[3.5] Designing a magical horn

[hymer]

Following the very kind suggestion of Zhirax, I'm trying to come up with a magical item that will help a player in my campaign. I'll spare you the fluff, but here's what I'm working on at the moment:

Mountain King's Horn
Check: 1d20+cha modifier+levels+synergy+time modifier
Levels: Levels in fighter, marshal and paladin (no double bonus for gestalt)
Synergy: +1 for every three ranks in Perform (Wind instruments), max +5
Time modifier: -5 if played as standard action, 0 if played as full round action, +1 for every whole round spent playing, max +5 (anything requiring a Concentration check for casting a spell will stop you from playing any more).

To play, you must be trained in Perform (Wind instruments) – a half rank will do. Those affected must hear the horn and be within 100’. The effect is (Ex) and mind affecting. Duration is 1 round per point the check result exceeds the DC. The horn may be winded three times per day.

Name of tune (DC; way to gain +4 to check): Effect

Approach of the Imperial Guard (X; when joining an ongoing battle): Ignore five points of DR
Ancient Glacier (X; wielding a shield): Energy Resistance 20 against Acid, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning and Sonic
Avalanche (X; when fighting Giant type): May take two 5 foot steps every round if one is taken at the beginning of your turn and the other at the end
Battle Mask (X; wearing a dwarven battle mask): Evasion
Day and Deed (X; in true sunlight): Immunity to Sleep
Day Will Come Again (X; outside at night): Ignore the Fatigued condition
Deathless King, the (X; having an official noble or royal title): +5 resistance bonus to saving throws
Deep Places of the World (X; having the blind-fighting feat): Blind-fighting
Greet the Dawn (X; at dawn or to wake allies from sleep): Fast Healing 1
Indomitable Peaks (X; when outnumbered): DR 5/-
Iron March (X; wearing metal armour): +10’ enhancement bonus to ground speed
Storm in the Mountains (X; Call Lightning would deal d10s): Metal weapons gain the Shock property (+1d6 electrical damage on a successful hit)
Steam Cannon and the Dragon, the (X; boiling water inside AoE): Ranged weapons gain the Collision property (+5 damage on a successful hit)

Thoughts and ideas are most welcome, especially on DCs for the tunes and any abuses or glaring inconsistencies I've missed. I'm thinking it should be possible to learn or otherwise unlock more songs as the campaign goes by, and I'll start him out with just one or two songs to keep it simple.

[Eldest]

First, let Bards use it too. Music is kind of what they do.
Now then, I'm assuming that you mean that you need levels in fighter, marshal or paladin, not all three. Second, you need to say what the synergy bonus is to, because as is it could be to anything. Third, you need to look at how the bard does it's music. It's a scaling bonus based on level, with songs unlocking based on how many ranks in a preform skill they have. So maybe have instead this follow that progression.
Finally, if you have a Bard in the party currently, or ever do in the future, he is going to feel very overshadowed. Magical music is their only unique thing.

[hymer]

Thanks for the reply!
Where it says 'Levels', 'Synergy' and 'Time modifier', those are meant to explain what they mean in the whole '1d20+cha modifier+levels+synergy+time modifier'. Sorry for being unclear.
Anyone can use the horn, as long as they have a basic understanding of wind instruments (trained). Fighters, paladins and marshals are just better (fluff reasons), and if they multiclass two or more of those classes, the effect is meant to stack, so a Marshal3/Fighter3 would get +6 for his class levels.
A bard is supposed to Use Magic Device and Emulate a Class Feature. He'll get to pretend he's one of those classes of a level equal to his UMD check result -20 (minimum 0). He's likely to have ranks in Perform (Wind instruments) too, so he may well be better than fighter/paladin/marshal, since few people will take more than a handful of levels in those classes.
You don't think a bard would like this magical item? Maybe he should be allowed to spend some of his own music to fuel the horn, so it can wind more than three times per day.
As for scaling, do you have any suggestions how that would go? Most magic items don't scale to user level, so I don't have a lot to compare them to.

[Randomguy]

Shouldn't knights and crusaders also have their levels counted?

You could change "storm in the mountains" to "song of storms". :smalltongue:

As for DC's: It would help if you told us what level the character using this would be, and how many of the tunes you wanted him to be able to hit.

I think the DC's should be around 20 for most of them, assuming around level 10.
Day and Deed and Iron March should probably be the easiest, with DC's between 15 and 20.
Deep Places of the World, Day Will Come Again and Battle Mask would be a bit harder, with DC's between 20 and 25.
Greet the Dawn, Approach of the Imperial guard and Indomnitable Peaks would be between 25 and 30.
All the rest would be around 35.

[hymer]

Thanks for the reply, Randomguy!
Since most of the other references are to Nordic mythology or Tolkien, I guess I could squeeze som LoZ in there. ;) Doubt any of my players would pick up on it, though.
The guy I'm intending this for is level 14 at the moment, but his charisma... Oh my, his charisma. Let's just be thankful charisma damage is so rare, or he'd be made of glass.
I'm surprised you rate Battle Mask (evasion) lower than Approach of the Imperial Guard (reduce enemy DR) and Indomitable Peak (gain DR). AotIG was mostly meant to let some lesser allies mow down zombies and skeletons more reliably (there's a siege against a small walled town coming up). Ring of Evasion is like 40k gp if I remember correctly. Maybe AotIG should just be reducing DR that is cuttable by something.
I'm still mulling over how hard it should be to hit the right notes. Some of those abilities should be fairly reliable (Iron March, bonus movement, for example). Others, like Greet the Dawn (fast healing 1) is likely to be used out of combat mostly, and can be relied upon to work with a higher DC.