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For instance, the Wand of Magic Missiles description says:

The wand regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. If you expend the wand's last charge, roll a d20. On a 1, the wand crumbles into ashes and is destroyed.

The question is, who rolls the d6 - the player or the DM? Does the user know, how many charges the wand has, or how many were regained by the wand at dawn, so he can effectively track their number?

Or there is always a risk that you expend the last charge and then waste an action trying to fire an "empty" wand?

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    \$\begingroup\$ I don't think those questions are separate enough to be separate questions. The main issue, I think, is whether the player character knows or is allowed to know how many charges a wand has in general. A definite answer to that question (stated in the title) would answer the other two. Either the character knows, which means that it doesn't matter who rolls the recharge, or the character doesn't, which means that the GM would have to roll and track the charges. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jay
    Commented Jul 21, 2017 at 19:45
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Jay By "who rolls the d6" I mean was the roll made secretly. If the roll is not made secretly, it is really doesn't matter who makes it. \$\endgroup\$
    – enkryptor
    Commented Jul 22, 2017 at 8:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ I know. That's why I said the GM would have to roll if the character doesn't know the charge count. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jay
    Commented Jul 23, 2017 at 14:11

1 Answer 1

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You know the number of charges if you cast identify or are attuned.

DMG 141 states,

The number of charges an item has remaining is revealed when an identify spell is cast on it, as well as when a creature attunes to it. Additionally, when an item regains charges, the creature attuned to it learns how many charges it regained.

In the case of this wand, which doesn't require attunement, the Identify spell seems to be the only way to find out how many charges remain. However, the rules on attunement are vague enough that it seems like you can attune to the wand, even if it doesn't require it, so that you can know how many charges remain.

In the games that I've played, we've just houseruled that the player knows how many charges remain at all times and keeps track of the charges themselves. It reduces the mental load for the DM, and doesn't really make much of a difference to gameplay. Still, if you want to keep the number of charges hidden, you have RAW support for it.

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