells, and high melee damage.
    • The second game, had simpler staves that provided bonuses to sorceress' skills. They also had high melee damage, but are not likely to be used in an actual fight. An exception to this is the unique staff "Ribcracker", which is a fairly popular weapon for shapeshifter druids who don't have access to the high end expensive runewords.
  • Divinity: Original Sin II: Like Magic Wands, staves sling elemental magic projectiles and can double as Stat Sticks or grant secondary powers. Unlike wands, their magic can only be used once per combat turn and they can't be Dual Wielded, but they have the option to simply whack enemies.
  • In Dragalia Lost, only fire one projectile at a time (unlike more rapid-firing wands), but will always have healing magic at the ready instead.
  • In Dragon Age, 90% of magic-wielders use staffs as their primary weapon.
    • Dragon Age: Origins starts the trend, although Arcane Warriors can cast certain spells while using melee weapons. There's only one sword exclusive to Arcane Warriors in the entire game.
    • Dragon Age II turns combat with a Mage's Staff into an veritable art-form of destruction, as in addition to the spells they rapidly fling across the battlefield from both ends of the staff, the Mages seem to now favour Wushu-esque moves that rapidly spin and twirl the staff around their whole bodies. A common finishing move is to slam the Staff on the ground that sends the spell across the ground towards their enemy. In close-quarter melee, most staffs also have blades attached for the mage to slam into their opponents.
    • Dragon Age: Inquisition carries on the staff-twirling and melee moves. You can also upgrade your staff, like other weapons, to give it a hefty damage upgrade or other effects.
  • Dragon Quest:
    • Dragon Quest II: The Princess of Moonbrooke wields magic staffs to enhance her magical capabilities.
    • Dragon Quest III: The three magic-oriented Classes -Clerics, Mages and Sages- can be equipped with magic staffs to improve their magic stats and cast spells without MP cost.
    • Dragon Quest VIII: Jessica's a mage by default, after all, so she is good with magic staves. Angelo as well can improve his staff skill set to learn more spells.
    • Dragon Quest IX: Larstastnaras' main weapon is a staff that can cast Boom as well as a few buffs and status effects.
    • Dragon Quest XI: Veronica and Rab can equip staves to directly increase their magic damage. Morcant als carried a tall, rough-looking staff; this is the only weapon used by one of Erdwin's companions that cannot be inherited by the current heroes because it is still in Mordegon's possession.
  • The Wizard and Sorceress in Dragon's Crown use their staves to fire blasts of energy and cast other magic.
  • Mages, Magick Archers and Mystic Knights can enhance their Magick (not a typo) capabilities in Dragon's Dogma.
  • Rungard casts through such a staff in Dual Blades.
  • Euphonia, Berio's Aether Relic in Duel Savior Destiny, takes the form of a magic staff. While she can hit people with it, it's clearly very ineffective.
  • Dungeon Crawl has several different magical staves. Unlike mundane quarterstaves and bladed lajatangs, magical staves are most often used for their ability to enhance their wielder's spells — most spell schools have a matching staff that increases the power of all spells of that school. They can still make decent weapons for those skilled in both the associated school of magic and Evocations — while the staff itself makes a pretty mediocre blunt weapon, striking foes can also blast them with elemental damage. Certain rare artifact staves have more unusual properties, such as one that can refund MP costs when casting spells, or a staff used by an archdemon that lets its wielder hurl damnation.
  • Dungeon Defenders has these in multitudes of varieties, with stat modifiers applying to many aspects of the wizard and his deployable towers. If you upgrade one all the way, you can name it whatever you'd like.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons Online, one-handed scepters generally fulfill this role, commonly being enchanted with spell enhancements. It's quite normal to see wizards and sorcerers (and perhaps the occasional cleric or favored soul) dual-wield scepters, dooming their physical damage potential to minuscule levels, but providing substantial bonuses for magic.
  • In Dungeons of Dredmor, the Staff Mastery skill tree gives bonuses to magic and mana regeneration when wielding staves (in addition to the bonuses in bashing monsters on the head).
  • Pang Tong and Zhang Jiao's weapon of choice in Dynasty Warriors and Aya in Samurai Warriors: all of them have seemingly magical powers, often using spell-like abilities for their Charge attacks (in the fist five games, Zhang Jiao's staff could even shoot flames as part of the final combo string).
