Rechargeable magic items

[ayvango]

There are items that have fixed charges. After you have used all of them you can only dispose of them. There are at will items but they are generally broken. There are also daily rechargeable items, that have 1/day, 3/day charges and so on. The mechanism for computing prices for such items is described in the master book.

What I'm searching for is some kind of manual rechargeable items. They should work like daily rechargeable items, but a caster should sacrifice prepared spell (or slot for non-prepared casters) to replenish charges in the item. Such items should be cheaper than corresponding daily charged item because it requires a caster to spend spells. The items should also be more expensive than one-use items. And they definitly should be cheaper than pearls of power and rings of wizardry.

Have someone use such items in a compain? What rules have you set for them?

[Thurbane]

The Raiment of the Four (MIC p.203) works a little like this - they use a caster's spell slots or memorized spells to convert them into a fixed spell effect, up to 3/day (for most items).

[Jack_Simth]

What I'm searching for is some kind of manual rechargeable items. They should work like daily rechargeable items, but a caster should sacrifice prepared spell (or slot for non-prepared casters) to replenish charges in the item. Such items should be cheaper than corresponding daily charged item because it requires a caster to spend spells. The items should also be more expensive than one-use items. And they definitly should be cheaper than pearls of power and rings of wizardry.Well, in print, you've got:
1) The Pathfinder take on Staves (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/staves) is exactly what you seem to want.
2) The (Minor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#spellStoringMinor) / Major (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#spellStoringMajor))
3) [url=http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/artifacts.htm#staffoftheMagi]Staff of the Magi (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#spellStoring[Ring of Spell Storing[/url)
4) Spell Storing (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#spellStoring) weapons
5) Ring of Counterspells (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#counterspells)
6) In the Cursed Item Section's Requirement table (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/cursedItems.htm#requirement), there's a listed option for "Item must be cleansed with holy water each day." - which requires a spell slot and a bit of silver dust if you're doing it yourself.
7) Magic Item Compendium has Runestaves, which let you burn spell slots to cast other spells.
8) Complete Champion has the Domain Staff, which is essentially a divine Runestaff.

[sleepyphoenixx]

You can recharge items like wands and staffs by planar binding a Nishruu (Monsters of Faerun). Any magic item with charges that is in contact with the Nishruu when it dies gains 1d6 charges. It's only really useful for empty items since contact with a living one drains 1d4 charges/round instead.
Still, for items where you only use 1 charge/day it's pretty much free uses, forever.

There's also the Imbued Staff ACF & Recharge Magic feat (both Dr#338). You trade your familiar in exchange for binding a staff as your familiar and can then recharge it from your spellslots at 5 spell levels per charge.

Edit: Rings of Spell Storing are generally a bad idea since they always cast the stored spell at minimum CL, which is quite annoying considering their cost.

[Jack_Simth]

Edit: Rings of Spell Storing are generally a bad idea since they always cast the stored spell at minimum CL, which is quite annoying considering their cost.It's a problem, yes... but as long as you load it with spells where that's not particularly meaningful, it's not a big deal. OK, yes, you probably don't want to load it up with Fireballs, but unlimited Cure Minor Wounds (and other cantrips/osirons) during downtime, an emergency Heal to get the party healer back up and running in combat if needed, but there's a lot of utility spells where the specific caster level means very little - Fly, Spider Climb, and Silence to name a few.

[sleepyphoenixx]

It's a problem, yes... but as long as you load it with spells where that's not particularly meaningful, it's not a big deal. OK, yes, you probably don't want to load it up with Fireballs, but unlimited Cure Minor Wounds (and other cantrips/osirons) during downtime, an emergency Heal to get the party healer back up and running in combat if needed, but there's a lot of utility spells where the specific caster level means very little - Fly, Spider Climb, and Silence to name a few.

True enough, but they're incredibly overpriced for what they do. For the price of even the minor ring of spell storing you can get several eternal wands, glyph seals and similar items, which do essentially the same thing. You could buy regular wands of the situational utility spells for less money and get through several long campaigns before they're used up.
The higher level rings aren't even worth contemplating from a cost-benefit perspective.

The only people who can even slightly benefit from the rings of spell storing are non-casters that can't afford to get UMD, and they usually won't have that kind of cash to spend on what is, ultimately, a relatively minor benefit.

A lot of people have an almost instinctive aversion to anything that can be used up, but if you actually run the numbers you'll find that a regular charged item will be the cheaper option in a vast majority of the cases.

[goto124]

But rechargeable items are more environmently-friendly...

[ayvango]

I've discovered cheap green technology that gives your rechargeable carrier for touch spells. Arcane Hierophant obtains Channel Plant ability at 6th level. It allows to store spell inside a plant that would be triggered by touch. All your need are portable garden and some spell to prevent insects from touching charged plants. Very druidish.