Trying to price a magic item.

[Kol Korran]

So, one of my players is playing a sorceress, and I thought of giving him a special staff. (Note that staffs re somewhat different in PF than 3.5- they have only 10 charges tops, and you charge them by investing spells into them.)

The staff comes fro m magical artifact banner that inspires courage, and helps fight demons and such. The idea is that this is the basic item (for a 10th level character), which will grow in power somewhat, on the same lines though.

I've tried to do a hybrid of staff and rods, for the main reason that the character is Mythic, and with Wild Arcana she already has access to basically any spell on her list (Weird stuff, we're getting used to it), so we seek something different, and the player quite likes metamagic stuff.

So, here is what I think I have, I'm aiming at something the worth of 30-35,000 approximately. Does this hit the ball park, or is it too much?
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Staff of Valorous Wrath:

Constant powers:
- Valor: +4 against fear. can cast remove fear 3 times/ day
- Light in the darkness: sheds bright light in 20 ft, dim light in 40 feet. This is considered as a 3rd level spell, and the holder of the staff can dim it or relight it as a free action. The owner can spend one charge to extend the radius to 30/ 60 and heighten the light level to 4th. (Mainly for interaction with darkness spells and dispeling)
These powers are retained even if the staff has no charges left

Powers that use charges (Reminder- the staff has 10 charges max):
- Power: The staff holder can use the charges to modify spells by the following metamagic feats:
Disruptive spell (+1),
Lingering spell (+1),
Consecrate spell (+2). (This may be ab it powerful since most of their enemies ARE demons)

Using such metamagic uses twice the number of added levels in charges. Total modified spell level cannot exceed 6th level.

- Wrath: This power works only against Evil aligned targets. When casting a spell the staff's holder can call upon wrath to affect all targets with Sacred damage. If the targets fail their saves, they suffer damage of a number of d8s equl to the spell's level. (Sacred damage), If they succeed they avoid the damage alltogether (No half). The save is the same save of the spell. If the spell has no save, then Wrath cannot be applied. the damage is applied but once, even if the spell persists more.

Wrath consumes charges per casting (Not per target), and can be applied to spells who do not cause damage. (Such as slow). it consumes 1 charge for half the spell level (round up. So 1 for level 1-2 spells, 2 for level 3-4 spells, 3 for level 5-6 and so on).

You cannot use The Wrath and Power abilities for the same spell.

You can charge the staff by 1 charge per day, by expanding a 5th level spell into it. (Any spell). The staff cannot be recharged any other way.
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How does that sound?

[Incorrect]

Rod of Disruptive spell, normal = 11000 gp
Rod of Lingering spell, normal = 11000 gp
Rod of Consecrate spell, normal = 32500 gp (since this is maximize against most enemies it might be more worth)

Lets handwave this to half price, for using charges and not affecting 6th level spells.

The Wrath power would be a little bit similar to an empower metamagic on a blasting spell, and add damage to all spells. In a normal rod that would cost 32500 gp, but lets cut this price in half as well.

Without looking at the constant powers, the above adds up to 43500 gp, which might be a bit over the top.

This is pricing the staff according to rod prices, we might be able to save some gp by using the rules for staffs, and dividing by number of charges used. Instead, lets look at what the staff is actually worth to the player.

What is the campaign like? Do they have 3-4 encounters per day with no resting days?
Because that would drain the charges fast, and the user is left with spending a 5th level spell each day just to use Wrath on a level 2 spell (not very effective spending).
Do they have one encounter every 11 days? Then this staff would be very powerful indeed.

My gut feeling is that if the character has the constant powers, and on average 1-2 uses (~4 charges?) of the metamagic powers on an average fighting day, then the staff is fine for 30000gp.


Helpful question, would you rather have this staff, or a Metamagic Rod of Empower (normal)?
The rod is 32500 gp.