Clarifications on custom item crafting costs

[Dramiscius]

Just looking to make some clarifications as to custom item crafting costs, as per the "Estimating magic item gold piece values" chart on the d20srd site.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm

Now concerning crafting items with a single special property, its extremely simple.

like say for instance +30 diplomacy would be

(30)(30)(100)= 90000

But where there seems to be a little confusion is when it comes to estimating cost value for something with more then one bonus on it. And then of course more then one different type of bonus, like skill/stat/ac/etc.

Since it's still on an item that's "taking up a slot" on the characters body, do you just add the flat costs of of each property being added ? Aka

+30 skill x 2 = 180000 ?

I haven't done much with custom magic items before in the past so I want to make sure I ran some of the numbers correctly.

[HunterOfJello]

I believe the Magic Item Gold Piece Values section is relevant in this situation.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm#magicItemGoldPieceValues

[rayne_dragon]

Multiple Different Abilities
Abilities such as an attack roll bonus or saving throw bonus and a spell-like function are not similar, and their values are simply added together to determine the cost. For items that do take up a space on a character’s body each additional power not only has no discount but instead has a 50% increase in price.

If I'm reading the SRD correctly, it sounds like each ability costs 50% more, so the price for an item that adds +30 to two skills would be 90000 + 90000 x1.5 = 225000. Unless it can be argued the two skills count as similar.

[ILM]

MIC clarifies this a bit on page 233 onwards. Adding "common" effects (the list provided includes ability enhancements, bonuses to saves, resistance to energy but not skill bonuses) an be done at no extra cost other than the base magic item and the normal cost of the enchantment. You could have a Circlet of Rapid Casting / of Intelligence +6 for the base cost of the Circlet of Rapid Casting +36k.

For other effects, multiply the normal cost of the most expensive effect by 1.5.

[Dramiscius]

MIC clarifies this a bit on page 233 onwards. Adding "common" effects (the list provided includes ability enhancements, bonuses to saves, resistance to energy but not skill bonuses) an be done at no extra cost other than the base magic item and the normal cost of the enchantment. You could have a Circlet of Rapid Casting / of Intelligence +6 for the base cost of the Circlet of Rapid Casting +36k.

For other effects, multiply the normal cost of the most expensive effect by 1.5.

Yea but those are just the common effects. So basically for non common effects.

say for instance, non common stuff from how you said it there multiply the most expensive effect by 1.5

I assume if you had say x3 +30 skill bonuses and nothing else, they're all the same price would you increase the cost of one skill bonus by 1.5 ? or would you increase all 3 by 1.5 ?

Because if you were gonna increase all 3 by 1.5 it would be more cost effective to put an additional effect that was slightly more expensive on it.

[ILM]

I assume if you had say x3 +30 skill bonuses and nothing else, they're all the same price would you increase the cost of one skill bonus by 1.5 ? or would you increase all 3 by 1.5 ?

Because if you were gonna increase all 3 by 1.5 it would be more cost effective to put an additional effect that was slightly more expensive on it.
The way I read it, you'd do an iterative process (look at the text on p.233 if you have the book, I can't quote all of it here). So take your +30 item: 90k. Add on another +30: 90+(90k*1.5)=225k. Add on a third one: 90k+(225k*1.5)=427.5k.

[Dramiscius]

Well we're talking about just making fresh custom items, not adding onto the price of already made items (which costs inherently more as well from my understanding).

[ILM]

Well we're talking about just making fresh custom items, not adding onto the price of already made items (which costs inherently more as well from my understanding).
Those are the only rules there are to get multiple abilities on the same item. The only other way I can see to wing it is to create one item, and then as many slotless items as you want that you then fluff to be attached or included in the first one. In that case the above triple +30 item would cost 450k. Otherwise you can just houserule something.

