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DracoDei
2009-12-05, 08:23 PM
This is a spin-off of THIS (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7444108) thread, which Random_Person started, and I eventually added two more versions of the Western chess set to.

Wizard's Xiangqi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi) Set, Lesser
This beautifully inlaid xiangqi set is enchanted. The pieces are miniture statuettes made of Jade. All of the pieces are enchanted so that when a certain command word is stated they will enforce tournament rules of xiangqi and stick to the board for ease of transporting games. When a second command word is spoken, they will revert to normal. When the third command word is spoken, any number of the chess pieces (up to the numbers and types of one color in a standard xiangqi set) may be animated (as per the spell Animate Objects) and pieces so animated will grow in size to become fearsome combatants for up to ten minutes. The user may command them to attack specific targets, take full defense, flee while taking full defense, follow her, or perform any other movement or combat action. Orders to any number of pieces may be changed with a move action via verbal commands.

{table=head]Number at once|Piece type|Size|Charge cost|Speed|Special

5|Soldier|Small|1|15 feet|Bravery

2|Elephant|Small|2|30 feet|Limited Movement

2|Adviser|Small|1|15 feet|Palace Only, Limited Movement

2|Horse|Medium|4|30 feet|-5 AC vs AoOs from movement

2|Catapult (Cannon)|Medium|5|120 feet|Concealed Attack

2|Chariot|Large|9|120 feet| -

1|General|Large|1|15 feet|Palace Only, Achilles' Heel[/table]

Bravery (Ex)
May not be summoned within 15 feet of the General and may never move in a way that would result in it ending its turn closer to the general than it was at the start of its turn. If it is within 40' of the General at the start of its turn, it may only move in a straight line each turn, and only directly away from the General, or directly towards an enemy.

Limited Movement (Ex)
Elephants and Advisors may only move in a single straight-line direction each turn. This means they may not jump, and must end its movement immediately if they fall 5 feet or more. They may move over rough terrain normally as long as these restrictions are observed.

Palace Only (Ex)
Advisers must be summoned adjacent to the General (if they are summoned at all). The General must be summoned adjacent to the summoner. Neither of them may be summoned such that they are within 20' of any enemy voluntarily. The exception is that if there is no such square adjacent to the summoner, the General may be summoned in any square that is not adjacent to an enemy that is adjacent to the summoner. If there is no such square the General may be summoned in any square adjacent to the summoner. Neither the General nor the advisers may voluntarily move more than 20 feet from the point that the General started any given combat at until the end of said combat (defined as 2 rounds after the last enemy was detectable or attack was made).

Concealed Attack(Ex)
A Cannon may only attack(except for AoOs) if one of the following conditions is met:

It has moved through any number of squares occupied or threatened by exactly one creature and only moved in a single direction along a straight line that turn. When moving in this way it is considered to have automatically succeeded on tumble checks against an enemy moved through, despite not having any ability to tumble under other circumstances. It may not move this way unless it then attacks an opponent whose threatened space it did NOT move through in this way.
It moves less than 15 feet and attacks the same opponent it did on its last turn.



Achilles' Heel (Su)
If the king is killed, the pieces revert to their original states and the entire chess set instantly becomes worthless and non-magical.

All animated chess pieces except Soldiers and Catapults appear next to the summoner or next to another such piece summoned in the same round. Soldiers and Catapults may be summoned within 10 feet (including adjacent to) the summoner or next to another such piece summoned in the same round. The king must always be animated while any other piece is animated. If a piece is killed, it must be replaced at a cost of 1000 gp times the charge cost of animating it; if it is wounded, then it will repair itself in one day of non-use. A standard chess set will have 40 charges per week. The chess set itself (before any enchantments) is worth 750 gp.

Moderate Transmutation; CL 11th; Craft Wondrous Item, animate object; Price 12,400 gp


Behind the scenes for cost calculations

CR for going nova
Going to call the advisers CR 1 due to extreme limits on placement and movement.
9 CR 1s is equivalent to a CR 6 or 7
4 CR 2s is equivalent to a CR 5 or 6
3 CR 3s is equivalent to a CR 6

So call it 3 CR 6s which works out to a CR 9... so it should cost LESS than the Western Chess version... it DOES have better range, but we will say that cancels out because of the drawbacks on so many of the pieces (especially the general).

(13,100/9.5)*9=12410.526
...so call it 12400



So... who is up for doing the equivalent item for Chu Shogi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_shogi)? (it has 21 types of pieces at the start of a game and a total of 46 pieces per side, most or all of which promote to one specific other piece, most of which aren't part of the original 21).:smallbiggrin:

Thelas
2009-12-05, 08:57 PM
My question is who plans to do Taikyoku Shogi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi), which is played on a 36 by 36 board with 209 piece types (402 pieces total per side).

Fortuna
2009-12-05, 09:22 PM
Not me. I might, however, consider some items which would be useful for chess players. I will see what I can come up with.