Welcome to A.M.S.S.A.R (3.5 Item Help)

[The Bandicoot]

For an upcoming game I'll be running I wanted to give the party a memorable little experience so I came up with an idea.

Basically it's a coin-operated summoning rod complete with Customer-Service-Robot-esque voice directing the holder to press the various gems on the rod to go through the summoning process. (For Summon Monster please press the red gem now.....for Summon Nature's Ally please press the green gem now.....)

I'm planning on limiting the group's summoning by their level(basically it allows them to cast the summoning spell as if they were a sorcerer/druid/whatever class of their level) The only question I have is how much do you think would this item itself be worth? Also, how much money per summoning do you think it should require?

[Debihuman]

It should be a one-of-a-kind artifact. Price: invaluable.

Debby

[The Bandicoot]

Good point, it's not as if they're going to get this in the marketplace.

As for cost per spell I think I'm going to go with half of what it would cost to hire a spellcaster to cast the spell.

Any other suggestions or did I just answer my own question?

[Debihuman]

Why not just hire a spellcaster rather than make an artifact in that case? If you mean half the cost of the spell, how many times do you want it cast? If it is an unlimited number of times, that significantly raises the cost beyond half the cost of the spell.

Debby

[The Bandicoot]

Why? Because its funny of course! A little coin-operated summoning wand with an annoying robotic voice.

And as for half the cost of the spell I meant for each casting you calculate using thr 3.5 PHB how much it would cost to hire someone to cast that spell and then half it. Please deposit eighty gold coins now.

[Debihuman]

Cost to use is not the same as cost to create. See Goods and Services chart.

A first level spell costs CL x10 if you hire a spellcaster to cast it for you. A 2nd level spell costs CL x 20, etc. and you have to provide the additional components.

So if the machine is CL 20 and it casts summon monster II, the cost is 400 gp or 200 gp if you halve the cost.

As a joke item, I could see it. But creating one shouldn't be possible. Also, the party might want to try to steal all gp that is stored inside the device unless you rule that all coins deposited are somehow magically shunted to a vault and not kept in the device. Gotta wonder whose device it is and how much money they are making from it. :-)

Debby

[The Bandicoot]

My world is a high-magic-high-crazy world, so its creation isn't something I'm worried about. Impossible things happen enough that people know there are few things that actually are impossible.

And yeah, the magical-shunting-of-the-coins was the plan, and the item is going to be the center of a little sub-plot.