PDA

View Full Version : [3.5e] Creating Magic Items



Yora
2009-06-24, 01:55 PM
I just made a list of magic items that can be found in my campaign, which only has spellcasters of up to 10th level anywhere. While looking up the Caster Levels and spell requirments, I came on some real oddities:

A CL 3rd item for 24,000 gp and a CL 10th Item for 20,000 gp.
A CL 3rd item for 900 gp and a CL 10th item for 850 gp.
The CL 3rd items copy 2nd level spells while the 10th level items have unique effects. But I don't think this justifies CL 10th in any way. Why can a 3rd level spellcaster make 24,000 gp items, but is decades of training awy from being able to make a 850 gp item?

Something else:
Making an item that continiously grants the benefit of a spell costs Spell level * Caster Level * 2000. So for a 2nd level spell, that requires CL 3rd, that's (2*3*2000) 12,000 gp.
Why is a Belt of Giants Strength +4 16,000 gp and CL 10th?

Cloak of Elvenkind is CL 5th, Boots of Elvenkind are CL 3rd.

And now something completely different:
Frost and Shock enchantments are +1 enchantments with CL 8th.
Flaming is a +1 enchantment with CL 10th.

Why?
I'd say fire resistance is the most comon type of energy resistance, so it's actually worth less than other types of energy damage.

I'm sure the DMGs and SRDs magic item collection is full with dozens other of these things. Is there a good reason for them that I am not aware of, or were the items designed by different people who all finished work before the magic item creation cost tables were made?

Keld Denar
2009-06-24, 02:06 PM
Yea, WotC didn't do a very good job of stating some of that stuff out. Most things follow the function of CL x SL x Factor, but not everything is minimum CL. Having things above min CL is both a blessing and a curse. Better because then they are more resiliant vs being suppressed via Dispel Magic, worse because they cost a lot more.

I think the biggest culprit is Pearls of Power. Why on EARTH do they requires CL17 to make? All of them. I could see a PoP9 requiring a CL of 17 to make, but 1st? Whats a CL17 caster gonna do with extra 1st level spell slots per day? They probably wouldn't even exist!

I usually make PoPs require 2*SL-1 CL to craft, since thats the minimum you need to gain any benefit from it anyway.

DeathQuaker
2009-06-24, 02:23 PM
I just made a list of magic items that can be found in my campaign, which only has spellcasters of up to 10th level anywhere. While looking up the Caster Levels and spell requirments, I came on some real oddities:

A CL 3rd item for 24,000 gp and a CL 10th Item for 20,000 gp.
A CL 3rd item for 900 gp and a CL 10th item for 850 gp.
The CL 3rd items copy 2nd level spells while the 10th level items have unique effects. But I don't think this justifies CL 10th in any way. Why can a 3rd level spellcaster make 24,000 gp items, but is decades of training awy from being able to make a 850 gp item?

Something else:
Making an item that continiously grants the benefit of a spell costs Spell level * Caster Level * 2000. So for a 2nd level spell, that requires CL 3rd, that's (2*3*2000) 12,000 gp.
Why is a Belt of Giants Strength +4 16,000 gp and CL 10th?

I don't have the full patience and mathematical knowhow to go too deeply into it, but item costs are more about what they do than just, purely, the caster level. The benefits often dictate the cost more than caster level--if it gives a user a powerful, potentially unbalancing bonus, the market price will be more, and sometimes the Caster Level requirement for making it higher.

The Belt of Giant's Strength you mention, you don't calculate the cost of that with the cost of "continuously grants the benefit of a spell." You calculate it with the formula for "Grants an ability bonus" which is the Ability Bonus Squared x 1,000 --- so a +4 item is going to cost 16,000 GP. Caster level actually doesn't get incorporated at all into how much it costs.

That the Belt is Caster Level 10... is probably more to do with that they don't think players under level 10 should be able to create Strength enhancing items that give a bonus of +4.

It is quite complicated, though there is a pattern to most of it, if you want to try to give yourself a headache figuring it out.

I do find at least in practice, MOST of the time you can create an item for a cost that makes sense for what it does. The exceptions do tend to be fairly spectacular (or craptacular as the case may be).



Cloak of Elvenkind is CL 5th, Boots of Elvenkind are CL 3rd.

It's the other way around, and I'm not sure why, except that perhaps they determined Hide was a more utilitarian skill than Move Silently? Or it's a mistake.



And now something completely different:
Frost and Shock enchantments are +1 enchantments with CL 8th.
Flaming is a +1 enchantment with CL 10th.

Why?
I'd say fire resistance is the most comon type of energy resistance, so it's actually worth less than other types of energy damage.

Undead, a common enemy at all levels, is Immune to Cold. You're probably about as likely to run into something Immune to Cold as you are to Fire, or to have said resistance. Shock, less so, sure.

A Flaming Weapon can also be used for more things than the other two---it can do its full damage to a Swarm, Frost and Shock cannot. A Flaming weapon can be invoked to burn a web or other similar obstacles; Frost and Shock cannot. Frost is probably almost as nearly as utilitarian as Fire, but not quite. Shock's main attribute is the fact that fewer creatures are resistant to it, but that's about all.

But.... just guesses. It could also be a typo. :smallwink:

Starbuck_II
2009-06-24, 02:40 PM
I just made a list of magic items that can be found in my campaign, which only has spellcasters of up to 10th level anywhere. While looking up the Caster Levels and spell requirments, I came on some real oddities:

Caster level is never a requirement unless it specifically requires it (there are 5 times where this is so 1) magic weapons, 2) amulet of Natural armor 3) Skill Items but I forget the other two times) .
This is clarified in the Errata.


Why is a Belt of Giants Strength +4 16,000 gp and CL 10th?

It doesn't emulate the spell (which can be dispelled), but emulates the effect so can't dispel only suppress.


Cloak of Elvenkind is CL 5th, Boots of Elvenkind are CL 3rd.

Because Elves asre stupid. :smallbiggrin:
Seriously, you can choose the caster level up your own when making stuff.

Maybe, in case they fought you they wanted to easily dispel/suppress it.


Why?
I'd say fire resistance is the most comon type of energy resistance, so it's actually worth less than other types of energy damage.

Casters love fire so they let you be dispelled less often when they are flaying you alive. Casters are sometimes merciful.