New thread is your call, I'm just spouting thoughts.
Do wands already check mental stats and skills, or do you raise the hypothetical of if they started to? If their successful use was limited too much, I'd ask how public "public use" should or shouldn't be.
Given angla's "press me" example, it sounds like magik and arcane runes aren't or probably shouldn't be absolutely required to use wands, at least. If wands store the mana themselves, would high mentals be required, per se? The "press me" example is giving me the impression of something like a crossbow or gun, where all you need to do is point it and pull the trigger. Though maybe limiting armour doesn't make sense in that regard, but I 100% support that anyway for balance reasons.
What if publicuse wands required mana from the user, rather than using stored energies? Or a mix of both?
Given that "press me" concept, I'm liking the idea of limiting how many can be made, as well as perhaps decreased re-usability. That way they're still very "public use", but a bit harder to acquire and sort of a one-hit wonder sort of deal.
Are public wands being used in PvP a potential issue of concern? If so, maybe they could be more dangerous to use? I'd like to see "harmless" public wands be relatively easy to use, at least.