Pricing Soulmelds

[Fable Wright]

I'm building a campaign setting for a game I'm planning right now, and I've come across a dilemma.

One of the aspects of the setting that I wanted to include is semi-permanent enchantments that characters can purchase, rather than magic items; magic items currently only exist as relics, and new ones can't be created, for setting reasons. I don't want to shackle the party with having to uncover all of their items, or having to search through the results of other expeditions for magic items, though, and have some items that they know they have access to, that would give the setting unique flavor. To this end, I remembered soulmelds, and thought that they would be a good way to add magical options to the party to take item slots or be permanent buffs that party members could purchase, instead of magic items. I'm thinking of having soulmelds being crafted onto chakras with an unchangeable amount of essentia built into them, with the option to later purchase more essentia for the items (which can't be re-allocated). I'm running into a few problems with this, however. First off, how much should they cost? Going by the pricing from the bonus feat locations (e.g. Otyugh Hole) it would cost 3,000gp for a basic Soulmeld (and a person can only have one soulmeld not attached to a chakra available this way if they aren't a meldshaper), another 3,000 to attach it to a chakra, and then 1500 to add each point of essentia. The only question I have is whether or not to make it cost more to attach it to a Lesser chakra or Greater chakra like Shoulders or Waist, less to attach it to Least chakras, whether the pricing on the base soulmeld is right (since it can be dispelled, in which case it can't be reformed until you head back to base), and whether the price for additional essentia is worth it.

Do you think this is fair pricing? How would you modify it? Do you think that the price should start low for one soulmeld, and then increase for each additional one? If so, how much should I raise it by?

Also, as a sidenote: This is for an E10 setting. Should I just disallow Lesser and Greater chakra binds, despite Manticore Belt being one of the few good ways to get flight in this system?

(I know this is technically homebrew, but since it's mostly dealing with investing WBL and an already established subsystem, I think it would be better suited to this forum.)

[Story]

The cost of feats from extraordinary locations varies wildly, since of course not all feats are equal.

Frog God's Fane costs 2k while the Crown of Thieves costs 6k!

[Person_Man]

So some soulmelds and chakra binds only grant minor abilities which are comparable to low level spells or magic items. Other soulmelds grant dramatically useful/powerful abilities, which provide the Incarnate and Totemist unique-ish abilities. (Although the Incarnate's best soulmelds all require a high meldshaper level and/or essentia capacity as well).

So my suggestion is that you not allow them as magic items. Or if you do, price each one individually based on the effect it grants.

[Fable Wright]

So some soulmelds and chakra binds only grant minor abilities which are comparable to low level spells or magic items. Other soulmelds grant dramatically useful/powerful abilities, which provide the Incarnate and Totemist unique-ish abilities. (Although the Incarnate's best soulmelds all require a high meldshaper level and/or essentia capacity as well).

So my suggestion is that you not allow them as magic items. Or if you do, price each one individually based on the effect it grants.

Assume, for a moment, that I'm going to go through with this. Are there any soulmelds with a Least (Feet, Crown, Hands) soulbind that are so unique that they can't be allowed? Perhaps Soulspark Familiar and Necrocarnum Circlet, but they don't seem to be overpowering effects or so unique that they can't be granted to melee. There are inherent limits in the system; one soulmeld that isn't attached to a chakra, and the rest have little to no essentia invested in them. If we allow only Least Chakra binds to be bought, would you say that the pricing should be different for each soulmeld and chakra bind feat? Or would a cost of 2k for a soulmeld (limited to 1 not attached to a Chakra) and a flat cost of 4 or 5k to attach one to a Least Chakra be too powerful?

[rot42]

I love the Incarnum subsystem, but for your purposes I think you would be better off going the other way - retool some magic items and call them soulmelds. The prices for equivalent items vary wildly, so bespoke pricing is a must for your scheme - you are not really going to be saving any effort by doing it this way.

A few basic melds with no essentia invested:

Adamant Pauldrons: light Fortification; +1 armor
Diadem of Purelight: Continual Flame on a burnt out ioun stone with a minor skill bump; 535 gp
Disenchanter Mask: at-will cantrip; 900 gp
Flame Cincture: energy resistance 10; 12,000 gp
Keeneye Lenses: +4 Spot; 1600 gp
Necrocarnum Shroud: conditional +1 att/dmg, should be active most of the time so only a minor discount is in order.
Threefold Mask of the Chimera: most of Ocular; +2 armor
Wormtail Belt: +2 natural armor


On a bright side, pretty much all of the soulmelds have a roughly equivalent existing magic item for comparison pricing. There are a few that grant abilities that are otherwise difficult to come by (constant concealment, weak spell resistance, at will short range teleportation), but I do not see anything that should not be available from items; it further blurs the already blurry distinction between class abilities and magic item abilities, though. The Threefold Mask of the Chimera (extra actions), Shedu Crown (large telepathy), and Sphinx Claws (pounce with natural weapons) might require additional scrutiny depending on the playstyle at your table.

You do have other options that might give your setting the desired feel, though. You can give everyone the Kensai ability to enchant, and describe it as skill and inner fire rather than traditional magic items. You can use and expand upon the Bonded Magic Items rules in DMG II (p 231). You could even weld an Incarnate's soulmeld/essentia/soulbind table onto existing classes as a pseudo-gestalt.

[Person_Man]

Are there any soulmelds with a Least (Feet, Crown, Hands) soulbind that are so unique that they can't be allowed? Perhaps Soulspark Familiar and Necrocarnum Circlet, but they don't seem to be overpowering effects or so unique that they can't be granted to melee.

No soulmeld is so powerful or unique that you can't give them to melee characters. It's that they'd be more useful and interesting then other Feats/magic items that low level players could normally get access to, unless you're pricing them correctly.

Soulspark Familiar has Fast Healing, and thus if you have a Vampiric weapon, it basically grants unlimited out of combat healing. Not a huge deal.

Necrocarnum Circlet bound to Crown gives you a continuous infinitely replacable Necrocarnum Zombie. It's hit die is limited by your Incarnate meldshaper level, which means that it's not that big of a deal for non-Incarnates, but it's still very useful for pretty much anyone, in that it grants a permanent minion to open doors, "disable" traps, stand in the way of enemies, ride as a mount, etc.

Shedu Crown grants immunity to Bull Rush, and grants Telepathy when bound to Crown chaka, which in turn grants access to Mindsight. Again, not game breaking. But a low level player with Telepathy and Mindsight "breaks" many types of plots/encouters in that he always knows what living creatures are thinking and where they're located (within 100 ft) - so it's really hard to deceive players, ambush them, etc.

Thunderstep Boots grants bonus damage and Save or Stun on Charge attacks.

Sphinx Claws grants a minor Str check bonus, and when bound to Hands grants Pounce with natural weapons.

Totemist soulmelds in general can grant 1 or 2 natural weapons, which is not a big deal, unless you have a lot of them.

Incarnate soulmelds in general can grant pretty much any defense - Spell Resistance, Miss Chance, retributive damage, bonus hit points, Save bonuses, etc, but need essentia and essentia capacity to be useful, so they're not a big deal unless your soulmeld magic items come with that.

There's probably a few others I'm forgetting, but you get the gist. Also, it's worth mentioning that giving away their class features as magic items makes playing a Totemist or Incarnate.