Runestaff pricing

[Cybris75]

Hello fellow playgrounders,

I can't seem to be able to reconstruct the prices for runestaffs from the MIC. Two examples:

Runestaff of Abjuration:

Dismissal 3/day
Dispel Magic 3/day
Lesser Globe of Invulnerability 3/day
Repulsion 3/day
Resist Energy 3/day
Shield 3/day

The highest-level spell is repulsion, so that costs fully. I get the following prices:

Dismissal 5*5*200=5000
Dispel Magic 3*3*200=1800
Lesser Globe of Invulnerability 4*4*200=3200
Repulsion 6*6*400=14400
Resist Energy 2*2*200=800
Shield 1*1*200=200

This adds up to 25400 gp. MIC says on page 176 that the staff is priced at 32000 gp.
Caster level doesn't matter for the price, and I guess the staff is at 12 instead of 11 because it was crafted by a sorcerer.


Runestaff of Earth and Stone:

Move Earth 3/day
Passwall 3/day

Move Earth 6*6*400=14400
Passwall 5*5*200=5000

This adds up to 19400 gp. MIC says 24000 gp on page 178.


Can someone help me understand the price of the items? What am I missing?

[Temotei]

The middle number is caster level, meaning the level a full casting class that gains new spell levels at odd levels would have to be:

1st-level spells: 1st
2nd-level: 3rd
3rd: 5th
4th: 7th
5th: 9th
6th: 11th
7th: 13th
8th: 15th
9th: 17th

So dispel magic would be 3*5*1800 (I think runestaves are command word-activated, right?), all divided by 5/3 = ~16,200 gp. I think I did that right. That doesn't factor in the "multiply lower item cost by 1.5" part.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Runestaff pricing has absolutely nothing to do with caster level. They're activate with your own spell slots, at your own caster level, they just grant a spell known for a limited number of uses/day.

The premade runestaffs in MIC are simply priced incorrectly. I'd guess that they were designed with an earlier set of runestaff pricing guidelines, and then the runestaff pricing was revised to what was printed on p224 but the premade examples did not get their pricing fixed. It's nothing less than sloppy editing, and there's nothing stopping you from getting a custom Runestaff of Move Earth and Passwall at the correct price instead of the Runestaff of Earth and Stone at the inflated price.

[Cybris75]

The middle number is caster level,

The MIC says on page 224:


To set the price of a runestaff, multiply the level of the highest-level spell by itself, then by 400gp. For each additional spell in the runestaff, squae that spell's level and multiply it by 200 gp.

That's not it :-(

[Cybris75]

The premade runestaffs in MIC are simply priced incorrectly.

Hmpf, frustrating. Thank you. I guess WOTC's lack of editing is legendary.
On the same page that I quoted above they say the lowest-level spell in a runestaff should be level 3, and then construct an example with a level 1 spell in the next few paragraphs :smallfurious:

[Temotei]

Runestaff pricing has absolutely nothing to do with caster level. They're activate with your own spell slots, at your own caster level, they just grant a spell known for a limited number of uses/day.

Yeah, just looked them up again. I haven't used them. Ever. Forgot. Derp. :smalltongue:

[DR27]

Hmpf, frustrating. Thank you. I guess WOTC's lack of editing is legendary.
On the same page that I quoted above they say the lowest-level spell in a runestaff should be level 3, and then construct an example with a level 1 spell in the next few paragraphs :smallfurious:I always assumed it was poor editing, and what they meant was that highest level spell contained within should not be below level 3.