Brief question on weapon enchantments

[Monodominant]

Hello,

I have a question as I am a bit confused about weapon and armor enchantments.

I see some times that weapons have a +1/+2/+3 enchantment (like for example a literal +1 to damage and attack roll or like bane/fiery etc) and some times they have a "cost" enchantment like for example caustic burst.

I assume that the main difference is that the first ability is always on (so a +1 Dragonbane sword is ALWAYS a +1 dragonbane sword) while the others ussually have a number of "charger per day".

What is the method to calculate how a +1 enchantment would function if I wanted to make it times per day? So lets say I want to have a my weapon focused/weapon specialization +2 greatsword be a bane to humans, elves and dwarves but obviously dont want to pay these 3 banes as +3/+4/+5 effective enchantment level.

How do I go about splitting that cost? Does it matter if I have 1 or 10 per day effects?

Continuing on the above I have the following question.

I am rather suprised that I have not found ANYWHERE a weapon that would either have the "silence" spell on it or perhaps inflict silence on a target if you manage to hit them.

Is there anywhere in published (non-3rd party) books something like that?

If not what would the cost be for a weapon to either cast silence as the spell (standard action) for some rounds 2-3 times a day? And also how many rounds would it last?

Also would there be a way to make the 2/3 times a day a "target hit" effect (as opposed to a blanket silence centered on the weapon) and make it swift as many of those on weapon abilities are? If yes how much would it cost then?

Thanks in advance!

[Yora]

Well, there are rules to calculate prices based on uses per day and charges.

As a magical weapon uses it's enchantments every time it attacks something, these enchantments would be "use activated/continous".
Problem is, that there is no base cost for many enchatments.
What I would do is to take the price of a "+2 keen human bane longsword" and substract from it the price for a "+2 keen longsword". The remaining amount of money would be the base price for your human bane enchantment.

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A sword that can cast a spell several times per day is quite easy:
The price for such an item (assuming use-activated trigger) is:

(Spell level × caster level × 2,000 gp) / (5 / charges per day)

Caster level and the number of charges per day can be set to anything you want (as long as the caster level is the minimum to cast the spell, in this case 3). Duration would depend on caster level.

To affect only the target, but not anything else, there is no standard rule to do that. "Only works when the target is hit, but it does not require a seperate action to activate" is both a drawback and a benefit, which I would say cancel each other out. So I wouldn't change the price of the item up or down. Just keep it as it is. Only silencing the target but not anyone else near him is also both a benefit and a drawback, so I also would not adjust prices.

Here have it as an example weapon add-on ability:
Silencing (CL 3rd, +7,200 gp)
Three times per day, when you successfully hit a target, you can chose to have the target under the effect of a silence spell for 3 minutes. Only the target is affected by the spell and it does not affect the area around him or any people inside it.

[Monodominant]

Okay that sounds reasonable I guess... on both counts :D

I am unsure how you ended up with that 7200...

I mean 3 minutes means CL 3... and its a spell that needs 3rd level caster

so 3 x 3 x 2000 = 18000 / (5/3 = 1.667) = 10798gp and not 7200...

From a game perspective (and the actual reasons I want the enchantment :D ) I believe even 1 minute and 2/day is good enough...

so I guess my costs would be...

1 x 3 x 2000 = 6000 / (5/2= 2.5) = 2400...

I wonder though if that assumes standard activation (since silence is a standard action spell) or if it can be "on strike" or "swift"...

[Yora]

Silence is a 2nd level spell. And for a cleric to cast a 2nd level spell, he must be at least caster level 3rd, so you can't go lower than CL 3rd.

[Monodominant]

Yea I got confused in my math there :D

My point is that its a 2nd level spell that has minimum caster level 3 but as you said you dont have the "have it" as 3rd level effect right? The same way that a cure light wounds potion should be 1d8+3 to represent the caster being 3rd level to be able to craft potions but voluntarily he lowers the caster level.

So an effect lasting 1 minute (Silence is minute per level) would be

1 (caster level) x 2 (spell level) x 2000 = 4000 gp / (5/number of times per day). So it would cost 2400 for 3/day, 1600 2/day etc

I assume that in your calculations you did

3 x 2 x 2000 / 1.667 = 7200 for 3/day and 3 minute duration while for 2/day it would be 4800.

The question now is if my DM puts an add-up price for being "on strike activation" or not since as you said there are pro's and con's in both options...

Additionally I wonder if the "on strike" will allow a Will save since if you try to cast on someone in particular they are allowed a will save...

[Telonius]

Yea I got confused in my math there :D

My point is that its a 2nd level spell that has minimum caster level 3 but as you said you dont have the "have it" as 3rd level effect right? The same way that a cure light wounds potion should be 1d8+3 to represent the caster being 3rd level to be able to craft potions but voluntarily he lowers the caster level.

So an effect lasting 1 minute (Silence is minute per level) would be

1 (caster level) x 2 (spell level) x 2000 = 4000 gp / (5/number of times per day). So it would cost 2400 for 3/day, 1600 2/day etc

I assume that in your calculations you did

3 x 2 x 2000 / 1.667 = 7200 for 3/day and 3 minute duration while for 2/day it would be 4800.

The question now is if my DM puts an add-up price for being "on strike activation" or not since as you said there are pro's and con's in both options...

Additionally I wonder if the "on strike" will allow a Will save since if you try to cast on someone in particular they are allowed a will save...

The problem is that you can't put a CL 1 silence into a magic item:


A creator can create an item at a lower caster level than her own, but never lower than the minimum level needed to cast the needed spell.

The minimum level needed to cast the spell is 3; you can't* cast Silence for less than three minutes. There's very good reason for this restriction. Allowing spells at lower caster level into magic items would allow you to (for example) get a scroll of Shambler cast at CL1, for a cost of 112gp 5sp (CL1 *spell level9*12.5), instead of the usual 3825gp. Since it doesn't have any effects tied to caster level, you'd basically get a 3712.5 gp discount with no trade-off.

*Technically you can end a dismissible spell (like Silence) early, but this requires a standard action to do. There aren't really any rules for putting that kind of action into an item.