Help pricing magic items

[Keral]

Hi!

Are these calculations for the price of magical rings correct?

A ring of scintillating scales, continous.

2*3*2000*4= 48000?

Ring of mighty wallop, greater, CL12, continous

3*12*2000*1,5* = 108000?

If a continuous item has an effect based on a spell with a duration measured in rounds, multiply the cost by 4. If the duration of the spell is 1 minute/level, multiply the cost by 2, and if the duration is 10 minutes/level, multiply the cost by 1.5. If the spell has a 24-hour duration or greater, divide the cost in half.

I'm multiplying for a duration of 10m/level. Hour/level doesn't seem to be an option in the SRD, would you have other ideas?

Or, CL12 lasts for 12 hours, so I could use the 2 charges per day option. In this case which formula from the table should I use?

Command word?
3*12*1800*(5/2)= 162000?


Also, as a related question: can you have negative natural armor? If not, and if you have a constitution modifier higher than 5, a ring of scintillating scales would be cheaper than a ring of protection (if my math is correct). Or would it not work because you don't have a natural armor bonus to decrease?

PS: it IS possible to upgrade a magical item by paying the difference in price, right?

[AvatarVecna]

A couple things: first, the duration multipliers are changes to the base formula; if you're making a Continuous or Use-Activated Hour/Lvl item, it has no additional multiplier (essentially it's multiplied by x1). Second, the rules you're referring to are more general guidelines for DMs; it's generally assumed as allowed for char-op, but even online games are hesitant to allow them across the board.

EDIT: Other than the hour/lvl thing that would warrant a change, your costs look alright.

[Keral]

Yes, the dm would be me, if an inexpert one at that. The campaign is setup in a magic heavy world, so I'm inclined to allow them such items, in theory. Also, to balance that, money is harder to get, so they'd had to work quite some time to afford one fo these items.

That said, I'm not sure I understand that bit about the multipliers :smallfrown: Could you elaborate please?

[AvatarVecna]

Yes, the dm would be me, if an inexpert one at that. The campaign is setup in a magic heavy world, so I'm inclined to allow them such items, in theory. Also, to balance that, money is harder to get, so they'd had to work quite some time to afford one fo these items.

That said, I'm not sure I understand that bit about the multipliers :smallfrown: Could you elaborate please?

The table doesn't have an explicit multiplier for hour/lvl duration spells, so you don't alter the cost with that step; that multiplier is an extra multiplier for if the spell you're replicating has one of the listed durations. If the spell you're replicating doesn't have one of the listed durations, there isn't any extra multiplier, the price is just spell level*caster level*2000.

[Keral]

Ahh, I see! Thanks! That would make it cheaper than I expected, but no matter, we'll see.

Any chance you got some insight in the natural armor side question? :smallbiggrin:

[AvatarVecna]

Ahh, I see! Thanks! That would make it cheaper than I expected, but no matter, we'll see.

Any chance you got some insight in the natural armor side question? :smallbiggrin:

I'd probably allow Scintillating Scales to reduce your natural armor below +0. It seems powerful, but that's just because the spell is powerful (it effectively turns a point of natural armor into 2 points of deflection, and deflection is better than natural anyway). Since it's not actually changing natural into double deflection (it's two separate effects of the same spell), the only reason I could see it not working is if there's a rule somewhere saying you can't drain natural armor below +0.