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The Dungeon Master's Guide provides spell-casting information on the Staff of Power on page 202:

Spells: While holding this staff, you can use an action to expend 1 or more of its Charges to cast one of the following Spells from it, using your spell save DC and spell Attack bonus: Cone of Cold (5 charges), Fireball (5th-level version, 5 charges), Globe of Invulnerability (6 charges), Hold Monster (5 charges), Levitate (2 charges). Lightning Bolt (5th-level version, 5 charges), Magic Missile (1 charge), Ray of Enfeeblement (1 charge), or Wall of Force (5 charges).

Only the Fireball and Lightning Bolt specify that they are cast as 5th-level versions of the spell.

My question is the following:

Since the spell-levels for the remaining spells are not stipulated, are they all cast at their lowest level versions?

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Dungeon Master's Guide, p. 141 (emphasis mine)

Spells

Some magic items allow the user to cast a spell from the item. The spell is cast at the lowest possible spell level, [...]

The lowest possible spell level to cast a spell is the default level of that spell. Cone of Cold is a 5th level spell, thus it is cast at 5th level. Ray of Enfeeblement is a 2nd level spell, thus cast at 2nd level.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ it saddens me that we are forced to go by the letter of the rules to create paradoxes. A staff when created is created at the level of the creator. So when someone creates a staff with different spell levels, that created object is at least using the highest level spell minimum. But we are forced to RAW these absurd answers. Although they say that magic items are created in groups of mixed levels (Col. 2 para. 4-5) and everyone is poor (Col. 1 para. 5) and makes them as cheaply and low level as possible (DMG 215). \$\endgroup\$
    – Tristian
    Aug 12, 2017 at 20:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Tristian nothing stops you from creating homebrew magic items which use higher spell levels. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thyzer
    Aug 12, 2017 at 23:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Tristian are you sure you are not confusing the old 3.5 caster level with the spell slot level? Because there are no rules for hardcoding magic item creation cost, but one can think reasonable that making a wand that spews out 3rd level fireballs is easier than making one that spews out 9th spell slot upcast fireballs. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 12, 2017 at 23:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ Since the citations Tristian gives in the 5e DMG are not there, I'm certain their comment is about the wrong edition. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 13, 2017 at 14:13

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