Rods, the weapons they turn into, and proficiencies.

[SCARY WIZARD]

I have a question about rods, particularly in v3.5: Do those that can turn into weapons, like the Rod of Lordly Might count as weapons of proficiency when wielded by characters that are not proficient in the use of the weapons that the rods turn into?
For example, say...Gilbie the Irreverent Apprentice Wizard or what-have-you presses Button I on the Rod of Lordly Might. Cool, it turns into a +1 flaming long sword! Would Gilbie count as proficient in the use of the rod as a long sword? Or is Gilbie up the Styx without a coin for the Charonadaemon?

 

[kitcik]

I am proficient with my rod and the weapon it turns into but, sadly, Gilbie must take a feat, or potentially certain widely-advertised alchemical substances, in order to wield his flaming long sword.

 

[SCARY WIZARD]

I am proficient with my rod and the weapon it turns into but, sadly, Gilbie must take a feat, or potentially certain widely-advertised alchemical substances, in order to wield his flaming long sword.

Welp, thank you for that! Now we can let this thread circle the drain like...ehh, kobolds. In a dungeon with drains large enough for them, after the dungeon has been flooded and emptied!
Or I guess we could squabble over house rules or tell amusing stories about the more passive-aggressive rods, like those of Wonder.

 

[Sekhmet]

There we were, running down a party of scoundrels on a small herd of war elephants. It was shaping up to be a great day.
They took a turn down a narrow ravine so that we were forced into a single file line. At the end of the ravine, there was a high rock wall - a trap! One of the runners had happened to be able to cast Wall of Stone, and we were none the wiser.

That same caster had flown over us and landed behind the very last elephant, and unleashed his mighty ROD OF WONDER against the beast in the rear. Suddenly, a stream of six hundred butterflies streams from the rod, blinding our elephants and sending them into a panic!

Now, the effects of panicking elephants are widely known. They kick, they rear, they thrash, they make a lot of noise, and they charge.
In a 10' wide corridor, with no way forward and no way to turn around, that spelled chaos. Half of us failed ride checks and were trampled to death, the other half were bashed against the sides of the ravine by the elephants going crazy.

tl;dr Butterflies killed us.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Somehow everyone in the group managed to get a hold of a rod of wonder. Rather than facing off against the Lich-Queen all of us wound up in a mexican standoff. However, before I could react, the other two decided to turn on me and my dwarf wound up 1/12 his height, green, and then blown away down the street.

Thankfully, my predicament was amusing and a gnome wizard took pity on me and fixed my status.

 

[Samloyal23]

Scariest thing ever in a game: A kender Sensate with a wand of wonder...

 

[Samloyal23]

dammitbiscuit: Shortest-lived character ever in a game:

No, he kept making his saves, it was everyone else that got killed...

 

[Shaghayegh]

Scariest thing ever in a game: A kender Sensate with a wand of wonder...

Eeeek!

That said, a feat could be created for allowing someone to make an item like a Rod of Lordly Might easier to control, so you could do things like morph it as a free action and create combination forms not normally allowed as part of the item's design...