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kanachi
2006-08-23, 10:58 AM
Bellow is an idea i had for an item i thought might be quite interesting to use. Think of the Camodus as a floating CCTV camera or one of those fiberoptic cameras you see in swat style films. Could any of you sudjest how must such an item would cost to buy?

Camodus

A Camodus is essentially a sufisticated spyglass which has been magically enhanced with the ability to fly and comunicate the images it see to its master as well as take instructions through a telepahic link. A Camodus is a tiny construct creature that sends images of whatever it sees to a flat crystal approximately 2” in diameter. The Camodus’s master commonly carries this crystal either in her hand, as an amulate or strapped to her wrist.

Whomever has the crystal upon their person may communicate with the Camodus and give it orders as though the two shared a telepathic bond. Once an order is given the Camodus will attempt to complete it to the best of its abilities. a Camodus that moves beyond 1 mile from its master will attempt to return to its master, should such an action be impossible it will deactivate and slowly float to the ground at a rate of 10 feet per round.

A Camodus may adjust its vision at will to 120 ft Darkvision

A Camodus is a tiny creature

A Camodus has a “Perfect” flying ability

A Camodus has no sense of hearing or smell and a golem like inteligence.

A Camodus’s master may attempt appraise, search and spot check upon anything she sees within the crystal and have the camodus focus upon an object, creature, or area in order to offer a +4 bonus to these skills.

A Camodus has evasion and if within 100 ft and directly under the controle of its master it has improved evasion.

A Camodus has no limbs to manipulate items but may carry up to 5lbs of weight and still act as normal if they are secured to it.

A Camodus has a hide skill equel to that of its masters base ranks +10 and move silently skill of 25.

Lord Iames Osari
2006-08-23, 11:15 AM
Infravision no longer exists in 3.x, and you forgot to say how many feet it can fly per move action. Other than that, this looks pretty good. And I have no idea what the cost should be.

kanachi
2006-08-23, 11:37 AM
yer i know infavisions kinda out of date but i think it suits the idea of a camera like item. I'll probably get rid of it though, as for fly speed i'm not really sure, i'll have a think about that 1.

Fualkner Asiniti
2006-08-23, 11:54 AM
It should be a perfect flying.I kinda think of this thing as a floating piece of glass. pretty cool, I would price as a scry and fly put together. or maybe a crystal ball with fly. anyway, it rocks. but It would be really pricy, seeing as it has 25 ranks in search. it could find alot of stuff when it takes 20.

The Demented One
2006-08-23, 11:59 AM
Personally, this seems more like a construct than an item to me. Still, neat idea.

Loren_and_Kivsith
2006-08-23, 12:06 PM
Neat idea. You do think it would work, if, instead of a 2" crystal plate, the Camodus could project the images right into the owner's mind? I dunno why, just thought I'd put that idea out there.

fangthane
2006-08-23, 04:13 PM
My thoughts on the matter...

1. I don't think sentience is appropriate - golem-level understanding should be plenty for something like this. That way you also don't have to deal with concepts like rogue camodi, spying on things nobody ever intended with their own ulterior motives.

2. I'd make the display device an amulet, but that's a flavour thing and not terribly important.

3. I'd give it Evasion and, if within 60' of its master and being actively controlled, Improved Evasion.

4. As a knee-jerk reaction, I suspect I'd probably charge somewhere in the range of 100 000 gold. it's got level 20-ish abilities, so it has to cost level 20-ish cash too.

5. What are its HD/hp? Hardness? Resistances, if any? Is it visible? Tangible? Capable of lifting a halfling? Capable of hitting a balor below the belt? This all affects its value too; if harsh language or a dispel magic will break it, it's not worth as much, while if it's stealthy that increases its value.

kanachi
2006-08-24, 05:00 AM
hmmm what if i did away with the camodus having its own spot, search and blah blah checks and instead just had it use the players skills (maybe with a +2 bonus). I think that would probably bring the price down as i dont want this to be a crazily expensive item. Its basicly just suposed to be a magical survalance device.

Perhaps there could be a number of differing versions of the camodus, getting increasingly better untill the top version has its own spot checks and so forth?



5. What are its HD/hp? Hardness? Resistances, if any? Is it visible? Tangible? Capable of lifting a halfling? Capable of hitting a balor below the belt? This all affects its value too; if harsh language or a dispel magic will break it, it's not worth as much, while if it's stealthy that increases its value.


For hardness and HD/HP i'de say that it would be pritty poor, its basicly just a slightly improved spyglass.

It would be visable, but hard to spot... so it would probably always need some form or hide skill or concealment

It would be tangible and could indeed be broken though hitting it would prove difficult.

It would only be able to carry a few lbs of weight

It could perhaps try to ram someone if ordered, but i doubt it would be very powerful at all.

Dispell magic would not destroy it.

It would indeed be stealthy, that would be its main purpose, so it would be quite good at it.

kanachi
2006-08-24, 11:55 AM
I've implimented a number of changes to hopefully lower the cost of the camodus.. like removing its ability to inderpentantly spot/search for items and so on. See what you think :)

fangthane
2006-08-24, 01:24 PM
Looking fairly nifty now - I would put in a note that dispel magic (and similar effects) would temporarily disrupt communications thereby stripping it of Improved Evasion for 1d4+1 rounds and preventing transmission of images or directed movement for that interval, and that anti-magic effectively negates the device while it's 'immersed' too...

With the changes made so far I'd tend to give it a hardness and HP total similar to a weapon, and charge my players somewhere in the range of 20-25k for it, I suspect. It's still a very powerful scrying/spying tool. A crystal ball costs about 40k but isn't limited by range and has some other abilities such as the ability to cast some limited effects through it, while this is more useful to a non-spellcaster at limited range, which is my justification for the price range. Arguably, I suppose it could be worth a bit more but since the Crystal ball is never actually put in the direct line of fire and this is, that alone mandates a reduction.

Fredderf
2006-08-27, 12:11 PM
I think its an awesome idea, a bit like to the arcane eye spell I think, but I like it a lot. Its gonna end up being pretty pricey I think...