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TRM
2007-03-26, 08:30 PM
When designing a new suit of armor with spell-like abilities(granted to the wielder), how should one go about pricing it? (the market price, not the creation price) When attempting to follow the guidelines presented on table 7-33 in the DMG I came up with a price that was ridiculously expensive.
I looked at Plate Armor of the Deep and tried to figure out the pricing on that. But according to my (probably flawed) calculations I decided that it should cost about 84,000gp instead of its listed 24,650.

Help please

does that first part make sense?:smallredface:

PinkysBrain
2007-03-26, 08:54 PM
+1 full plate, 2650. Continuous tongues, 3*5*2000*1.5 ... lets say 75% discount for only working with water breathing creatures, so 11.25K. Continuous waterbreathing, 3*5*2000, so 30K. The swim thing is not a big deal, lets just call that 1K. Let's ignore the enhancement bonus as far as multiple abilities goes ... total price : 2650 + 30K + 16.8K + 1.5K ~ 50K.

Yep, it doesn't follow the guidelines very closely ... it's because the abilities aren't all that powerful or synergistic.

OzymandiasVolt
2007-03-26, 09:04 PM
As has been said before (a great many times, in fact) the pricing guidelines in the DMG are ONLY a guideline, not a hard and fast set of rules. Ultimately the price must be adjudicated by the DM based on his evaluation of the item's balance, taking into account various factors such as its impact on gameplay and the abilities of similar items. The guideline is just usually a good place to start.

TRM
2007-03-27, 08:16 AM
Thanks for the input.

Person_Man
2007-03-27, 09:30 AM
Talk to the DM. Most DMs will give you a steep discount on any plot enabling device.

Also, don't bother with the cost of contunous magic items unless you seriously need to use them all day. 3 times per day is much cheaper, and in most cases, you won't have more then 3 non-combat encounters per game day that require the use of a single magic item.

henebry
2007-03-27, 10:03 AM
I suspect Plate Armor of the Deep is specially priced because (beyond its enhancement bonuses) all its abilities do nothing more than enable an air-breathing PC to operate normally in a different environment. But I do wish that the DMG (or some other supplement) came with detailed explanations for how they arrived at the prices they employ.

By contrast, the MM has a coherent system for everything (skills, feats, etc.) with the notable exception of CR. With CR, as with magic item pricing, we're left guessing (and with the impression that the prices and CRs provided by the authors are themselves little more than guesses).

Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick
2007-03-27, 10:15 AM
I'd go with what you seem to be doing- comparing it to items with similar effects...however, in this case, when I say 'similar effects' I mean an item that duplicates the same spell, or one with a similar spell effect- not an item that just grants a spell-like ability.

I'd also, however, compare it to the price (in material components/XP/time) of the spell it duplicates, if it's a potent one.

But in the end, just consider how useful it is to the character that's going to use it: a suit of full plate that grants the spell-like ability to cast a powerful cleric buff, say, Bull's Strength or Righteous Might, is very useful to an armored character, especially a cleric- so if you've got one of those in your party, price it pretty high.

Then again, if you don't, price it low; but if your party leader is a rogue, instead, and it's a light armor that grants, say, Glibness or Cat's Grace, up goes the price again.

High utility raises price.
Direct benefit to the character in most/all situations raises price.
Synergy with the character's abilities should, too.

Lower it if it requires a sacrifice (say, higher armor check for a stealthy character), is only useful in some circumstances (such as the aformentioned armor of the deep) or is in competition with some more obviously beneficial armor (such as +4 fortification full plate; a fighter finds more AC easier to want than a spell-like ability).

PinkysBrain
2007-03-27, 11:04 AM
By contrast, the MM has a coherent system for everything (skills, feats, etc.) with the notable exception of CR. With CR, as with magic item pricing, we're left guessing (and with the impression that the prices and CRs provided by the authors are themselves little more than guesses).
How could it be anything else?

If you run into a bunch of archers in a 20x20 foot room they are toast, if you run into a bunch of archers hidden on top of a cliff top waiting to ambush you you are toast. It's all way to dependent on independent factors.

That said, I have no trouble allowing fixed formulas for spell based magic items ... it's not that hard to get access spells through UMD / multiclassing / spellstoring / etc. If the item is problematic so is probably the spell with the right build. If I run a campaign I'll probably allow research on magic items, using a formula to set the upper bound of the price ... and give discounts as I see fit.