The most expensive nonmagical item

[Morph Bark]

The question is simple: what is it? And how much does it cost? Note that there should be an official price listing in gp in an official D&D book (or possibly in an issue of Dragon or Dungeon).


For bonus points (assuming Medium or Small character):
- the most expensive nonmagical armor
- the most expensive nonmagical shield
- the most expensive nonmagical two-handed weapon
- the most expensive nonmagical one-handed weapon
- the most expensive nonmagical light weapon
- the most expensive nonmagical clothes
- the most expensive nonmagical vehicle
- the most expensive mount (including training cost; up to Large size)
- the most expensive alchemical items

[Mithril Leaf]

I'd have to guess some form of special mechanus gear, maybe adamantine or glassteel?

[Siosilvar]

A piece of art or gemstone of arbitrary value.

...discounting that, I'm not sure.

[Khosan]

Ignoring arbitrarily large amounts of various precious metals, I'm pretty sure it's a Galley (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#transport). Thirty thousand gold for an exceptionally large boat.

If you're looking for an item as in something you can carry around, Spyglass is also ludicrously expensive at a thousand gold.

[eggs]

A stronghold the size of a small moon?

[Mithril Leaf]

Ignoring arbitrarily large amounts of various precious metals, I'm pretty sure it's a Galley (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#transport). Thirty thousand gold for an exceptionally large boat.

If you're looking for an item as in something you can carry around, Spyglass is also ludicrously expensive at a thousand gold.

What would be the DC to craft a Galley? I've always been curious for greater fabricate purposes.

[Lonely Tylenol]

A castle is, I believe, 1,000,000 gp or 2,500,000 gp (DMG I or II, can't remember which off-hand).

[Khosan]

What would be the DC to craft a Galley? I've always been curious for greater fabricate purposes.

I'm thinking about it now.

Going off the Craft rules, I'd assume we can apply the rules for getting something done more quickly in the reverse, underachieving taking longer. So [Craft Check] * [DC] = [Cost in silver] / [Number of Weeks Required]. Can't fail the DC by 4 or more either. It's mostly guess and check.

Assuming one reasonably intelligent trained shipbuilder taking 10 (a check of 15-16) and around a hundred unskilled workers using Aid Another to help him out (about 55 will succeed per week), we have a combined Craft(Boat) check of 125, so the DC needs to be about 128, in which case building the Galley would take a little under 19 weeks to complete. Much longer with fewer people.

[Eldan]

Yeah, you probably can't beat buildings.

[The Redwolf]

Airships are pretty expensive aren't they? Or do they count as magical?

[Kelb_Panthera]

I'd guess that most airships would count as magical.

Ignoring buildings, I think glassteel, dwarvencraft, mountain plate would be on up there at 28,550gp for a suit of armor.

Bonus points: it's a transparent medium armor with a non-magical 13 armor bonus. Too bad it costs as much as a town house. :smalltongue:

[Morph Bark]

Yeah, you probably can't beat buildings.

I don't count buildings as items, FYI. Vehicles maybe. Worn and carried equipment definitely.

[Kelb_Panthera]

What would be the DC to craft a Galley? I've always been curious for greater fabricate purposes.

According to stormwrack, you can't build a galley by yourself and it's construction isn't covered by craft (boatbuilder.) You can however build what's called a pinnace. A gargantuan two-masted sailing vessel, with a crew of about 15 men.

Edit: oops, forgot the dc. It's a DC 20 craft (boatbuilder) check.

[Invader]

My vote would be for an airship. IIRC only the bound elemental is technically magic and its not so much a magic item as it as just a spell placed on the elemental which wouldn't cost that much to have cast anyway.

[The-Mage-King]

A zeppelin (A&EG) springs to mind. Ideally, you ward it against detection spells in a non-magical manner, too. :smalltongue:



Bad puns aside, the non-practical, non-magical item that costs the most is the Nautilus in the Arms and Equipment guide, ringing up at 250k gp.

[Marnath]

I'd guess that most airships would count as magical.

Ignoring buildings, I think glassteel, dwarvencraft, mountain plate would be on up there at 28,550gp for a suit of armor.

