Price for a custom magic item that gives extra Bardic Performance rounds?

[Wonton]

What would you suggest to be the price for a custom magic item that gives extra Bardic Performance rounds?

Let's say, prices for 6/12/18 extra rounds on a slotted item.

Feel free to design/suggest other items, such as items with less/more rounds, downsides, slotless items, specific instruments, etc.

[death390]

arms and equipment guide has the rule of 10k for a feat on a item +5k-10k per prerquisite. so extra music feat for 4 extra uses of bardic music +bardic music prerequisite = minimum 15k gold cost 20k max.

reason for prerequisite rule is that the creator HAS to have either the pre-req themselves or collaborate with somone who does.

rule is on p 128.

[Wonton]

FWIW, Extra Performance (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/extra-performance-final/) is 6 rounds in PF. That's why I suggested pricing the magic item in increments of 6.

[Coventry]

Paizo has this to say on the subject: "The easiest way to come up with a price is to compare the new item to an item that is already priced, using that price as a guide."

So, let's follow that advice.

First, there is a Singing Sword! But at 168,000 gp ... uhm ... no. Next!

The Extra Performance feat would seem like a decent place to start, but Pathfinder actively avoids most magic items that grant feats. The obvious exception are the Metamagic rods, but I am going to exclude them, as their pricing is tied to the spell level that the rods can support. There is one long-standing magic item that grants a feat outright - the Dark Blue Rhomboid Ioun Stone.

That Ioun stone costs 10,000, and grants the Alertness feat as a non-slot item. Ioun Stones are listed in the custom magic item creation charts as the example for "No space limitation - Multiply entire cost by 2", implying that a item that used up a slot to Grant Alertness would cost 5,000. The weakness is that the Ioun Stone does not stack with other sources of the Alertness Feat, such as the PC having the feat, or the PC having a familiar that grants the feat - you still only get the +2. The reason I bring this up is that nearly all bards will consider getting Extra Performance ... so a feat-granting item would stop being useful.

Maybe that is what you want - a boost for a low level bard, and something they eventually give up at higher levels once they grow out of needing it.

To get extra rounds that stack, we have to go elsewhere ... such as the Bard spell list.

The "crunch" of the 3rd level spell Exquisite Accompaniment (Ultimate Magic) is for 1 round/level, and "The instrument plays as you direct, and as long as it plays, you do not have to expend rounds of bardic performance from your daily allotment to maintain an effect."

Without Lingering Performance, having 15 rounds of Bardic Performance per day is pretty much the same as having a daily allotment of 12 rounds of Bardic Performance plus 3 rounds you do not have to pay for via Exquisite Accompaniment.

Lingering Performance as much as triples the value of each real round of Bardic Performance, so the new would be "12 rounds of Bardic performance plus 3-9 rounds ..." Nearly every bard will have that feat, too, so it should be taken into account in the price.

Exquisite Accompaniment is a 3rd level bard spell, requiring a minimum caster level of 7. We need 9 rounds from the spell to get 3 rounds of Bardic Performance, so instead of caster level seven I will use nine as the caster level when calculating on the custom magic chart. A Command Word spell usable once per day is Spell level × caster level × 1,800 gp / 5 = 3 * 9 * 1800 /5 = 9,720 gp. For comparison purposes, scaling this up to 6 of Bardic Performance rounds doubles the cost to 19,440 gp.

Well, that is way higher than the 5,000 gp from the Ioun Stone calculation. But the granted rounds can stack with multiple items and the actual feat, itself. But nearly four times the price seems awfully steep.

One other Bardic spell looks promising: Shadow Bard (5th level). It has a way higher caster level requirement (13th), but it can switch performances on the fly, so I would not charge it the x3 multiplier that I charged Exquisite Performance due to the impact of Lingering Performance.

For 13 rounds of extra performance, it would cost 5 x 13 x 1800 / 5 = 23,400 gp. Scaling that back to 6 rounds is only 10,800 gp.

Three "look at similar items", three wildly different prices for 6 rounds: 5,000 gp, 10,800 gp and 19,440 gp.


Personally, I would run with the 10,800 number. That costs way too much for a low level bard, where 6 extra rounds would have a huge impact, but is not so bad for a high level bard who already has 18+ rounds per day from class levels and feats. It does not seem to overbalance a high level (read: "wealthy") character that takes a dip into the bard class, either. But that's just me.

[Wonton]

snip

Great post! Btw the Extra Performance (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/extra-performance-final/) feat does stack.

Interesting that most calculations are coming up with values in the 10,000-20,000 gp range. My first estimate was WAY lower, probably around 2-4k. At 4th level, I already have 19 rounds and getting 4-6 more didn't exactly seem game-breaking - more in line with something like getting a +2 Cha item.

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming.

[Coventry]

Btw the Extra Performance (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/extra-performance-final/) feat does stack.

Oops. Silly me - I should have remembered that.

[Azoth]

The Tuned Bowsting is a wonderful item with an 18K price tag that allows a Bard to perform without expending rounds as long as he shoots one arrow per round. So for 18K and being an Archer you can have NI rounds of performance as you only pay 1 round to either start or switch a performance. It comes with some either side benefits too, but the main draw is that tasty bump in performance rounds.

So I probably wouldn't go more than 10K on it.