trying to figure out the pricing of odd magical substances

[Kol Korran]

hi there. in a soon to start campaign i want to introduce certain magical substances (actually special herbs that can be harvested only at one place) but i don't know how to price them.

you can't item-craft them (unless you're a gardener going for a long time), but i'd still like to know how much they cost.

Sarasin herbs: upon ingestion increases the CL of a caster for all purposes, except gaining new powers/ spells (but fine with increasing current powers) and increases their save DCs by 1. the effect lasts for 10 minutes.
(this might increase a dragon shaman's bonus, a walcok's eldritch blast damage, possibly a hex blade's curse, and so on.

i'm thinking of having a draw back of having -5 to perception rolls for 1 hour afterwards.

how much would it cost normally? with the drawback?

Kadask seeds: used by people who use maneuvers, these seeds give an insight, giving the character access to one maneuver they don't know (but can be accessed by their class and level) for the time of 1 hour.

how much would this cost? or should i make seeds per maneuver level?

thanks in advance,
Kol. :smallsmile:

(search word: piratewitch)

[Telonius]

For the second, it should really be per maneuver level. I'd make them cost about the same as a potion of the level, but have some other drawback. Maybe Fatigued until the encounter's end (and fatigue applies no matter how many immunities you have), or dazed until the next turn (per Celerity).

For the first ... that's powerful. If it weren't for the ten-minute duration, I'd put it at 100gp (half the cost of Ambrosia in BoED). But ten minutes ... that's a lot of combat. An Ioun Stone that does this (continuous) costs 30,000; a Ring that does the same (MiC) costs 20,000. For ten minutes, single-use ... I'd eyeball it as 3,000gp, but I honestly don't know.

[Trasilor]

hi there. in a soon to start campaign i want to introduce certain magical substances (actually special herbs that can be harvested only at one place) but i don't know how to price them.

you can't item-craft them (unless you're a gardener going for a long time), but i'd still like to know how much they cost.

Sarasin herbs: upon ingestion increases the CL of a caster for all purposes, except gaining new powers/ spells (but fine with increasing current powers) and increases their save DCs by 1. the effect lasts for 10 minutes.
(this might increase a dragon shaman's bonus, a walcok's eldritch blast damage, possibly a hex blade's curse, and so on.

i'm thinking of having a draw back of having -5 to perception rolls for 1 hour afterwards.

how much would it cost normally? with the drawback?

Kadask seeds: used by people who use maneuvers, these seeds give an insight, giving the character access to one maneuver they don't know (but can be accessed by their class and level) for the time of 1 hour.

how much would this cost? or should i make seeds per maneuver level?

thanks in advance,
Kol. :smallsmile:

(search word: piratewitch)

Being unable to "craft" them would only bear on the price if Magic items followed the laws of supply and demand for their pricing rather than the system in place.

The cost structure is pointed out in the DMG and further discussed in the MiC.

Given that the first is like a pre-existing item (ion stone/ring) except single use, I would follow the guideline of x/5 (where X is number of times per day). Given the time of 10 minutes - that's effectively one encounter. That puts it at around 6000k (most like an ion stone as it does not take a body slot-consumable). However, because it is consumed, I would half that number again to 3000k. Also, I assume these things do not stack.

For the second - it should be priced similar to a Martial Script (TOB page 147 - 50 x Initiator Level x Maneuver Level) but I would triple the cost because of the versatility. I assume this only works for TOB characters.

The drawbacks for each are minimal, as players will quickly learn of ways to circumvent these things, especially if you implement the penalty. Personally I would avoid drawbacks as they become bookkeeping issues.

Perhaps you can have different levels of potency (as these are biological) that costs more but loses the drawbacks.

For flavor, you might want to consider a separate seed for divine/arcane magic and for each of the fighting styles.

On a final note - this should probably be posted in Homebrew....
Otherwise great item concepts :)

[Kol Korran]

thanks Trasilor. that would do nicely i think! :smallsmile: