Cost of a double-your-movespeed item?

[ScooterSkittles]

Hi all.

I'm DM in an upcoming campaign using D&D 3.5e rules in an adventure that I'm creating (in Forgotten Realms). One of my players is min/maxing the shoop out of a dervish/chozo warrior (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3121.0) with a custom race that seemed balanced enough. He really wants to get as much speed out of the guy as possible. He talked about Rapid Wrath (Ghostwalk, a "+1 mighty cleaving shortspear [that] doubles the speed of a creature that carries it" and a place on the previous board that reverse-engineered it to try to figure out what the item-enhancement cost of the double-movespeed feature would be. (Link in spoiler)
http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=q6vn6uidhkqpicokdl9jpm1nf7&topic=13532.msg455368#msg455368

The other thread reverse-engineered it to be a +3,400gp enhancement for a weapon.

The basic question is really just "how much for a item/enhancement that doubles my movespeed?"

Honestly, I don't even like the doubling idea as a price-able feature, because it seems to me that doubling opens the door to all sorts of exploitation that I might not see now and would hate to "change the rules" later if and when it got ridiculous/over-powered. My inclination is to either disallow it or work out how much bonus movespeed I could expect his character to be able to milk out of it, and then figure out the price for an item that grants that same amount of flat movespeed bonus (minus a little bit of cost because a character would need to really be built for speed to have gotten that much out of the doubling feature.)

But what do you think? What would be a balanced cost? Or would you even allow it in your game?

[DoctorGlock]

Feathered wings graft is 10k and grant a fly speed at 2x land speed for good maneuverability. Sadly you will not afford that until about 6th discounting demonbinding and whatnot. Doubling speed however has very little effect on balance, no reason not to let him have it, just keep an eye open for real abuse.

[Campbellk8105]

Boots of expeditious Retreat is 4k and it increases the move speed by 30. So an item that just double move speed shouldn't be too much more than that. As DoctorGlock mentioned, the feathered wing graft is 10k, and that gives you a fly speed (Good) which IMO is much better than land speed.

[hydraa]

Some ideas to get a idea of costing


[DMG] Boots of sliding and springing +10 enhancement bonus to land speed in 3.5 (I think in 3.0 it was double movement) for 5500 gp (custom without jump modifer (2500) would be 3000 gp )

Get the animal type and [DMG] don horseshoes of speed for +30 for 3000 gp

A continual haste item (double all speeds up to +30 enhancement bonus) for 120000 GP cost?

or continual exeditious retreat (4k cost?) for +30 land speed enhancement bonus {Ninja on this one, but cost might be a bit low when looking at other items}

[MIC] Boots of Skating, +10 enhancement bonus to land speed for 7000 gp

[MIC] Sandals of sprinting double land speeds up to +30 enhancement bonus for 1 round 3/day for 2300

[MIC] CRYSTAL OF ALACRITY +5 morale bonus to land speed attached to med or heavy armor for 1750 gp

[MIC] Sandals of the light step +10 enhancement bonus to land speed (+ couple more features) for 9000

[MIC] Panther Mask +5 enhancement bonus to land speed in light or no armor for 2700 gp

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Doubling is generally a bad idea, especially for land speed. I'd probably tell him that such an effect will only double his unbonused base land speed, if he's even able to gain it.

Items with unique effects are priced to be available at a certain level. Reverse-engineering its price to create a cheaper version that can be gained at a lower level should not be allowed at all.

I've actually ran into something similar to this in my gaming group. For a while, custom "Boots of Expeditious Retreat" (+30 ft. land speed for 4,000 gp) were all the rage. It was based on caster level 1 x spell level 1 x 2,000 gp x 2 for a 1 minute/level duration, and it was way too good. When next I ran a new game, I let everyone know that custom magic items have a minimum caster level of five, thus Boots of Expeditious Retreat have a minimum price of 20,000 gp, problem solved.

The biggest factor with a custom magic item is not what it does, but at what level it's available. Price is the biggest part of that, so anything that gives a unique effect for cheaper than the custom item that the effect is based on should be looked at very closely. It would probably be acceptable to make a version of Rapid Wrath that's still +2 equivalent for roughly the same cost, but putting the effect on a +1 Dagger for less than half the price of the original item should not be allowed at all. Also, clarify that you believe the part about giving the effect to whoever carries it was meant to say that it must be held and thus carried in his hand, not just worn on his belt.