Item Creation Confusion

[RegalKain]

Ok so, I'm statting up an NPC to go with the party, and that made me go over the wonderful task of eternal wands/continuous items. Which made me re-think something.

I have a friend who is in the game with us. He has an Artificer with a Dedicated Wright (We haven't started yet mind you, so it's all still up in the air.) He wanted more or less Anklets of Translocation, except he wants to be able to use them an unlimited number of times per day.

This is where the math gets rather confusing, at least for me personally. Standard Ankelts of Translocation Cost 1400 GP, that number makes no sense to me. Or I'm missing a big step (Which I probably am.) In the item creation process. That big step might help me to alleviate other issues I'm having.

Standard math on that would be. Spell Level (4th) * Caster Level (7th) * 2000 GP (Swift Activation) = 56,000 * 0.4 (Two charges a day) =22,400

I realize it's no where even close to what the Standard spell of Dimension Door does, which is where I'm having issues finding a solution. As I can't find what it being taken away to get the low cost. (That being a limitation on a spell. ) If someone could point me to this that'd be superb as I can't seem to find it anywhere. Which means making an item like Anklets of Translocation is impossible, at least for the price they list them at.

The aforementioned player (after calculating his 3 feats fromt he Eberron book.) said that Anklets of Translocation (An equivalent item) that was use at will (Unlimited times per day) was only 10K this price seemed exceptionally....wrong to me. He then cited a discussion on GITP which said that making very limited uses of the spell could reduce cost but I can't personally find anything on that anywhere.

So help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[KillianHawkeye]

Sorry, but there are no rules for pricing custom magic items. There are only guidelines. Prices of published magic items will quite frequently not match any of the equations.

If the price you come up with when using the guidelines seems like too much or too little for the effects granted, you as the DM are supposed to ad hoc a more appropriate cost for the item.

[Slipperychicken]

The item creation guidelines (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm#) explicitly say they don't always work, and DMs are to exercise discretion in pricing custom items.


tl;dr: The rules say to use your judgement.

[Spuddles]

DMG magic items fall fairly well within the guidelines lined out therein. MIC purposefully underprices many of their items because no one would buy them otherwise.

MIC is basically a magic item "fix" for all the craptastic, extremely expensive items in other books. The reason they did this is so characters, especially the more mundane ones, have lots of interesting, useful, affordable items to choose from.

That doesn't really answer your OP, but there you go.

[RegalKain]

Thanks for the input guys. :)

I was pretty damn tired last night when writing that post, have been working on a high-level campaign that plans to go Epic for the past week. As our last Campaign abruptly ended thanks to four critical fumbles in a row. ;o;

Was trying to get some interesting loot, a decent NPC/Tank to go with the party as well as some quest items done. Had players asking the general price of X item for X special effect and the prices I was coming up with seemed really poor.

Thanks again for solving my issues GITP I'd be lost without you, even when I don't post a question I can usually find an answer on these boards. :)
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