[Dramiscius]

Those are the only rules there are to get multiple abilities on the same item. The only other way I can see to wing it is to create one item, and then as many slotless items as you want that you then fluff to be attached or included in the first one. In that case the above triple +30 item would cost 450k. Otherwise you can just houserule something.

yea, wish wizards wasn't so vague on alot of stuff :P

[Douglas]

For other effects, multiply the normal cost of the most expensive effect by 1.5.
No, it's multiply the normal cost of everything except the most expensive effect by 1.5


If I'm reading the SRD correctly, it sounds like each ability costs 50% more, so the price for an item that adds +30 to two skills would be 90000 + 90000 x1.5 = 225000. Unless it can be argued the two skills count as similar.
"Similar" for the purpose of magic item pricing means "uses the same resource or conflicts in some other fashion such that you can never gain the full benefit of both abilities simultaneously." Staves qualify because every spell on a single staff draws from the same pool of 50 charges. Combat-only spell duplication that requires actions to activate each individual spell might also qualify. Continuous always-active bonuses never do.


The way I read it, you'd do an iterative process (look at the text on p.233 if you have the book, I can't quote all of it here). So take your +30 item: 90k. Add on another +30: 90+(90k*1.5)=225k. Add on a third one: 90k+(225k*1.5)=427.5k.
No, it's not an iterative process. You take the list of all abilities, however many there are, sort it by individual ability price, and multiply all but one of them by 1.5. +30 to one skill is 90k. +30 to two skills is 90k + 90k*1.5 = 225k. +30 to three skills is 90k + 90k*1.5 + 90k*1.5 = 360k.

[ILM]

No, it's multiply the normal cost of everything except the most expensive effect by 1.5
Oh correct, my bad. Shame! Shame! :smallredface:


No, it's not an iterative process. You take the list of all abilities, however many there are, sort it by individual ability price, and multiply all but one of them by 1.5. +30 to one skill is 90k. +30 to two skills is 90k + 90k*1.5 = 225k. +30 to three skills is 90k + 90k*1.5 + 90k*1.5 = 360k.
I believe that taking into account your correction above, this works out to the same thing. I find it easier to think in iterations but whatever works. :smallsmile:

[Dramiscius]

No, it's multiply the normal cost of everything except the most expensive effect by 1.5


"Similar" for the purpose of magic item pricing means "uses the same resource or conflicts in some other fashion such that you can never gain the full benefit of both abilities simultaneously." Staves qualify because every spell on a single staff draws from the same pool of 50 charges. Combat-only spell duplication that requires actions to activate each individual spell might also qualify. Continuous always-active bonuses never do.


No, it's not an iterative process. You take the list of all abilities, however many there are, sort it by individual ability price, and multiply all but one of them by 1.5. +30 to one skill is 90k. +30 to two skills is 90k + 90k*1.5 = 225k. +30 to three skills is 90k + 90k*1.5 + 90k*1.5 = 360k.

Sounds good to me! gotta rework some items but at least it's not gonna be as expensive as ILM tried to explain it :D

[ILM]

Sounds good to me! gotta rework some items but at least it's not gonna be as expensive as ILM tried to explain it :D
That's because I fail at reading :smallsigh:.

[Dramiscius]

How much money do you save by crafting the items with your own xp ? I've got an xp reserve pool of 10k so now that I've recalculated and gone over my limit by quite a bit im tryin to see what I can do to lower the costs before I start hacking up the items (trying to lessen the hassle :P)

actually after calculating everything im almost 500k over heh. starting at 26 gives 2.5mil and right now im at 2.96mil.

[ILM]

As per this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm), when crafting an item yourself you pay half the price in gp, and 1/25th of the price in XP. The triple +30 item above would run you 180k in gold and 14,400 XP. That's before any tricks to reduce costs.

[Dramiscius]

As per this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm), when crafting an item yourself you pay half the price in gp, and 1/25th of the price in XP. The triple +30 item above would run you 180k in gold and 14,400 XP. That's before any tricks to reduce costs.

is that 1/25th the cost AFTER reducing it by 50% or before taking the 50% (which is what id assume it might be). Also being a ranger I can't cast most of the spells to technically craft them myself, unless I could pay the xp to a crafter who's making my items for me to get the same effect ?

[Diarmuid]

You pay 1/25 of the base item cost (in GP) in XP

You pay 1/2 the base item cost (in GP) in GP