    • Hyrule Warriors gives Lana one of these, though the second and third-tier weapon upgrades refer to it as a spear. She uses it both for melee combat and for casting.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Historically in the series, magic staves have been a favored weapon of the Bretons of High Rock, and may even be where the originated. It makes sense, as the Bretons are a natural Mage Species (thanks to their traces of elven blood) with defensive Anti-Magic traits, making them excellent in Magic Knight and Mage Killer roles.
    • Likewise, magical staves are a common tool for liches, further enhancing their already formidable magical prowess.
    • The series has several recurring Legendary Weapon artifact staves:
      • Perhaps the most prominent is the Staff of Magnus, associated with the God of Magic who served as the architect for Mundus, the mortal plane. It is variously capable of channeling, absorbing, and suppressing extreme amounts of magical energy. Magnus is said to have used it during the creation of Mundus as a "metaphysical battery". Some legends claim that it was abandoned when he fled during the creation of Mundus. Others claim that it was a gift to mortals. Still others claim that it was stolen from him by mortals. Whatever the case, it has been one of the preeminent magical staves on Nirn. It is also said to leave its wielder whenever that wielder becomes too powerful, so it doesn't upset the mystical balance of Mundus.
      • Another artifact staff is Wabbajack, associated with Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. It randomly turns things into other things. It may turn a bandit into a sheep, or a wheel of cheese, or a Daedroth. It's mostly just for fun, making it a Cool, but Inefficient Joke Item.
      • The Skull of Corruption is an artifact staff associated with Vaermina, the Daedric Prince of Nightmares. It has the power to steal the dreams of sleeping mortals in order to increase its own power. In various instances, it has either allowed the caster to create clones of the staff's target (who then fight for the caster) or it casts a damaging spell which gets stronger if it has stolen dreams.
      • The Staff of Worms is associated with the infamous Lich/Necromancer, Mannimarco. It has the power to revive dead bodies to fight of the staff's wielder.
    • Morrowind has them as a variety of two-handed Blunt Weapon. Actually striking opponents with them should be a last resort, as they are not particularly strong weapons, but they are highly enchantable, with the Ebony Staff having the highest potential for enchantment out of any weapon in the game.
    • Oblivion: Staves are just oversized magic wands that fire Projectile Spells from their own refillable Magicka reserve, with no bludgeoning functionality. If you join the Mages Guild, your first task is to craft a personal staff.
    • Skyrim features magic staffs, which can each cast a predetermined spell a limited number of times. The amount depends on your skill with the type of spell the staff casts. E.g. A high skill in Destruction gets you tons of uses out of a Lightning staff. After the staff is depleted, it needs to be recharged from a soul gem. What makes it even better is followers who know nothing about magic can use staves, in other words, you can beef up Dark Brotherhood Initiates and Stormcloak/Imperial/Thalmor Captives with dozens of Destruction Magic Staves.
  • In Enclave, these are used by Wizards and Druids on the Light side, as well as Liches and Sorceresses on the Darkness one.
  • The End Times: Vermintide and Vermintide II: As a Pragmatic Adaptation of the Warhammer Fantasy magic system to a First-Person Shooter, the wizard Sienna Fuegonasus wields staffs as ranged weapons, using Overheating instead of ammunition. The type of staff determines how her Playing with Fire works, ranging from a precise long-ranged beam to a close-quarters flamethrower.
  • The Epic Battle Fantasy series has mage Natz, who only has one, crystal-topped staff, in Epic Battle Fantasy 1 and Epic Battle Fantasy 2, but the further main series games gives her more options.
  • Eternal Fighter Zero: Both Sayuri Kurata and Kano Kirishima use a magic wand or staff in the 2D fighting game. Sayuri's wand is more of a Magical Girl type wand, with transforming powers. Kano's is modeled after the staffs used in fantasy role-playing games, fitting alongside her various tiers of elemental magic and her unique MP gauge.
  • Reinherz and Lysty use enchanted staves in Eternal Legacy.
  • Wizards fight with these staves in Fantasy Life.
  • In Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, rods and staves are the weapons of choice for most magic-using classes. Staves increase the range of the wielder’s spells and provide bonuses to their magic-related stats, while rods greatly increase the wielder’s Mind and may also provide elemental resistance or boost the power of elemental spells.
