Prismatic cloak - feedback please!

[Quietus]

Just a fun idea for an item I had :

Prismatic Cloak
This cloak is typically made from fine silk, and has all seven colors of the rainbow shifting through it, either as a series of strong lines, or as cloudy shapes of color drifting aimlessly. Regardless of its appearance, this cloak always has the same effect - it can cancel effects targeted at the wearer, as though it were a reverse of a Prismatic Wall. Each color cancels one specific effect, and once that effect is cancelled, that color empties from the cloak. The cloak recharges itself fully once a day.


Red : Absorbs up to 40 points of Fire damage.
Orange : Absorbs up to 40 points of Acid damage
Yellow : Absorbs up to 40 points of Electricity damage
Green : Neutralizes the first Poison effect the wearer is subject to.
Blue : The wearer automatically passes the first save vs. petrification made during the day
Indigo : Negates the first Insanity or Confusion effect the wearer is subjected to during the day
Violet : The wearer can choose to ignore one [Teleportation] effect inflicted upon them


Strong Evocation; CL 13th; Craft Wondrous Item, Prismatic Spray or Prismatic Wall or Prismatic Sphere; Price 36,400 GP


I've also considered "lesser" versions that provide each of the above functions once each, at 1/10th cost (3,640 GP) and "greater" versions that allow you to once per day throw up a Prismatic Wall effect that contains only those colors left in the cloak (and drains those colors in the process), at a 50% increase in price (54,600 GP). Any thoughts? How would you feel if this item were to show up as loot in a game you were playing in?

[Last Laugh]

It is very neat. I love the idea, the way it's implemented seems fine, not overpowered just a general survivability thing.

Question: Does absorbs 40 points of fire damage reduce the first fire attack you take? or the first 40 fire damage (if you are going toe-to-toe with a rogue that has flaming weapon for instance).

[Killer Angel]

Don't know if your math is right, but imo, 36.400 gp it's slightly underpriced.

That said, i like it.

[Quietus]

It is very neat. I love the idea, the way it's implemented seems fine, not overpowered just a general survivability thing.

Question: Does absorbs 40 points of fire damage reduce the first fire attack you take? or the first 40 fire damage (if you are going toe-to-toe with a rogue that has flaming weapon for instance).

Mm. For that reason, I was toying with the idea of either putting a minimum amount of damage that would trigger it - or just making it more like Protection from Energy, in that it would absorb the first, say, 40 fire damage you take - so a flaming weapon would take a small amount away, rather than discharging the entire fire protection effect.


Don't know if your math is right, but imo, 36.400 gp it's slightly underpriced.

That said, i like it.

To do the math, I went Spell level (7) * caster level (13) * 2,000 (continuous use), /5 because it's 1/day. I'd love to get feedback on what you feel it's worth, though.

My thoughts on it were also that it's going to be rare that you experience ALL of those effects in one day, particularly the teleportation one - how often does someone try to teleport or plane shift you against your will? petrification is also somewhat rare, as can Insanity be.

[Killer Angel]

My thoughts on it were also that it's going to be rare that you experience ALL of those effects in one day, particularly the teleportation one - how often does someone try to teleport or plane shift you against your will? petrification is also somewhat rare, as can Insanity be.

My thought is that, this cloak gives you a good cover from a lot of attacks, that rarely affects you more than 1/day.
Rings of energy resistance cost a lot... yes, they cover you all day long, but if you're going to face fire elementals, the cleric will protect the group.
This cloack, gives you a general cover from a lot of situations, without you bothering of the initial planning.
Practically: for a specific mission (the basilisks' lair), the group will plan a defensive strategy, regardless your 1/day save, and with the cloack you lower greatly the risk of nasty surprises (oh, look, an unespected beholder!).

BTw, imo should cost in the 40k order (psycological mark?)

[Quietus]

My thought is that, this cloak gives you a good cover from a lot of attacks, that rarely affects you more than 1/day.
Rings of energy resistance cost a lot... yes, they cover you all day long, but if you're going to face fire elementals, the cleric will protect the group.
This cloack, gives you a general cover from a lot of situations, without you bothering of the initial planning.
Practically: for a specific mission (the basilisks' lair), the group will plan a defensive strategy, regardless your 1/day save, and with the cloack you lower greatly the risk of nasty surprises (oh, look, an unespected beholder!).

BTw, imo should cost in the 40k order (psycological mark?)

Yeah, it would definitely be a nice thing to have for unexpected random encounters - the rare time a medusa shows up, having a 1/day "OHCRAP" button in your cloak would be very handy. Of course, you have to give up cloaks of charisma and resistance, unless you combine them via MIC rules... don't know if that even works in this case, though.

40k isn't too bad for it either, and does make a nice psychological barrier. I think if I raise it to that point, I'd make it "absorbs the first 40 damage", instead of taking that off of the first <elemental> attack that comes in and being used up for the day. Gives it a little bit of general utility that's more likely to come up and get used, that way. Nice to see that it was naturally pretty close to that in the first place, though, thanks!

[Chess435]

Yeah I'd pay 40,000 gold for such a cloak. Instead of the auto-save function, how about it automatically stops the first time that such an effect would affect you, such as when you fail you're save.

[Quietus]

Yeah I'd pay 40,000 gold for such a cloak. Instead of the auto-save function, how about it automatically stops the first time that such an effect would affect you, such as when you fail you're save.

That would definitely raise its value, which is why I shied away from that. I was thinking of it more as being similar to an "anti-prismatic-wall" on your back; Attacks would "hit" the cloak before hitting you. Making it so it triggered on failed saves would raise its value a bit, I'd think.