Bonus points: it's a transparent medium armor with a non-magical 13 armor bonus. Too bad it costs as much as a town house. :smalltongue:

Mountain plate never counts as less than heavy even when it's made of mithral or glassteel.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Mountain plate never counts as less than heavy even when it's made of mithral or glassteel.

You're right. It's still god-awful expensive and not-a-vehicle, though. :smallbiggrin:

[Kelb_Panthera]

My vote would be for an airship. IIRC only the bound elemental is technically magic and its not so much a magic item as it as just a spell placed on the elemental which wouldn't cost that much to have cast anyway.

This is just not true. MoE gives the rules for binding an elemental into the complex arcane matrix that is built into the ship. The only reason I didn't say that airships are magical with certainty, is that there are airships that don't come from eberron that are possibly non-magical. A&EG has a couple, I think.

Sorry for the double post.

[roguemetal]

Living Coral armor from Stormrack costs 16,000. Make it masterworked with mastrwork armorspikes, and made of adamantium for a cost of 31,600. Increase its size and make it for a non-humanoid creature and the cost multiplies. For a Huge Bear, it would cost 128,650. For a Collossal Dragon it would cost 512,650. Might be more depending on whether or not I'm supposed to multiply the cost of the enhancements, but I can't find rules clarification on that anywhere...

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A masterwork composite longbow. There's no limit to the Str allowance you can put on it, and each point adds 100 gp to its price. Make a bow with a nine billion Str bonus allowance, and it costs a hundred times that.

[boj0]

Elegance in simplicity :smallbiggrin:

[wadledo]

There was a suit of fantasy power armor that was pretty expensive, wasn't there?

[Sgt. Cookie]

Do you mean that clockwork thing in one of the online supplements?

[wadledo]

Do you mean that clockwork thing in one of the online supplements?

Yes, yes I do.

[Ksheep]

Living Coral armor from Stormrack costs 16,000. Make it masterworked with mastrwork armorspikes, and made of adamantium for a cost of 31,600. Increase its size and make it for a non-humanoid creature and the cost multiplies. For a Huge Bear, it would cost 128,650. For a Collossal Dragon it would cost 512,650. Might be more depending on whether or not I'm supposed to multiply the cost of the enhancements, but I can't find rules clarification on that anywhere...

You can't make living coral out of Adamantium. It isn't originally metal (a requirement, if I recall, for it to me Adamantium).

Have you tried a Greatship? 60,000 GP.

[Temotei]

Living Coral armor from Stormrack costs 16,000. Make it masterworked with mastrwork armorspikes, and made of adamantium for a cost of 31,600. Increase its size and make it for a non-humanoid creature and the cost multiplies. For a Huge Bear, it would cost 128,650. For a Collossal Dragon it would cost 512,650. Might be more depending on whether or not I'm supposed to multiply the cost of the enhancements, but I can't find rules clarification on that anywhere...

Since size continues rising arbitrarily after Colossal, you could say Colossal++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ and so on until forever to get nigh-infinite gold costs.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I can squeeze a little more out of that armor. Dwarven craft glassteel mountain plate; with quick don straps, riding straps and dwarvencraft net-cutter spikes; would cost 29,700 gp.

In addition to being ludicrously expensive, it's something a pc with a poor sense of monetary value could conceivable buy. Though the same PC -might- be foolish enough to buy the same, sans riding straps, for his mount. That would cost 118,000 to armor a heavy war-horse.

I really don't think you can do much better without buying a vehicle or real-estate, unless you wanna get into shennanigans.

[Mithril Leaf]

I'm thinking about it now.

Going off the Craft rules, I'd assume we can apply the rules for getting something done more quickly in the reverse, underachieving taking longer. So [Craft Check] * [DC] = [Cost in silver] / [Number of Weeks Required]. Can't fail the DC by 4 or more either. It's mostly guess and check.

Assuming one reasonably intelligent trained shipbuilder taking 10 (a check of 15-16) and around a hundred unskilled workers using Aid Another to help him out (about 55 will succeed per week), we have a combined Craft(Boat) check of 125, so the DC needs to be about 128, in which case building the Galley would take a little under 19 weeks to complete. Much longer with fewer people.