  • The various Mage classes in the Final Fantasy games can equip rods and staves as their traditional weaponry. Typically, rods are associated with Black Magic, while staves align with White Magic. For example:
    • In Final Fantasy VI, rods can be equipped to boost magic stats and give enemies an elemental thwack to the head, or broken to release a powerful spell of the associated elemental type.
    • In both Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (which are much more closely related than most of the Ivalice Alliance games), we get not only poles, but also staves and rods, which are even more suited for magic-wielding characters since they boost magical power.
    • In Final Fantasy XII, at least, staves' attack damage are calculated from a character's magic power as well as their strength while giving a substantial bonus to magic power and usually a damage bonus to one element. Rods give smaller magic bonuses and are based entirely on strength, but also boost MP and some can cause beneficial status effects.
    • Final Fantasy XI have the famous Elemental Staves, which can be used by all jobs and provide bonuses and augments that even non mage jobs want.
    • The Red Mages of Final Fantasy XIV have a unique variant where their swords also serve as their staves when they reverse their grip on it and the magical catalyst that floats near them attaches itself to the pommel.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Staves are used to cast healing and support magic. Offensive magic, conversely, comes from tomes.
    • In Three Houses, where spells are learned by the unit rather than equipped like a weapon or item, staves appear as accessories that increase the potency or range of the wielder's magic.
    • In Heroes, staves can be used for both healing and attacking, but the damage potential of staves is reduced by half, unless the staff unit has the Wrathful Staff equipped as a skill or as a built-in effect on their staff.
  • In Fly FF, Mages can wield staves, with their second class the Elementor specialising in them. Similarly, the Assist, and its second classes the Ringmaster and Billposter, use a stick for buffs and heals. Both are a bit slow in melee, but they rarely if ever actually use them for fighting directly.
  • Gift has such a staff, powered by magic crystals...but whose powers are entirely melee-based.
  • In Golden Sun series mage-style Adepts use staves, although they also can, depending on the character, use either short swords or maces. Staves tend to be slightly weaker than their counterparts from other weapon types, but their Unleashes (special attacks that activate randomly) tend to apply debilitating status effects in addition to damage.
  • Grandia series:
    • In the original Grandia staves and rods are a subset of blunt weapons, that several characters can use. However, it's also the only weapon type that can be equipped by the 11th-Hour Ranger Liete, the Mysterious Waif who sent heroes on their jorney in the first place. Almost all staves have some sort of special effect, such as speeding up spell casting.
    • In Grandia II staves are Elena's weapons, and many of them can be used as an item to cast a spell for free. One of Elena's specials has her staff fly towards the enemy on its own, and spray everything around with bubbles. In somewhat of a subversion, Elena's actual magic stat is very weak, making it unviable for her to actually cast magic, despite her choice of weapon.
    • In Grandia Xtreme Jaid goes for a more Magic Knight approach, so he can choose between maces, that only increase his attack, and magical staves, that are weaker, but also improve his magic. Regardless of one the player chooses, two of his special moves has him imbuing his weapon with magic.
    • In Grandia III Alfina uses staves as her weapon. Some of her attacks involve creating spheres and circles of light with the staff's head to use them as projectiles. Most staves raise both attack and magic, as opposed to just attack by most other weapons. Like in previous games, staves also most often can be used as an item to cast a spell for free.
  • In Grounded, Candy Staves are a type of level 3 weapon that have different effects depending on the candy used to make them. The Spicy Staff launches an arcing fireball that explodes, the Sour Staff shoots a slow-moving, bouncing projectile with a high stun chance, and the Mint Staff casts an icy cloud that slows down targets.
  • You're a wizard in the FPS Hands of Necromancy, and your default weapon is the Firebolt Staff which can shoot projectiles from it's jewelled tip.
  • In Happy Wars, mages fire their projectiles through these.
  • Heroes of Might and Magic:
    • In II and III, liches and magi both use staves.
    • The RPG games had Staff as a weapon skill from VI onward. In VI, it was simply one of the few weapon skills available to the Sorceror. In VII and VIII, it was also the weapon skill the Sorceror (VII)/Necromancer (VIII) could get best at. Random staves tended (although weren't always) to be either non-magical or have various boni to bludgeoning people with them, but unique staves consistently had some kind of strengthening of magical power, whether it be boosts to one or several magical skills, increasing magic-relevant attributes, or both.
  • Heroes of Newerth: pearl has a staff enchanted to shoot out... bubbles.
