Tome of the Magen

[Clistenes]

Which do you think would be the appropiate rarity (and price) for a Tome that allows you to create a Magen Construct (for stats, think of a Simulacrum of a CR 1/4 or CR 1/2 NPC like an Acolyte, Scout or Thug, to keep the power level close to that of an AD&D Magen).

[Daishain]

Well, lets see.

A manual of Golems is the closest comparison. Very rare by default, can create one of several critters, ranging from CR 5 to CR 16. Bumping the rarity down from there is not out of the question.

For the low end, I would consider a wand that can cast a summoning spell. The closest spell match here would have to be Find Steed, a second level spell. So, back to the DMG. Thanks to the Wand of Web, we can probably assume that an item that lets you duplicate near constant access to the effects of a 2nd level spell is going to be uncommon as a low estimate.

I think overall I would recommend the proposed item be Rare, but give it the 50% discount on price and crafting costs for being consumable, and I'd be leaning more towards uncommon than the other direction. Actual price of the item is going to depend far more on your campaign setting than our recommendations.


Bear in mind, I don't know what a Magen's capabilities are aside from your rough CR estimate, and am having a tough time looking up what the things actually are. So if they have any special abilities that might skew things...

[Clistenes]

This is the AD&D version:

http://www.lomion.de/cmm/magen.php

Here is a conversion to 3.5 (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?47415-Magens)

Here is another conversion to 3.5 (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?219410-Converting-original-D-amp-D-and-Mystara-monsters&p=5133570&viewfull=1#post5133570)

If we accept the CR of the Magen as 2 or 3 in 3.5, that traslates as CR 1/2 to 1 in 5th edition:


Using the rules in the DMG a monster of say, CR 10 is supposed to be a deadly encounter for a 6 lvl party. But if the "party" is a single member, then the CR 10 creature is a deadly encounter for a 17 lvl character.

Taking that into account, I would say a CR 10 monster is roughly equal to a 17 lvl character.

And most CR 10 monsters have 15-18 HD, so I think it fits.

I guess you could do the same calculations for every CR and give every monster an effective level of sorts.

EDIT: I have used the same method for all monsters, and this is what I got:

a CR 1/2 monster is roughly equivalent to a 1 or 2 level character
a CR 1 monster is roughly equivalent to a 2 or 3 level character
a CR 2 monster is roughly equivalent to a 4 level character
a CR 3 monster is roughly equivalent to a 5 level character
a CR 4 monster is roughly equivalent to a 8 level character
a CR 5 monster is roughly equivalent to a 10 level character
a CR 6 monster is roughly equivalent to a 11 level character
a CR 7 monster is roughly equivalent to a 12 level character
a CR 8 monster is roughly equivalent to a 14 level character
a CR 9 monster is roughly equivalent to a 16 level character
a CR 10 monster is roughly equivalent to a 17 level character
a CR 11 monster is roughly equivalent to a 19 level character
a CR 12 monster is roughly equivalent to a 20 level character

EDIT: Mmmm... what about using the same process as in AD&D? (http://www.lomion.de/cmm/magen.php)
11,000 to 16,000 gp for the equipment, plus 3,000 gp for each Magen, and cast Lightning Bolt, Fabricate, Animate Object, Polymorph, Dominate Person, Lightning Bolt.