custom item creation clarification needed

[skunk3]

I have read the item creation rules from the DMG and MIC many times over and I still feel like I am over-thinking things / confusing myself.

I soon will have the chance to cash in what is essentially a 50% off voucher for any item I want. Here's my problem:

Let's say I want to make a head slot item, for example.

First of all, is it possible to make an item that essentially combines two separate items? Judging by what I have read, it seems like you can. You take the price of the higher-priced item and then to that you add 1.5x the price of the lower-priced item, and then you have your total, yes?

So if I wanted to make a combination of these items:

Admiral's Bicorne (51k gp)
Helm of Glorious Recovery (5.6k gp)
Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic (5.2k gp)

My price would essentially be 51k + 8400k + 7800k = 67,200 (Further divided by 2 because of my 50% off voucher.)

Is this correct, or am I missing something?

[EDIT] Another thought - are all pre-epic items limited to 200k in value? I know that we cannot have armor or a weapon that is worth more than 200k gp in total, but does that apply for all items? I am considering saving up for a really juicy custom ring, but its cost (before my 50% off voucher) would be over 200k.

[skunk3]

So basically what you are saying is that the price isn't necessarily what I wrote above, and is basically up to my DM? I want to get a hang of this a.s.a.p. because there's multiple items that I would like for various slots. I am playing a Warlock character, so my throat slot is currently taken by a Greater Chausuble of Fell Power. I will of course want to further enchant this item, as well as others.

As far as the 200k thing goes, I think the DMG is pretty clear that non-epic arms and armor have a 200k gold cap. What determines if something is or isn't epic if it costs more than 200k? Why would a +10 weapon with 100k+ worth of enchantments be epic, but the Staff of Power isn't? How would an intelligent item with an ability that costs 200k BY ITSELF *not* be an epic weapon? I'm confused.

[zergling.exe]

The Epic Level Handbook, primary source for epicness, says anything over 200k discounting material and experience components (including weapon and armor) as well as intelligent item stuff, is epic:
Has a market price above 200,000 gp, not including material costs for armor or Weapons, material component- or experience point-based costs, or additional value for intelligent items.

[skunk3]

Ah. Odd that the extra costs for intelligent items don't factor in.

The idea of intelligent items is really cool but super expensive to really be all that useful. Neat for flavor though.

[zergling.exe]

Ah. Odd that the extra costs for intelligent items don't factor in.

The idea of intelligent items is really cool but super expensive to really be all that useful. Neat for flavor though.

That's probably why, they wanted people to be able to use them before level 21 more easily.

[ExLibrisMortis]

A staff of power includes 2500 gp of components for continual flame, and each head of the quarterstaff counts as separate weapon for the purposes of the 200 000 gp limit. At least, I think that explains why its 211 000 gp total and still nonepic.

The intelligent item power includes... well, probably 25 000 * 50 = 1 250 000 gp of material components for true resurrection, going by the DMG guidelines, reduced somewhat for the monthly limit (apparently, by a factor 8 or so, as the total cost of the item would be around 1 556 000 gp as 5/day item).

[ExLibrisMortis]

Could you reference any rules about its status as a double weapon affecting its designation?
DMG page 286: "Creating magic double-headed weapons is treated as creating two weapons when determining cost, time, XP, and special abilities. For example, a dire flail could have a +1 flaming head and a +3 disruption head".

The staff of power description simply calls it a +2 quarterstaff. I take that to mean it is a +2/+2 quarterstaff, costing 8000 gp enchantment plus 300 gp masterwork per head. That puts the price of a staff of power at 8000 gp (off-hand) + 600 gp (masterwork) + 2500 gp (material component) + 199 900 gp (main-hand + staff + luck bonus + retributive strike + smite).

N.B. I don't guarantee the math of the 199 900 gp remainder make any sense, but I can just about justify the 200 000 gp nonepic limit. In general, going slightly over the limit shouldn't be a problem. There's the cowl of warding, for example, which doesn't have any excuse (not a double weapon/multipart item, no material/XP components involved, 200 800 gp price), but is still quite nicely designed overall.

[KillianHawkeye]

The staff of power description simply calls it a +2 quarterstaff. I take that to mean it is a +2/+2 quarterstaff

I'm almost positive that if both "heads" of the weapon were meant to be enchanted, it would say so explicitly in order to match the typical descriptive conventions for magic items. It's definitely safer to assume that only the "primary" side of the weapon is a +2 if only one +2 is mentioned.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I'm almost positive that if both "heads" of the weapon were meant to be enchanted, it would say so explicitly in order to match the typical descriptive conventions for magic items. It's definitely safer to assume that only the "primary" side of the weapon is a +2 if only one +2 is mentioned.
As-is, it doesn't match the convention, true. But if it weren't a +2/+2 quarterstaff, it'd have to be marked as such, too--it would be a +2/masterwork quarterstaff. In this case, the designer probably didn't remember that quarterstaves are double weapons.

Either way, you might as well assume it's the non-spellcasting head that has the +2 bonus, which works out to the same 199 900 gp limit for the other (masterwork) end.