Just was reading through the A&EG for items. Turns out to make a Masterwork Vehicle with 150+ passengers is only a DC 30 check. I thought it should have been higher too, but eh.

[Ksheep]

Just was reading through the A&EG for items. Turns out to make a Masterwork Vehicle with 150+ passengers is only a DC 30 check. I thought it should have been higher too, but eh.

Depends on whether you're going off of A&EG (3E) or Stormwrack (3.5) for vehicle creation DCs. Granted, how often does something like that come up in game?

[Mithril Leaf]

Depends on whether you're going off of A&EG (3E) or Stormwrack (3.5) for vehicle creation DCs. Granted, how often does something like that come up in game?

When you're using a Skin Of Proteus to turn into a yacht?

[Logic]

I'd guess that most airships would count as magical.

Ignoring buildings, I think glassteel, dwarvencraft, mountain plate would be on up there at 28,550gp for a suit of armor.

Bonus points: it's a transparent medium armor with a non-magical 13 armor bonus. Too bad it costs as much as a town house. :smalltongue:

Obdurium (from stronghold builder's guidebook) costs TWICE what Adamantine would cost. +30,000 for heavy armor.

[legomaster00156]

The whole world would be fairly expensive. This is why you have a Rogue to create forgeries legally signing the world over to your possession.

[Invader]

This is just not true. MoE gives the rules for binding an elemental into the complex arcane matrix that is built into the ship. The only reason I didn't say that airships are magical with certainty, is that there are airships that don't come from eberron that are possibly non-magical. A&EG has a couple, I think.

Sorry for the double post.

That's why I said if I recall correctly, bc the ECS doesnt go into a lot of detail :smallamused:

Regardless, a string argument could be made for one the airships without the magical components being included. A million dollar yacht is still worth a lot of money with an engine :smallwink:

[roguemetal]

This is why you have a Rogue to create forgeries legally signing the world over to your possession.

This is a good point.
A Deed can be traveled with, and the property it's attached to can well exceed any value so far expressed.

[Slipperychicken]

A deed proclaiming your rightful ownership of everything, which is rigorously enforced by one of those unstatted entities.


EDIT: Swordsaged by just a few seconds.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Obdurium (from stronghold builder's guidebook) costs TWICE what Adamantine would cost. +30,000 for heavy armor.

Don't have that book. I've been meaning to pick it up, but there are so many I still want.

Adjust the armor by +5000 for 34,700 and the barding by +20,000 for 138,000. How much would obdurium mountain plate weigh? Obdurium sounds heavy.

[Morph Bark]

My vote would be for an airship. IIRC only the bound elemental is technically magic and its not so much a magic item as it as just a spell placed on the elemental which wouldn't cost that much to have cast anyway.

I'd presume that in an anti-magic field the elemental would be suppressed and thus the airship would lose its flight.


A zeppelin (A&EG) springs to mind. Ideally, you ward it against detection spells in a non-magical manner, too. :smalltongue:

Bad puns aside, the non-practical, non-magical item that costs the most is the Nautilus in the Arms and Equipment guide, ringing up at 250k gp.

While I didn't get the pun, it looks like this one is a winner for most expensive vehicle! (Then again, I never saw any prices for the airships, but those might not be completely nonmagical.)


Ignoring buildings, I think glassteel, dwarvencraft, mountain plate would be on up there at 28,550gp for a suit of armor.

Living Coral armor from Stormrack costs 16,000. Make it masterworked with mastrwork armorspikes, and made of adamantium for a cost of 31,600. Increase its size and make it for a non-humanoid creature and the cost multiplies. For a Huge Bear, it would cost 128,650. For a Collossal Dragon it would cost 512,650. Might be more depending on whether or not I'm supposed to multiply the cost of the enhancements, but I can't find rules clarification on that anywhere...

Obdurium (from stronghold builder's guidebook) costs TWICE what Adamantine would cost. +30,000 for heavy armor.

Since living coral armor cannot be made adamantine, that would be a no-go. Also, let's assume we're talking reasonably playable races in your average campaign, so Medium size. Possibly equipment for a mount of one size larger (otherwise we could just as well buy dwarvencraft glassteel armor for a soarwhale).