  • Heroine's Quest: A Sorceress character always carries one, and can cast Energy Ball attacks through it at any time, along with the other kinds of magic.
  • Hexyz Force features Cecilia's Ragnafact.
  • High Noon Drifter features The Gate of Anthrakia staff fires a stream of fire and surrounds the Drifter with damaging flames in its alt-fire.
  • Hordes.io: The Mages use these for their spellcasting, and upgrading them improves not only their damage, but also critical chance, MP pool and MP regeneration. They start with the Level 1 "Broken Twig", and can ascend up to the level 95 Deathweaver.
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising: Enchanted staffs are just one of the weapons Pit can use. They're this game's equivalent to a Sniper Rifle as they shoot long-ranged lasers and not suited in melee combat.
  • King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame: These are used by most of the magic-centered characters.
  • Thelast.io: There are five of them — three elemental ones (of the Fire, Ice, Lightning kind) that fire projectiles directly, and two (Poison and Meteor) that indirectly damage a circular area, but only after a sizeable delay. The latter are much more powerful, but are often easier to dodge. Both types of staffs also consume player's mana when used, and the Poison/Meteor ones also consume a lot more per use.
  • Legend of Grimrock has the Shaman Staff, though it's only there to amplify the power of the Earth spells.
  • The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night: Gaul has a magic staff tipped with a green crystal that he uses to drain Spyro's power away.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild introduces elemental rods, obtained from Wizzrobes, as one-handed weapons. When swung, they unleash a burst of their respective elemental power (bouncing fireballs, freezing clouds, or floating electrical spheres). They can also be used to bludgeon enemies for minor damage, though they can't take much physical punishment before they break.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom enables the player to fashion their own makeshift rods by fusing a gemstone to a weapon to confer its appropriate element to them for the same general purpose (ruby for fire, sapphire for ice, topaz for electricity, opal for water, and star fragment for light). Of course, magic rods can still be obtained, alongside the new magic scepters and staves (classed as two-handed and polearm weaponry respectively).
  • Lost Odyssey: These are used by the game's various magic users, and Magitek devices often have ones built in that swing like pendulums to generate magic energy. The real stand out, though, is Grandstaff, a Mage Tower designed to act like a massive broadcast antenna for magic instead of radio waves.
  • Lunar:
    • Lunar: The Silver Star has various canes, renamed into staves in later versions. Most of them have special magical attacks, and a couple of late-game ones even increase Wisdom (the magic stat). They are primarily equipped by Mia and Nash.
    • Lunar: Eternal Blue also has staves, which this time around primarily raise Wisdom. They are used by Lemina.
  • Magic Rampage: There are several, as you would expect from the name. Two standouts are the Staff of Gadarast and the Staff of Oxyomo.
  • Mana Series:
    • In Sword of Mana the heroine ("Helena" in the manga) wields one of these. She's the most magic-oriented of all the playable characters.
    • In Trials of Mana Angela, one of the two recruitable mages, uses rods and staves. It comes in handy, as she starts with no spells avilable.
    • In Legend of Mana staves are avilable to the hero/heroine as equippable weapons. While they mainly use it as Martial Arts Staff, some of its special techniques involve magic, like shooting bubbles at the enemy.
  • Manafinder: Savius drops his staff upon his defeat. It has no advantages against any enemy type and instead deals non-elemental magic damage. It also grants the Meteor Rain unleash, which deals four non-elemental magic hits to the entire enemy party.
  • In the Director's Cut version of Manos: The Hands of Fate, Torgo wields one when he's playable after beating the game.
  • Minecraft Dungeons: The Lightning Staff, which allows you to summon a bolt of lightning as long as you have enough souls.
  • In Moshi Monsters, if you hold a staff, it's never simply going to be a walking cane. Elder Furi, Big Bad Bill, Wuzzle, Hocus and all the Super Moshlings wield a magic staff.
  • Rod of Justice acts as an equivalent to one in Naughty Bear.
  • Downplayed in NetHack; a wizard starts the game with a quarterstaff, but it is used solely to physically assault monsters; spellcasting either comes entirely from within, or uses a different wand for each spell.
  • In Octopath Traveler and its sequel staves are one of the six main weapon types. Most staves primarily raise Elemental Attack, making them a good weapon for spellcasters, but there's a few weapons, like Flail or Giant's Club, that focus on Physical Attack instead while still being considered staves. Still, the only two basic jobs that wield staves are the magic-oriented Scholar and Cleric.
