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JackRackham
2013-07-06, 10:35 PM
I'm DMing a very nonstandard campaign here, so the MiC is out the window and I'm making some items completely outside the magic item creation guidelines. I'm still, however, using existing item prices and creation rules as a guide. With that in mind, here are some items I've already priced and a couple I'm stuck on. I'm hoping for suggestions on the latter, critiques on the former if I've missed something. If anyone has ideas for some cool magic items, I'll take those as well (I'm looking for interesting/versatile over powerful. I want items that are flavorful and/or encourage players to think outside the box.) I'll be adding things as I go.

*Corpse grafts: these are body parts that can be grafted onto living bodies for some benefit. There can be side effects (10% chance), but the benefits are not subject to dispelling.

- Drow eyes: 350gp + 2,500 installation fee per eye. These grant a drow's dark vision. Possible penalty to spot checks (-2).
- Ogre/Orc hands: 200gp+2,500 installation/hand. Grant ability to wield large/medium weapons. Possible penalty to Dex (-1).
- Eagle wings: 20,000+40,000 installation/set. Grants ability to fly. If anyone has a suggested side effect, or a suitably winged sapient donor (this setting is supposed to be just awful), that'd be awesome.
- Kobold teeth: 200+1,000gp installation/set. I'm not in live with Kobolds as the donor. I'm open to suggestion. Bonus if I can figure out a small and medium donor. These teeth cause near constant pain in humans and Demi-humans. Concentration penalty (-2)?
- Monkey Tail. This is the one I'm stuck on. This is a prehensile tail. What would a single extra hand (basically) be worth to you? I may limit the tail to a set STR and DEX score (8-10 STR? 12-14 DEX?).

Magic Items:

- Bread Stones: 300 gp. A bag yielding 20 1/2-inch diameter breadcrumbs/day. Once consumed, crumbs expand to 4-inch diameter stones weighing 50lbs apiece. The intended use is to catch birds, fish and rabbits for the night's meal. But I expect a player might find other uses.
- Grasshopper pendant: +35 to Jump check 1x/day (and no dmg on landing).
- Lord Vega's Lucky Dice: (3,000gp?) Two gilded six-sided dice. When rolled, the first die determines whom is summoned. Summons are former owners of the dice, trapped inside. The second determines the summons' disposition towards the party. An even number yields a loyal ally. An odd number yields a mortal enemy (of the dice's owner). The party is level five, so when I get home I'll put together a list of ECL 3-8 characters.
The dice want to be rolled, as those trapped inside wish to live once more. Once the dice have been used, the owner must pass a will save DC 10 + the number of times he's used the dice to resist rolling them in any encounter. If the owner tries to rid himself of the dice once he's held them in his hand, the dice will reappear in his pocket with 1d4 hours. Destroying the dice requires casting break enchantment on them and destroying as normal. If a summons kills its master, he disappears with all gear, trapped inside the dice. He can be brought back by rolling the dice until he is summoned, then destroying the dice before the summons is expired. The summons will try to prevent the dice' destruction. The new owner musty pass a will save DC 13+ level of summons, or try to prevent destruction of dice.

- Squeak ball: Bounces floor, to wall, to ceiling (etc, depending on throw) unendingly, squeaking on contact, until it hits a living creature. Does no damage (unless someone thinks to put exotics runes or something on it). 500gp.
- Magic Mouse: Seeks open air and/or safety, leaving tracks visible to its owner. Returns to pocket every night. 1,000gp.


Magic Weapons

-Aldwin's Curse: A black Maul with strange (abyssal) runes on the shaft and smiling demons at both ends of the head. This maul grants 2d6 negative energy damage per level of a sacrificed spell slot. As the name (and description) imply, however, it is cursed. This item will have no price (it will be found). I want to give the weapon a mechanical means of influencing the player towards evil, but without forcing it on him (ie, no dominate; eventually he'd surely fail his will save). I'm stumped as to how to pull this off.

Graytemplar
2013-07-06, 11:13 PM
I love seeing new item ideas, and expanding the list of grafts is definitely cool.

I'm far from perfect, but my opinions/suggestions are as follows.

-Drow Eyes: perfect, keep 'em just the way you have them.

-Hands: using oversized weapons is an easy way to make a character OP, not game breaking, but still considerably powerful. If they don't stack with anything else, make them cost just a little bit more.

-Wings: flight is IMO, one of the most overpriced, and underpowered when it comes to magic items with durations, items in 3.5. That being said, it really comes down to your players. If they want enhanced means of getting around, but aren't quite at teleport level, keep your listed price or knock it down a little. If they are a dungeoncrasher fighter looking to "charge people through the ground" make them expensive as you can.
As for wing side effects, make it based off of the donor, it'd be a cool reward for pcs if they could rip the wings off of, say, a roc, angel, phoenix, whathaveyou, and bring them on down to the local fleshwarper. Side effects would include cumbersome, making a player count as one size larger, but only when it works against them (kinda like an anti powerful build deal)

-Teeth: IIRC there is a warforged item that does essentially what you are shooting for here, just base your effects and price off of that?

-Tail: I swear that there is something like this in either MIC or SS, but I can't remember and am away from my books at the moment.

JackRackham
2013-07-07, 12:44 PM
Long-range teleport will be all-but-nonexistent in this world. This is kind of a post-apocalyptic place. All the Gods, demons, high-level mages, Elder Evils, etc engaged in a series of wars until few were left. Much of the world was destroyed and much knowledge was lost. Plane shift absolutely will not work, even though the Cleric will be able to cast it by default, as the structure of the planes themselves, and their connections with the material plane, have been damaged. Honestly, the party wizard will find scrolls and spell books very hard to come by in general and I always try to make overland flight, teleport and plane shift very hard to come by anyway. So I want it to be a little overpriced, but not prohibitively so.

Do you have any opinion at all on the newer stuff? Or do you have any ideas, or remember any past threads on new magic items?

Graytemplar
2013-07-07, 06:13 PM
well, I stand by my previous statements for base price, but it should definitely be influenced by setting. I'd take the base price decision, and then multiply that by anywhere between 50-250% depending on it's availability/your whim. If an item is made of a readily available material, e.g. the rubber ball would cost less if forests of rubber trees are common, etc.

I like the weapon idea, if it is obviously going to be evil, then let it whisper evil suggestions, "kill that puppy," "show no mercy,". If you are going for subtle, it might appear angelic at first, but demand, "execute all prisoners, once a criminal, always a criminal," or suggest after killing a corrupt king, "his line must be killed off, all of his evil family are also guilty," etc. As for as mechanical temptation? Maybe it's just a +1 weapon at first, doing something evil gives it the negative energy effect for 24 hrs and then needs to be refreshed for the gains to be available for the next 24 hours.

Kudaku
2013-07-07, 06:22 PM
The Pathfinder tiefling (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-tiefling) has an alternate racial trait called "prehensile tail", it might give you some ideas of what bonuses the tail item would give:
Many tieflings have tails, but some have long, flexible tails that can be used to carry items. While they cannot wield weapons with their tails, they can use them to retrieve small, stowed objects carried on their persons as a swift action.

JackRackham
2013-07-08, 02:42 AM
Love the suggestions, guys. Thank you. I think I'll do almost exactly that with the sword. Only the sword won't speak. The character will hear these whispers in his or her head, in their own voice. And whatever neat thing the sword does will be doubled for 24 hours after a significant act of evil.