I wasn't aware obdurium could be used for armor though. Curious. My armies will forevermore reside on the backs of soarwhales in dwarvencraft obdurium mountain plate.


A masterwork composite longbow. There's no limit to the Str allowance you can put on it, and each point adds 100 gp to its price. Make a bow with a nine billion Str bonus allowance, and it costs a hundred times that.

Clever. :smalltongue:


Since size continues rising arbitrarily after Colossal, you could say Colossal++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ and so on until forever to get nigh-infinite gold costs.

While it continues on arbitrarily, there aren't any published monsters who are standardly above Colossal++ (and those are Epic dragons). Let's disregard items of potentially infinite cost for the purposes of this.


The whole world would be fairly expensive. This is why you have a Rogue to create forgeries legally signing the world over to your possession.

Sounds good to me. Please give the exact listed price of the whole world and cite D&D splatbook and page you got it from. :smalltongue:

[TuggyNE]

I'd presume that in an anti-magic field the elemental would be suppressed and thus the airship would lose its flight.

Surprisingly, this doesn't happen: Eberron airships are propelled and steered by their bound elementals, but lifted by (Ex) alchemical soarwood. (A handy safety feature, undoubtedly.)

[Sgt. Cookie]

"Depending on the campaign world, the world is worth different amounts. As a result, only DM adjucation can decide the value of the world."

The BSers handbook, page 42.

[GenghisDon]

The question is simple: what is it? And how much does it cost?

massive, oriental style castle-city? cost: millions+

[Ksheep]

Bad puns aside, the non-practical, non-magical item that costs the most is the Nautilus in the Arms and Equipment guide, ringing up at 250k gp.

But isn't the Nautilus also propelled by a bound elemental, increasing it's price and (arguably) making it "magical"?

Oh, and for those people suggesting making Mountain Plate out of various expensive metals, I thought Mountain Plate was made of stone, and thus not eligible for the whole "make it out of a tougher metal". Battle Plate, on the other hand…

[Morph Bark]

But isn't the Nautilus also propelled by a bound elemental, increasing it's price and (arguably) making it "magical"?

As explained earlier in the thread, bound elementals are kind of an edge case with regards to this.

[Kelb_Panthera]

But isn't the Nautilus also propelled by a bound elemental, increasing it's price and (arguably) making it "magical"?

Oh, and for those people suggesting making Mountain Plate out of various expensive metals, I thought Mountain Plate was made of stone, and thus not eligible for the whole "make it out of a tougher metal". Battle Plate, on the other hand…

Bog-standard mountain plate is just a whole lot of steel. You're probably thinking of stone-plate since it's in the same book.

Mountain plate is an exotic armor comprised of many layers of steel bolted together. For a medium creature it costs 3250gp, before the inclusion of masterwork/dwarvencraft costs and special materials.

[Ksheep]

Bog-standard mountain plate is just a whole lot of steel. You're probably thinking of stone-plate since it's in the same book.

Mountain plate is an exotic armor comprised of many layers of steel bolted together. For a medium creature it costs 3250gp, before the inclusion of masterwork/dwarvencraft costs and special materials.

Ah, right. Mixing up my Exotic Dwarven Armors again. Ignore that previous statement…

[nedz]

The Setting's equivalent of Helen+Paris :smallbiggrin:

What ? Not that sort of item, still: 1,000 ships, a 10 year war and a city razed is quite expensive.

[Mithril Leaf]

The most expensive mount is probably the battletitan, not technically of large size, but intended for medium riders.

[Morph Bark]

The most expensive mount is probably the battletitan, not technically of large size, but intended for medium riders.

Hmmm, got a point there. I've updated the first post with some more points of interest, so I'll edit the mount part. Do you happen to know how expensive a battletitan is? Is there even some sort of formula to calculate costs for creatures that don't have specific costs?

[Ksheep]

Not sure about the Battletitan (not even sure what book it's from), but looking through the A&EG, found that a Couatl costs 20,000 GP for an egg, plus 2,000 for training. Dragon can potentially cost more, but that is quite variable depending on the setting (as the good book says, there is no open market for dragon eggs).

