Wands may not be as big of a deal in the Harry Potter universe as Hogwarts Houses, but it still helps assign a partial identity to students. And wands have become important in their own right since Harry Potter's debut. On the interactive website Pottermore, players can take a quiz to have a wand of various combinations assigned to them. And at the Wizarding World theme parks housed by Universal, players can attend a show at Ollivander's, where a costumed employee chooses a person from the audience and assigns them a wand in a skit similar to Harry Potter's first meeting with the wandmaker.
This means wands in Hogwarts Legacy could be a big deal, at least to avid Harry Potter fans, and there's currently no telling what shape they will take. While the trailer shows a student being assigned a wand, implying that every student will enact some sort of similar experience, some players hope that wands play a bigger role than just the initial assignment and nothing more. There's no Wizarding World detail too small for eager Harry Potter fans.
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How Wands Can Become a Gameplay Mechanic in Hogwarts Legacy
It would be interesting to see wands have some kind of impact on gameplay the same way weapons do in many RPGs. After all, wands are this universe's version of weapons, being used to maim or even sometimes kill other wizards and witches. While it wouldn't make much sense for players to add mods to a wand like they would a gun, there's plenty of potential in the way of skills and leveled abilities.
Each property of a wand changes its powers in subtle but unique ways or is made to suit wizards of certain character traits. For example, alder wood is typically assigned to students who are adventurous and confident in their decision-making abilities while applewood doesn't mix well with the Dark Arts. Holly suits empathetic individuals that would make good leaders, and willow is often assigned to folks who are more insecure. As for wand cores, there are several fewer types than woods, and Ollivander typically makes his wands with the three cores: unicorn hair, which also doesn't mesh well with Dark Arts magic, dragon heartstring, which is the easiest to turn to evil magic, and phoenix feather, which are the pickiest in the wizards they choose. However, Hogwarts Legacy will be before Garrick Ollivander's time, which could mean other wand cores will be available.
Wand characteristics could translate well via skill trees. Perhaps certain wand types learn certain traits more naturally, the same way that races play a part in many fantasy RPGs like Skyrim. For example, Wood Elves start their Archery skill tree at level 25 rather than the base level 15, and the Khajiit have a natural buff in Sneak. Many players would likely be disdained if they were completely locked out of certain skills or abilities based on wand types, but this method would still allow them to play any kind of character however they please. For example, even if a student is assigned a wand with unicorn hair, they could still use dark magic if they worked towards that path.
There's also Kratos' Leviathan Axe throughout the 2018 release of God of War that could be an excellent blueprint for leveling a wand as a weapon or tool. As players level the axe, they'll gain a variety of skills, which could lead to unlocking new spells in Hogwarts Legacy. And some of these learned skills become stronger at higher axe levels. For example, the Hunter Killer ability increases the maximum number of targets hit with each level, and it's easy to see how this could translate to spells like Accio and its range or Expecto Patronum and the number of dementors it can reach.
Hogwarts Legacy is scheduled to release in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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