  • In Panzer Bandit, Miu carries one, which sports a happy face on its tip.
  • In the Paper Mario series, there are a couple.
  • Path of Exile uses both this trope and Martial Arts Staff. Staff weapons can be created with either physical attack bonuses or serve as a Stat Stick with spell bonuses.
  • Phantasy Star Online has Rods, Canes(staves), and Wands available to Forces. Rods are basic, canes have longer reach, and Wands give a bonus to your Magic stats.
  • The Voodoo Staff in Pirates of the Caribbean Online. It is generally the final weapon a player will unlock in a playthrough, and unlike its other magic counterpart, the Voodoo Doll, it cannot heal allies, and instead focuses purely on offensive play with powerful voodoo hexes.
  • Prayer of the Faithless: Oracle's Staff gives its wielders the ability to cast a magical shield.
  • Princess Maker 5: One of the possible weapons from the Souvenir store, an "Oak cane":
    A very hard cane. Suitable for magic spells
    Magic+10, MAG_DEF +5
    Price: 180000 Yen
  • In Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, this is one of the limitations that common witches are bound under: they may only perform witchcraft if they have a staff embedded with magic gems on hand. The staff itself isn't worth dirt without any gems, and a witch has to actually touch the staff to use magic.
  • In Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary, Amitie's alternate costume, Red Amitie, uses a magic staff as a weapon. The staff has a big sun symbol on its top end.
  • Quest for Glory lets Wizard characters obtain a magic staff in games 3 through 5. In 3 and 4 it's only somewhat useful (no mana consumption while active, but moving at all de-summons it), but it received a major overhaul in 5 (where it has its own regenerating mana supply and can be used until it runs out and needs a recharge, greatly extending the player's mana) and became useful.
  • The Mages of Ragnarok Odyssey require these for their spellcasting, while the Clerics go for the classic combo of shield and a mace.
  • In the Rune Factory series, the player can purchase staffs and wands that significantly amplify magic power (particularly offensive spells like Fireball).
  • RuneScape: Staves, along with Magic Wands, are the standard option for magic combat, serving as the means for casting combat spells. Some staves negate part of the rune cost for magic combat, while others have unique special attacks and passive effects. In addition, a few spells can only be cast while wielding a certain type of staff.
  • Both mages and priests wield staves for their spellcasting in Shadow Era.
  • The original Shadow Hearts has Li Zhuzhen, an old oracle, who fights with staves. He casts magic by planting it into the ground and reciting the Asian Rune Chant, with some spells coming out of the staff's head. He also uses it hor his normal attack, expertly wielding it like a Martial Arts Staff, but for some reason (which may be advanced age) his STR is very low, and he won't deal much damage this way.
  • This is Asrael's primary weapon and means of spellcasting in Shadows of Adam.
  • Shining Series:
    • Across the series, both Black Mages and White Mages mostly use staves and rods as their weapon. In Shining Force it's the main type of weapon for your Mages and Priests and their promotions.
    • Shining Resonance: Rinna Mayfield uses a staff with what looks like a trombone on its top. It helps her call forth her wind magic.
  • Krystal's staff in Star Fox Adventures, which Fox recovers and uses since General Pepper ordered him to leave his blaster behind. The Telescoping Staff can be used pummel enemies, and also possesses various powers needed to navigate the planet.
  • Mages from the Star Ocean series in general mostly opt for rods, that are slightly shorter than usual staves, yet far too big for Magic Wands.
    • Star Ocean: Fantastic Space Odyssey has Millie Chliette, who, being an Expy of Mint from Tales of Phantasia, wields short rods. Ioshua Jerand uses the same type of weapon, although in his hands they suddenly become full-sized. The First Departure remake adds a secret character Erys, who replaces a character who leaves permanently in the original, another rod-wielding mage.
    • Star Ocean: The Second Story has Celine Jules, one of your main offensive mages. In the Blue Sphere Gaiden Game she trades her neat rod with a sphere on the top for what can be described only as a decorated club. She's still a mage, though.
    • Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has Sophia Esteed, the resident symbology user, fight with rods.
    • Star Ocean: The Last Hope has Myuria Tionysus using staves, and explicitly names them so for the first time in the series. Sarah Jerand, meanwhile, uses weapons that are technically called spears. However, since they are so ornate and Sarah herself is a Squishy Wizard, they end up being magic staves in all but name.
    • Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness: Miki Sauvester, one of the two mages in the party, uses staves.
    • Star Ocean: The Divine Force: Midas Felgreed, the party's main mage, uses canes to cast magic.
  • In Stick War, the Magikill wield these, and either conjure explosions that stun their enemy at range, or stun those that get into a melee with them.
  • Suikoden series: In general, magic staves belong to the "wand" weapon type, that, despite the name, encompasses both staves and actual Magic Wands. This is done to help players avoid confusing magic staves with Bo Staves.
    • Two of the series' most recurring characters, Viki and Jeane, are both potent mages, who wield staves. Viki's trademark "Wow Wow Wand" is topped by an octahedron with a sphere inside, while Jeane's slightly less trademark "Crystal Rod" looks like a long, straght tree branch.
    • Likewise, Luc is a powerful mage, who possesses the True Rune of Wind, and wields the Gust Rod in the first two games, before ditching it in favor of a Ring of Power.
  • Tales Series:
  • In Tales of Maj'Eyal staves are mostly used as Stat Sticks to improve spellpower and spell critical chance, but characters can also buy access to the Staff Combat talent category to use staves as melee weapons. Mindstars serve a similar role for bolstering mindpower, and also have the Mindstar Mastery category to turn them into weapons as well.
  • The Keystaff used by the titular character in Tobari and the Night of the Curious Moon is one.
  • Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE: Kiria Kurono, your main spellcaster, uses one when fusing with Tharja. Fitting her Idol Singer profession, it's modelled after a mic stand. When unfused, Tharja herself also has one, that she has to levitate due to her lack of hands in the Mirage form. It's an odd design choise, as in Fire Emblem series offensive mages use Spell Books instead, and in her home game Tharja has only one class that allows her to use staves (and it's a DLC anyway). It leads to an amusing fact that in Fire Emblem Heroes Kiria's Mirage Rod is classified as a Tome.
  • Despite having a huge cast of magic-users, the only Touhou Project character that uses a staff is Mima, and she disappeared after the Continuity Reboot. Although that… thing Flandre has may also count.
  • Trails Series features two types of these. Neither of them is used for physical attacks, and basic attacks with them produce some magic orbs instead. They are different from any other weapon in that they can attack several enemies at once, and that they target all weaknessess at once, not just one or two types.
    • Orbal staves, first introduced in Trails from Zero are a high-tech version of this. Most people in the setting use Magic from Technology, and Orbments, built into these staves, allows users to cast arts instananeously. It's rendered in gameplay as making several clearly magical attacks avilable to staff-users as instant-use Crafts. Notable users include Tio, Elliot, and Emma.
    • Some of the characters who can use actual magic also use staves, with the most notable example being the Second Anguis, Witch of the Abyss, aka Vita Clotilde.
  • Twisted Wonderland: In dorm uniform, dorm leaders' magical pens turn into magic staves. The exceptions are Idia's which turns into a skull and Vil's which turns into a book.
  • Haruka wields such a staff in Vanguard Princess.
  • A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: All the staves, rods, canes, scepters, etc. give a boost to the Spirit stat, which is used to attack with, and defend against, magic, but also the Attack stat, which governs physical attack damage.
  • Wild ARMs series:
    • Cecilia Adlehyde from the original game is the mage of the party, and uses a staff as her weapon. The remake, Wild ARMs Alter Code: F, makes her hold it in a weird martial artist-like stance, but she still uses it to cast magic.
    • Wild ARMs 2:
      • Lilka Eleniak normally fights with an umbrella, but all of her tools are various rods. She starts with Flame Rod, and later gains Freeze Rod and Change Rod. The former two shoot projectiles, while the latter can change healing gems into blocks to stand on.
      • Tim Rhymeless is a user of Summon Magic, who has a staff as his weapon.
    • Wild ARMs 4: Among various tools found in dungeons, there is Wonder Staff. By itself it's just a club, but when lit on fire or imbued with light, it can fire projectiles of the same element to solve puzzles.
  • Wilds.io has the Ice Staff, which is used to fire icy projectiles. These deal the least damage out of all weapon attacks individually, but the overall fire rate is so high that it's easy to overwhelm less-experienced players with these. It gets even easier if you manage to hit with a special attack first, which deals no damage, will freeze the enemy in place and leave them helpless against the ensuing barrage. Nevertheless, the projectiles are individually weak and don't travel very quickly, so they be dodged, blocked or even right back at the caster.
