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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Emblem of Power [3.5 magic item]



gooddragon1
2016-10-09, 04:16 AM
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remetagross
2016-10-09, 08:33 AM
I'd say this item is way too expensive.

First, this item is, in practise, not using a body slot at all, and per the Magic Item Compendium (MIC), its price should be doubled rather than multiplied by 1.5, so this would put the Emblem of Power at about 94.000 gp.

According to the Magic Item Compendium, the level at which 70.000 gp items start to be relatively common is 20th. For a 20th level character, this item is completely underwhelming.
The level at which wealth by level reaches 70.000gp, and so the earliest level at which such an item becomes available at all, is 13th level. As a 13th level character, I wouldn't spend almost all of my money on such an item, since I am very likely to already be able to fly all day, to do more damage than CL 9 Cone of Cold or CL 3 Scorching ray, and to already own +4 enhancement bonus items, thus making Bear's Endurance and Bull's Strength redundant.

However, I also think that this item is cool and original, and should you tweak its properties a bit, it can be made into a very interesting item :smallsmile:

First, I think it would be a good idea to put a limitation in that you have to wear the item for 23 hours to get attuned to it before you can use its powers. This prevents PCs from buying a bunch of them and swap them out as soon as they have used their 1/day abilities, and it also prevents PCs from using the item then passing it to their neighbor, etc, so that the item's abilities effectively become 4/day or 5/day.
Then, it doesn't make much sense to me to cast Scorching Ray at such a low CL, since it will do far less damage than Cone of Cold. And if you don't want this item to get overpowered, you won't let the PCs get it until their damage output is only slightly lower than what the Cone of Cold can dish out. This means that by the time the PCs grab the Emblem of Power, they can all deal much more damage than a CL 3 Scorching Ray. Maybe you could lower a bit the CL of Cone of Cold while increasing the CL of Scorching Ray; a CL 8 Cone of Cold and a CL 7 Scorching Ray seem like the two of them will see some use.

Then, I think such an item would be powerful in the hands of an 8th to 9th level character, useful for a 10th to 11th level character, handy for a 12th to 13th level PC, and as it does not take up a body slot and does not compete with anything else, it can safely remain on the PCs. After level 13, this item will only be used for its Haste ability, but it will still be used, which is nice for an item that began its career for a 8ish level character. So a more reasonable cost could hover around 13.000 gp: a serious investment for an 8th level PC which has a WBL of 27.000 gp, but just a bit more than an amusing bauble for a 13th level PC with 110.000 gp of WBL

One more thing to consider is the type of action needed to activate your item. You didn't specify any, so I suppose you meant a standard action. It seems fair enough to me, since an 8th-level Wizard will spend a standard action too to let loose a CL 8 Cone of Cold. You could make it a swift action activation, but in that case you have to consider that the psionic equivalent of a CL 9 Quickened Cone of Cold can't be cast by a Psion of level lower than 13 with the right feats, so you'd have to make your item expensive enough that 11th level characters can barely afford it, and at this point we fall again in the pattern that I described earlier. So I think you should stick with standard action activation.

The other possible reasoning would be to think "At what level do I want the PCs to get this ?" and starting from there, to set a desired price and then to tweak the spells stored in the item and their CL so that the item's abilities match its price.

Amechra
2016-10-09, 10:25 AM
On the one hand, this could have its cost reduced.

On the other hand, is any cost too large when you're playing Superman?

=----=

More seriously...

The Emblem has a 1/day Use Activated 5th level spell effect (18,000 GP), two 1/day Use Activated 3rd level spell effects (6,000 GP each), and three 1/day Use Activated 2nd level spell effects (2,400 GP each). Since there are multiple similar effects, we pay the full cost for the first, 3/4ths the cost for the second, and half cost for the rest.

That comes out to 29,100 GP - thanks to being slotless, that doubles to 58,200 GP.

At least, that's what I get if I use the Magic Item creation rules in the SRD - if the MIC compendium removed the discount for multiple similar abilities, then my calculations would, of course, be off. It seems a bit more reasonable, though.

inuyasha
2016-10-09, 11:45 AM
I must admit that it took me way too long to realize that this item replicated the powers of Superman...