Amusingly, a fully charged cloak would also let you walk through a prismatic wall once a day... you'd take some electricity damage if you failed that save, but the rest would be negated by the cloak. I chose to discard the 20/40/80 damage silliness for a flat 40 across the board, it made a little more sense to me. Flavor-wise, though, the 20/40/80 might be better.

[ericgrau]

Let's see 3.33 x 3 x 2000 / 5 = 4,000ish gp per energy absorption. Maybe more because normally that would only last 30 minutes. An all day protection from energy for 1 type for 120 would be worth about the same, and it costs 10*4*2000/5*2 (need to cast twice) or 32,000 gp. Or about 10,000 gp each. The effectively quickened neutralize poison / stone to flesh / etc. would technically be crazy expensive, but we all know that you won't use them every day so they aren't actually worth that much. I'd compare their usefulness to the energy absorptions and price accordingly.

Assuming they're equal to the absorption that'd be 8,000 gp per color for 70,000 gp total. I think the other 4 colors are much less common than the absorptions but have a much greater effect when they do hit. They might cost as little as 1/2 as much so I'd ballpark the cloak's price at 50,000 - 70,000 gp. To further adjust the price you might compare it to other 50-70k cloaks that the PCs might buy (at high level, no doubt) and determine what price you'd need to make your cloak to make choosing between them and your cloak a hard decision. For example I had an epic character that loved his 55k cloak of etherealness to let him pass through walls and so on.

[Lapak]

Amusingly, a fully charged cloak would also let you walk through a prismatic wall once a day... you'd take some electricity damage if you failed that save, but the rest would be negated by the cloak.I'd buy the cloak just for that. The mental image is amazing: the hero wraps his cloak tightly about him and dives through the shimmering barrier. He lands unscathed on the other side, his cloak drained to a neutral gray, and strikes at the shocked sorcerer standing on the other side. Excellent.

(I also agree with your reasoning on the triggering, by the way. Both more sensible and better balanced if it triggers on the first attack rather than a failed save.)

[ericgrau]

I love this item too, but relying on enemy casters to cast prismatic walls is a bit spotty. I'd wear it as a gish and lay down my own wall. Then I'd grapple a foe and bring him through it.

[cfalcon]

This item is really cool, thank you.

"10/10 Would steal from again"

[Quietus]

Let's see 3.33 x 3 x 2000 / 5 = 4,000ish gp per energy absorption. Maybe more because normally that would only last 30 minutes. An all day protection from energy for 1 type for 120 would be worth about the same, and it costs 10*4*2000/5*2 (need to cast twice) or 32,000 gp. Or about 10,000 gp each. The effectively quickened neutralize poison / stone to flesh / etc. would technically be crazy expensive, but we all know that you won't use them every day so they aren't actually worth that much. I'd compare their usefulness to the energy absorptions and price accordingly.

Assuming they're equal to the absorption that'd be 8,000 gp per color for 70,000 gp total. I think the other 4 colors are much less common than the absorptions but have a much greater effect when they do hit. They might cost as little as 1/2 as much so I'd ballpark the cloak's price at 50,000 - 70,000 gp. To further adjust the price you might compare it to other 50-70k cloaks that the PCs might buy (at high level, no doubt) and determine what price you'd need to make your cloak to make choosing between them and your cloak a hard decision. For example I had an epic character that loved his 55k cloak of etherealness to let him pass through walls and so on.

I think that the cloak of etherealness is probably a good comparison. It's much more useful in many cases; A sneak can use it to bypass obstacles, a melee character can use it for flight, anyone can use it to go through walls. Prismatic Cloak is *very* useful, certainly, when the circumstances come up that those rare saves induce, and having 40 floating points of three different energy absorbtions is nifty, but hardly game breaking. A high level fireball, on average, will kill most of your fire absorbtion.

As to cost, Protection from Energy is a 3rd level spell, so minimum caster level 5. Assuming we go to 12 for 120 points of absorption, that's 3*12*2000 (continuous use) /5 (once per day), or a total value of 14,400 for all three absorptions put together. 4800 GP each. That leaves 22k GP, or 5,500 GP each for the other protections, each of which is a one-shot use. If I round the cost of the cloak up to 40k, then we're looking at 6,400 GP for each of those abilities. For a once/day auto-protect from some potentially scary stuff, that's not too bad.


I'd buy the cloak just for that. The mental image is amazing: the hero wraps his cloak tightly about him and dives through the shimmering barrier. He lands unscathed on the other side, his cloak drained to a neutral gray, and strikes at the shocked sorcerer standing on the other side. Excellent.

(I also agree with your reasoning on the triggering, by the way. Both more sensible and better balanced if it triggers on the first attack rather than a failed save.)

Yup - it might not come up often, but I'd make damn sure that if the players got to a high enough level and had/loved their Prismatic Cloak, I'd give them the opportunity to do something like that. I live by the rule of cool, 100%.


I love this item too, but relying on enemy casters to cast prismatic walls is a bit spotty. I'd wear it as a gish and lay down my own wall. Then I'd grapple a foe and bring him through it.

That.. would actually be really interesting, and I'd be fine with a gish doing that. After all, you only have so many spell slots, and there's plenty of other ways to force people through prismatic walls. This would just make for an awesome mental image, at the cost of a hefty chunk of change.

Hell, bull rushing is just as easy as grappling, and wouldn't rely on a cloak to make it work! :smalltongue:

[Vaynor]

The Red Towel: This belongs in Homebrew. Moved.