  • In Windom XP, these are used by the Linux Iris and Primula.
  • Flora summons tornadoes through such a staff in The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.
  • Staves in World of Warcraft tend to be caster weapons, and are generally not used to melee but merely as stat boosters. Melee-oriented staves tend to be druid weapons, and again druids don't fight with their weapons, but their claws. However, there are a few rare staves designed for warriors and other melee classes (for monks recently).
  • Xenoblade Chronicles series:
    • Melia from the first game uses staves as her weapon, and uses them to conjure elemental spirits and then discharge them at the enemy. In Future Connected epilogue story she gets a unique "World Ender" staff, that has a laser blade on the top, making it closer to a polearm. It doesn't change her moveset, though.
    • In Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Haze/Fan la Norne/Kasumi has a crosiernote  as her Blade weapon. She uses it in equal portions to strike and cast magic.
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 3:
      • While no primary character wields such a staff, mace-like rods are shown to be a primary weapon of most Mook Medics, both in Keves and Agnus alike. Additionally, Keves trains so-called "blasters", mage soldiers, who use full-sized staves.
      • A secret post-game Hero, Melia Antiqua, the Queen of Keves, uses a weapon called "Elemental Staff". It's the same staff that she uses in Future Connected. The party can use it through the game's Job System.
  • In Ziggurat, a magic staff is one of the four available weapon types.

    Web Animation 
  • Dreamscape: Drake's staff is primarily blue and has a purple crystal.
  • RWBY: Ozma originally used to fight with a magical staff that was covered in swirling vine-like patterns and topped with a large emerald crystal. In the age of magic, it was his weapon of choice and was used to channel his magic through the emerald to blast his enemies. After his death, Salem held onto the staff, allowing his first reincarnation to be reunited with it. Thereafter, every reincarnation has carried the staff until one host eventually created a cane called The Long Memory. Since him, it's the cane that has been passed down through reincarnations until it finally reached Professor Ozpin and later Oscar Pine. While the swirling patterns on the cane are identical to the ones on the original staff, the exact relationship between the two is unknown.

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 
  • Whateley Universe: The Green Brujah has a staff "provided by Quetzalcoatl, and acts as a "lens" and "power regulator" to her power, allowing the Brujah to wield much more power than she should be able to without decades of practice."

    Web Videos 
  • In Noob, Sparadrap gets one early in the story. The generalized post-level 100 upgrade the main cast gets later in the story includes Gaea getting a Magic Staff too.

    Western Animation 
  • The Dragon Prince: The Relic Staff was created for the human dark mage Ziard, implicitly by Aaravos the Startouch Elf. After Ziard was killed by the Dragon King Sol Regem, the staff eventually made its way into the hands of Lord Viren, who disguised it as a fancy walking stick.
  • in Masters of the Universe, Skeletor's weapon of choice is his Havoc Staff, which in the original series seems to be an Amplifier Artifact for his magic, as well as containing a small Crystal Ball in the back of the ram's skull at the head of the staff, which Skeletor uses to scry on people. Evil-Lyn also wields a magic staff with a crystal ball. In the 2021 series, Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, and the Sorceress all carry magic staffs that act as a Transformation Trinket for their respective Sentient Cosmic Force.
  • The Lion Guard shows that the staff Rafiki carries is a part of his place as Royal Mjuzi, who’s something of a spiritual advisor to the Lion kings. During training, apprentice Mjuzis must search for their bakura staff on their own. It’s also used to communicate with the Great Lions of the Past, and the gourds often contain things used for healing, like the tuliza for Kion. Makini kept losing staffs until the trip to the Tree of Life when she needed hers to read the path markers.
  • The Owl House has Palismen, which are a blend between a Magic Staff and a Familiar. They come in the form of small animals, but can transform into staves topped with a wooden figurine of the animal in question. Their primary use is to allow their witches to fly a la Flying Broomstick, though they can also be used to cast spells.
  • In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, King Koppanote  often utilizes a regal-like magic scepter to cast spells, mainly using it to turn people to stone.
  • Nabu from Winx Club has a Magic Staff as his weapon of choice.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Wizard Staff

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Jack Horner staff

Big Jack Horner uses a magical staff to blast foes with purple energy.

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