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View Full Version : Help me price this magic item? [3.5]



Callista
2010-11-04, 02:28 PM
Okay, I want to make a character who's basically an ex-spy. (Or maybe not so "ex". I'll see after I figure out what to do with the build.) I want him to have a magic item something like this, but I can't figure out how to build it or what it should cost:

Signal Ring
This ring looks like a piece of decorative jewelry with a large opal set in the center. The ring must be attuned to the wearer and to one other person to function; setting up the ring in this way requires the wearer and partner to touch the ring and concentrate for five rounds. Anyone attuned to the ring can cause the stone set into the ring to change color; this is a full-round action that requires concentration. The stone has six colors (red, yellow, blue, green, black, and white) and the stone can have two colors at once, allowing the sender to send up to thirty-six coded messages which have been previously agreed upon, or to send encoded words at the rate of one letter per round. The wearer may, as a free action, sever the connection between the ring and the sender. The ring works as long as both people are on the same plane. If the wearer is not examining the ring, it takes a DC 5 Spot check for the wearer to notice that the ring has changed color; a DC 20 Spot check allows a bystander to notice the ring's color changing (though he still would not know what the change meant.) The ring also allows the wearer to cast Dancing Lights once per day.

So, what do you think? Is there a magic item much like this that would allow me to guess at the price, or is this going to be one of those judgment calls? (And: If you were a DM, would you allow this for a 5th level character?)

Keld Denar
2010-11-04, 02:38 PM
Its a utility item that takes up a pretty powerful and precious body slot. I wouldn't price it at anything over 2k for a PAIR of them.

1/day Dancing Lights is worth what, 350g? Plus the other ability, which functions as a crippled "message" spell, another 0th level spell. Yea, about 1k each, or 2k for a pair.

Fax Celestis
2010-11-04, 02:48 PM
I'll agree with Keld on this one, really.

Callista
2010-11-04, 02:54 PM
Its a utility item that takes up a pretty powerful and precious body slot. I wouldn't price it at anything over 2k for a PAIR of them.

1/day Dancing Lights is worth what, 350g? Plus the other ability, which functions as a crippled "message" spell, another 0th level spell. Yea, about 1k each, or 2k for a pair.Not quite crippled--it has unlimited range on the same plane, and Message is quite a short range spell. But yes, I didn't want it to be too powerful; plus, it had to be disguisable as a piece of jewelry with a minor enchantment, like a foolish nobleman might wear. You can't go and put high-level communication spells on something like that before somebody sees it's glowing way too much under Detect Magic to be what you say it is.

Keld Denar
2010-11-04, 03:03 PM
Message is open ended. Your code ring has X amount of preset phrases. Granted, 36 preset phrases is more than you'll probably need for general coms, but translating specifics is something that you'll have a tough time with. I mean, you could have one phrase that says "orc war party nearby". Doesn't tell you north/south/east/west of position, aproximate number, or anything like that. Would you have seperate messages for 10 orcs, 15 orcs, and 20 orcs? Thats 3 messages. What if they weren't orcs, but bugbears? Now you have 6 messages, one for 3 sets of orcs, one for 3 sets of bugbears. Now we add trolls and hill giants. That eats up a lot of memory.

So yea, it is rather crippled, and I think that makes up for the fact that it is unlimited range and at will.

I'll stick with my origional estimate of 1k each, or a pair for 2k. Certainly no more than 2k a piece if you wanted to hit the top end of the market.

Callista
2010-11-04, 03:11 PM
Still 1k though... hmm... Well, it was the only way I could think of to get something like Message to a very-long-range version without driving the cost through the roof.

An intelligent system could easily transmit "15 orcs 50 meters to the northwest", thus:

WHITE ="number", signals that the next group of signals will be a number until white shows up again.
RED="Enemy", signals that the next letter will be an enemy code
BLUE="Direction", signals that the next flash will be a direction code

So, to transmit:
white 15 white
red [orc]
blue [Northwest]
white 50 white

15 takes one flash, 50 takes two.

Total time: 11 flashes, or just over a minute. I imagine a professional could probably do better. This requires memorization of a code, of course, so a more simple letter-substitution would take a long while.

But I was thinking more along the lines of being able to transmit simple messages in secret during a prearranged time, when you had more than just a minute to spare, though.

Lapak
2010-11-04, 03:19 PM
Message is open ended. Your code ring has X amount of preset phrases. Granted, 36 preset phrases is more than you'll probably need for general coms, but translating specifics is something that you'll have a tough time with. I mean, you could have one phrase that says "orc war party nearby". Doesn't tell you north/south/east/west of position, aproximate number, or anything like that. Would you have seperate messages for 10 orcs, 15 orcs, and 20 orcs? Thats 3 messages. What if they weren't orcs, but bugbears? Now you have 6 messages, one for 3 sets of orcs, one for 3 sets of bugbears. Now we add trolls and hill giants. That eats up a lot of memory.

So yea, it is rather crippled, and I think that makes up for the fact that it is unlimited range and at will.

I'll stick with my origional estimate of 1k each, or a pair for 2k. Certainly no more than 2k a piece if you wanted to hit the top end of the market.I agree with you on the pricing, but the item even points out a (slow) way around that: have one of the 36 codes be 'alphabetical message incoming', then have a separate 36-colors code that you switch to in that case. It's not quick, but it can send whatever you want given time.

Lev
2010-11-04, 03:22 PM
I'd simplify it to just dancing lights, or create a greater version of dancing lights.

WarKitty
2010-11-04, 03:27 PM
It's essentially an unlimited use of a single effect of prestidigitation. 1k might even be a bit high.

Callista
2010-11-04, 03:42 PM
So you guys don't think the long-distance thing increases the price any? OK...

WarKitty
2010-11-04, 03:50 PM
So you guys don't think the long-distance thing increases the price any? OK...

Well, a scroll of sending lets you send a 25-word message for 700gp. This is considerably worse than the scroll. It's reusable, but how much are you really expecting to use it to make it worth more than stocking up on the scrolls?

Telonius
2010-11-04, 03:55 PM
Well, the closest spell to this would probably be "Whispering Wind," both for the time it takes as well as for the number of words/characters it can have.

Callista
2010-11-04, 03:56 PM
Mostly for brief signals ("Monsters ahead!", "He's lying!"), and mostly within the range of a Message spell... OK. I get that. The long range probably wouldn't come into play very much, unless the party got separated.

Darrin
2010-11-05, 03:35 PM
Aspect Mirror (Complete Scoundrel p. 113) offers full audio/video communication at will with linked mirrors for only 4000 GP apiece, so I'd imagine something that only sends color codes would be somewhere below that. $2000 sounds like a good place to start.

Lev
2010-11-05, 06:30 PM
Well, a scroll of sending lets you send a 25-word message for 700gp. This is considerably worse than the scroll. It's reusable, but how much are you really expecting to use it to make it worth more than stocking up on the scrolls?
I think the fact it's re-usable is something to consider, especially since it could essentially be used as a low cost telegraph, hell even a bi-signaled ring could be augmented into a binary code, this is a 6 color transmission device which means if given to one town it could act as a 6 facet telegraph device or a 3 facet binary transceiver.

Think carefully before introducing this as easy to make tech, as it could swiftly change the entire world.