My custom character has her newly acquired unique item 'Staff of Imagination', and on the surface it looks awesome. My problem, or confusion, is that her lowly 'magical' staff gives her greater offence rating. Some details:

Freezing Fine Fire Staff of the Magus (Magical)
Level 11
Fire 20-49
Water 3-8
Intelligence +2 <--- *** this is the crux! ***
5% chance to set chilled


Staff of Imagination (Unique)
Level 16
Air 53-88
Constitution +1
Two-handed +1
Body Building +1
Air Resistance +20%
10% chance to set Stunned status
Allows you to cast Lighting Bolt

Now as I said, the lowly staff looks to be far superior for a magic user because of the intelligence boost, but the manual says that the more powerful the staff, the more powerful the mage. So which is it? My instinct is that I wasted all that cash on a flashy staff -- she's not going toe-to-toe clubbing enemies, after all. I have to admit, I'm a little confused.

Well, while the first staff boosts your intelligence (resulting in more damage in elemental skills, I guess maybe 10% more depending on your basic level) and a higher chance to cause effects, the second one gives you more health and action points (and resistance).

I wouldn't consider one of them "useless", they inherit different elements and can be way more effective depending on the situation. You should probably keep both and test them in various situations.
Yesterday i got the problem of a large enemy group standing in a mix of oil and toxic, but my fire-able mage was frozen and i had to wait and pray several turns the enemies won't leave the area. :)
And a stunning melee hit against approaching fighter enemies can save your whole battle!

Well i would use the intelligence low level staff because of the intelligence boost +2. While the other gives you not so important stats like +1 constitution and + body building not bad either but the intelligence boost is way more important for more dmg and lower cool down of spells.

I'd take the new… intel is easy to find from other gear.

The new staff gives you massive air resistance (20%+1 body) and a free lightning spell.

If you do decide to take a stab at something standing next to you then the +1 two-handed and general improved damage is notably better.

As if a wizard strikes with his 2 handed weapon and makes almost no dmg. You can always cast spells instead and make way more dmg.....

The free lightning spell does not help either since if you did not skill lightning skill you get an AP penalty for casting it making it thus unefficient.

Thing is guys, I'm not asking which one I should use; I can make that decision myself. My question is regarding the power, or effectiveness of staffs. Is a level 5 staff with +2 intelligence more 'powerful' to a mage than a level 12 staff with +2 to Two Handed and Bodybuilding? In other words, does the level of the staff have any bearing whatsoever? I don't think it does, unless you actually go into melee with it. And that would just be stupid.

That's exactly what I thought. My play session has also confirmed this: the unique staff I paid an extortionate price for is useless if you're a spell caster.

Couldn't you equip each staff, then look at the inventory and see which one gives you better damage output too?

I pointed that out in my initial post: "her lowly 'magical' staff gives her greater offence rating." But my point was to determine if the level of a staff had any bearing on it's power for a spell caster, like the level of a sword is important to a melee fighter. Unless your spell caster is going to use a puny staff for melee, the level of it has no bearing on it's effectiveness for spells. I wish that Larian had made the elemental components of staffs boost that particular spell school. So if the staff said +5 Fire, it boosted all pyromancer spells.

Doesn't offence rating mean chance to hit? Not damage? You can mouse over it for extra info, and I thought it said that.

But yeah, I agree it should have more elemental use. So whats the point? Just to use a powerful staff either as melee, or that one special spell under all the elements?

I believe so. It's very vague though; does that also includes magic chance to hit, or just melee? They (staffs) do seem rather superfluous, don't they?

Only melee chance to hit so it makes no difference for a spellcaster what chance to hit. Magic always hits just the dmg depends on the resistance of the target

So... even more evidence that staffs are completely useless other than those with ability bonuses. Shame.

Indeed, only what matters on the staff is the bonuses