EDIT: Found the cost of a Battletitan. 100,000 GP for an egg, and it really can't be trained…
As for trainable mounts, it looks like the Steelwing takes the cake, at 20,000 GP for an egg and 10,000 GP for training.

[Logic]

I wasn't aware obdurium could be used for armor though. Curious. My armies will forevermore reside on the backs of soarwhales in dwarvencraft obdurium mountain plate.



Obdurium is an incredibly rare and hard metal that represents the pinnacle of nonmagical wall strength. Weapons and armor crafted from obdurium are treated as adamantine, except for the stats such as hardness, hit points, and price.Other details include that it is a pale violet color, where adamantine is described as a pale green. So, as long as you are fine with fielding purple-clad armies, go ahead. Or you could spend more money to change its color. :smalltongue:

Don't have that book. I've been meaning to pick it up, but there are so many I still want.

Adjust the armor by +5000 for 34,700 and the barding by +20,000 for 138,000. How much would obdurium mountain plate weigh? Obdurium sounds heavy.SBG says it Obdurium weighs the same as adamantine.

[Spuddles]

A moat costs 50,000gp according to stronghold builder's guide, which is hilarious.


Since size continues rising arbitrarily after Colossal, you could say Colossal++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ and so on until forever to get nigh-infinite gold costs.

Not by RAW it doesn't.

[Rubik]

A moat costs 50,000gp according to stronghold builder's guide, which is hilarious.Or a couple of castings of Move Earth or a few Summon Monster spells for some burrowers.

I'm constantly amazed at how much a few simple spells apparently cost when they're applied to architecture. My shaper is totally going to invest in some Knowledge: Architecture & Engineering.

[The-Mage-King]

While I didn't get the pun, it looks like this one is a winner for most expensive vehicle! (Then again, I never saw any prices for the airships, but those might not be completely nonmagical.

You.... But... How...

:smallsigh:

What's the easiest way to protect yourself from detect X spells?

[Ksheep]

You.... But... How...

:smallsigh:

What's the easiest way to protect yourself from detect X spells?

You mean second easiest. Easiest would probably be just kill the guy casting it :smalltongue:

[Kelb_Panthera]

You.... But... How...

:smallsigh:

What's the easiest way to protect yourself from detect X spells?

The RAW answer is a thin sheet of lead, but I suspect you're going for a joke here. and so,

I don't know. What is the easiest way to protect yourself from a detect X spell? :smallamused:

[Rubik]

The RAW answer is a thin sheet of lead, but I suspect you're going for a joke here. and so,I prefer LED myself.

[Ksheep]

The RAW answer is a thin sheet of lead, but I suspect you're going for a joke here. and so,

I don't know. What is the easiest way to protect yourself from a detect X spell? :smallamused:

Oh, definitely lead. Of course, if you used this to protect your Zeppelin, you'd have…

[Rubik]

Oh, definitely lead. Of course, if you used this to protect your Zeppelin, you'd have…...a really heavy paperweight.

[Khosan]

A moat costs 50,000gp according to stronghold builder's guide, which is hilarious.

Shouldn't a moat's cost depend on how large it is and how much needs to be dug out?

[Spuddles]

Shouldn't a moat's cost depend on how large it is and how much needs to be dug out?

You'd think so.

[Ksheep]

...a really heavy paperweight.

Try this (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/lead-balloon.html). Also, Mythbusters tried it once, managed to get it to work.

EDIT: Also, this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin)…

[Kelb_Panthera]

Oh, definitely lead. Of course, if you used this to protect your Zeppelin, you'd have…

A kick-ass rock band. :smallbiggrin:

It's a bit of a groaner, but not a bad joke I guess.

[Morph Bark]

You.... But... How...

:smallsigh:

What's the easiest way to protect yourself from detect X spells?

I did figure you meant something with lead, but my mind went like "how is 'lead-painted zeppelin a pun?" :smalltongue:

Awfully enough, Led Zeppelin did come to mind later, but I didn't connect the dots. Your pun wasn't so much a pun as it was a pun hidden behind a reference hidden inside of a joke. :smallwink: