Confused on some of the Custom Magic Item rules

[BRKNdevil]

So, when comes to estimating the Magic item cost of a custom item I'm a bit lost on it. Specifically the Special Modifier for Charges per Day.

Take for instance, Anklet of Translocation
I don't get how using their rules cost 1400gp

I'm trying to figure out how to make it a all day option so i would like some help please.

[Oberon Kenobi]

You should try reading some of the appendices in the Magic Item Compendium where they talk about pricing items. The charts in the DMG/SRD are guidelines at best, useless at worst; what you really need to look at, and what they at least tried to do in the MiC, is how useful an item is, and gauge the price based on similarly useful items.

That's why the Anklet is so cheap: it only works twice a day, has a ridiculously small range, requires line of sight and effect and only works on your turn. That's a situational-as-hell item. I've only seen it used once, and that was to teleport back out of melee so a fighter could initiate a Charge. How exciting.

Making it at-will, to me, doesn't change the utility much, because the important and crippling limits lie in what it can do rather than how often it can do it. I'd probably just say "at-will 2-square teleportation is about half as useful as a Decanter of Endless Water, and let's round it up to 5,000 to be on the safe side" and call it done. If someone has Shadowpounce they can do that once a round, but whevs.

[nedz]

There are two different sets of rules.

The ones in the SRD/DMG give one price, the ones in MiC another. The prices in MiC tend to be lower which is why players prefer them. You have to decide which rules you are going to follow.

[Chronos]

There is only one rule: The item costs as much as the DM says it costs. There are also guidelines for the DM, that he or she might choose to consult in making that decision, and those vary a bit between the DMG and the MIC. Note, however, that in both cases, the first guideline is to price it at as much as the effect is worth, based on other similar items. For the rest of the guidelines, a player might well prefer one guideline over another, but that's irrelevant, since it isn't the player's decision.

[BRKNdevil]

Thanks, I was trying to figure it out for a skirmish build and couldn't figure it out. A once a round ability like that would be wonderful and you don't have to multiclass as much. Still, confused on the rules from dmg though. How much would you think it would be to either add extra charges or make it an at will all day item? With math to make it easier to get by my DM

[BRKNdevil]

Blah, even tried to check how much it would cost to make another item, Boots of Teleportation, (doesn't add up, its 5000 less then calculated price)

Do you think he would by it for 3500gp?

Reverse engineering the price using dmg rules
1400 = X / (5/2) = X * (2/5) => 1400 * 5 / 2 = 3500

[ericgrau]

I wouldn't. Unlimited use items in particular could have unexpected consequences. Unlimited use anklets could be used to travel long distances or overcome traps in between fights. So they are more valuable than that and the DM should decline your request. Getting X uses per day where X is more than you'll ever need is safer. 4/day is usually plenty for fights, or maybe 7/day to be safe.

For an unlimited use per day item I'd add up the costs of 5/day anklets of translocation plus the cost of a speed boosting item for the travel benefits plus the cost of a trap utility item like slippers of spider climb for the utility benefits. The cost of all 3 of those put together is about what an unlimited use per day anklets of translocation should cost. 3,500 + 3,000 (+10' travel) + 4,800 (reaching hard to reach places, similar to the slippers) = 11,300 gp.

[Qwertystop]

Hm. Has anyone managed to reverse-engineer a formula for the several items in the MIC that have multiple effects from a shared charges-per-day pool, sometimes with more charges for a stronger effect? I note that that's sort of like a per-day staff, but I'm not sure where to go from there.

[Oberon Kenobi]

I really don't think long distance travel is that useful a feature. If you're talking overland, you're still going to be traveling at whatever the slowest party member's speed is, and in-combat, how many combats stay at a 40 foot distance past like the first round anyway? The trap bypassing thing has some merit, but if all it takes to bypass a trap is a 10-foot teleport limited by line of effect I'm not sure how threatening a trap it really was.

I think you're overpricing it, is what I'm saying. I'm sure there are some clever uses, but "surprise me with lateral thinking" items are, IMO, the kind that are supposed to be cheap. Save the big price tags for the (:smallsigh:) necessary stuff like save boosters and whatnot.

[ericgrau]

Hm. Has anyone managed to reverse-engineer a formula for the several items in the MIC that have multiple effects from a shared charges-per-day pool, sometimes with more charges for a stronger effect? I note that that's sort of like a per-day staff, but I'm not sure where to go from there.

Good idea costing it like a use/day staff. Then that would be:
1. Find 360 gp * spell-level * caster-level / charge-cost for each effect. For effects not tied to spells, you'll have to estimate what level it would be if it were a spell.
2. Add the most costly effect plus 75% of the second most costly ability plus 50% of each remaining ability.
3. Multiply this total by the number of the charges contained in the item.
4. Note that many MIC items are probably cheaper than this, because that's power creep for you. However it is not unreasonable for the DM to give an ad hoc discount based on overlapping functions being partially redundant with each other. These are only guidelines after all.


I really don't think long distance travel is that useful a feature. If you're talking overland, you're still going to be traveling at whatever the slowest party member's speed is, and in-combat, how many combats stay at a 40 foot distance past like the first round anyway? The trap bypassing thing has some merit, but if all it takes to bypass a trap is a 10-foot teleport limited by line of effect I'm not sure how threatening a trap it really was.

I think you're overpricing it, is what I'm saying. I'm sure there are some clever uses, but "surprise me with lateral thinking" items are, IMO, the kind that are supposed to be cheap. Save the big price tags for the (:smallsigh:) necessary stuff like save boosters and whatnot.
The travel thing is a good point. It's often 1/4 useful because you need everyone to get it. Although in the hands of the party gnome or halfling it does help quite a bit. Cutting the cost of that in half wouldn't be unreasonable. It won't bypass all traps, but neither will spider climb and it can bypass many challenges as well as spider climb can. Reducing the total cost for effectively having 3 related abilities isn't unreasonable either. So perhaps 8k or 9k gp. Which isn't a bad deal at all for what it does; the anklets were already pretty cheap yet powerful to begin with. There's a reason they're so popular. Too popular in fact; that's a sign that an item is under-costed. In fact this is far from the first thread asking about getting more uses per day out of them. Wouldn't be surprised if it was the 500th. I meanly simply making the entire grapple mechanic obsolete is pretty ridiculous all by itself when a ring of freedom of movement is 40,000 gp. But assuming you use the anklets at normal price I think 8k gp or 9k gp is reasonable to make them at-will.