Custom etherealness item pricing

[Braininthejar2]

I'm thinking of making a defensive item that would use an ethereal jaunt effect as a contingency.

The idea is "3 times a day, if the wearer suffers 5 or more damage from a melee or ranged attacks, she becomes incorporeal until the beginning of her next turn" (doesn't stop the attack itself from connecting, but protects the character from eating a full attack, or getting monster-grappled)

Is it doable, and how expensive would it be to make?

[Braininthejar2]

Nopony?

Must be the fascinatingly enticing thread title I picked...

[weckar]

It just seems rather useless. You don't really get to move in the ethereal state unless you somehow get hurt on your own turn, and it will most likely trigger on the first 3 attacks you take in a day (I have rarely if ever seen an attack hit for less than 5).

[Braininthejar2]

It just seems rather useless. You don't really get to move in the ethereal state unless you somehow get hurt on your own turn, and it will most likely trigger on the first 3 attacks you take in a day (I have rarely if ever seen an attack hit for less than 5).

It isn't supposed to let you move. It is supposed to keep you alive for three rounds of rocket tag, in a setting where pouncer barbarians are a thing.

[weckar]

But if they know she has the ability she'll just eat three small arrows from skirmishers first before the chargers move in...

[Braininthejar2]

"If they know" is the part of preparing for battle that decides which side will bite the dust

[ApologyFestival]

No such item exists, nor does anything remotely similar to it, so this is firmly in homebrew territory. Ask your DM.

[Darrin]

First things first, "ethereal" and "incorporeal" are two different effects. Ethereal creatures are not actually present on the material plane and in general can't interact with it unless they do something to "manifest" on the material plane, at which point they become visible but incorporeal.

An incorporeal creature is present on the material plane but doesn't have a physical body, so it can pass through solid objects. A wizard can become incorporeal (rather than ethereal) by casting the ghostform spell from the Spell Compendium. However, 50% of magical attacks (either by magic weapons or spells) would still be able to hit him, so ideally you'd want this item to cast ethereal jaunt instead. An ethereal creature that has not manifested on the material plain is immune to nearly all attacks except [force] effects and certain oddball attacks (such as the basilisk's gaze attack).

Since what you want to do is so similar to contingency, I'd use that as the basis for price. A custom item that casts contingency 3/day would cost 6 (spell level) x 11 (caster level) x 2000 x 3/5 (3 uses per day) = 79,200 GP. We get a bit of a break because the duration of contingency is greater than 24 hours, so the cost is halved, but there's a bit of a snag with the caster level, as contingency says the level of the spell it casts has to be no higher than 1/3rd caster level, up to a maximum of 6th. Fortunately, there's a swift version of etherealness in PHBII that's only 5th level, and is more in line with what you're trying to do. So, revised cost:

6 (spell level) x 15 (caster level) x 2000 x 1/2 (24-hour duration) x 3/5 (3 uses per day) = 54,000 GP.

If we compare this to an existing item with a similar effect... let's say, Cloak of Etherealness (DMG p. 253), then... 55,000 GP is in the same ballpark, although the cloak works up to 10 minutes per day, and your custom item works for only 3 rounds per day, so an exact comparison is problematic. Scarab of Invulnerability (MIC p. 132) has a similar concept, but they screwed up the activation, as it should be immediate but it's swift. Still, that's 40,000 GP for a 1/day "immune to all damage" effect, so... again, you're probably in the ballpark. If you upped the Scarab to 3/day, you could make an argument that it might be worth 120,000 GP. So your price is probably somewhere in the 54K -> 120K range.

(Also, I'd consider changing the trigger to something other than 5 damage... at the level this item becomes available, that's a very low damage threshold. I'd probably up it to 15 or 20.)

[weckar]

(Also, I'd consider changing the trigger to something other than 5 damage... at the level this item becomes available, that's a very low damage threshold. I'd probably up it to 15 or 20.)
Perhaps even change it to a specific fraction of total health, so it can grow with you.

[TinyMushroom]

Hey, thought I'd mention that a similar item exists in Drow of the Underdark. It's called the Shadow Cloak and costs 5500 gp (so its pretty cheap).

If you are attacked, you can use the cloak three times per day to produce one or the other of the following effects. You can gain concealment for 1 round, or you can teleport to a space you can see clearly up to 10 feet in any direction.