Need help designing a custom magic item.

[mehs]

So in the world campaign is set in, trained arcane magic is exceedingly rare and the crafting of magic items other that magic arms and armor is even more rare. Essentially they just became things and my wizard is one of the first to be doing such things (gods a few hundred years ago pretty freely provided magic and items but they are taking a back seat for the new age). So essentially in this world there are no standard magic items, everything that i try to make is custom and there is a heavy influence towards experimenting especially since it would act as a money sink.

So my wizard is wanting to learn more and more about magic, and the item he is trying to make is essentially a one use item to make a record of any magic he encounters. Essentially, he happens upon magic event, he uses item, and then when he has free time he is able to actually sit down and study it (useful if magic event is blink and you'll miss it). What the the effect would actually be is just an extended timeframe to be able to study a magic event, or the possibility of being able to learn the spell with the item functioning sorta like a fake scroll (cant actually cast the spell contained within, but can learn from it).





Question is, how would this actually work, what spells should I try using as the prerequisites for the item. So far I am trying to go as overkill as possible with the spells that I have trying to ensure at least one or a combination thereof can approximate the effect that I want. Using detect magic, read magic, identify, and blood transcription along with 500 gp's worth of gems (apparently I guess at how much money I think it will take). I am currently level 4 with the opportunity to learn new spells being restricted to: travel to the few colleges int eh world where 99% of the trained arcane casters are concentrated or make your own.

[Ruethgar]

The spell Ghost Harp is a cantrip that allows the recording of songs, it shouldn’t be a stretch to change it to any sound plus Silent Image could record events fairly well. With Read and Detect Magic added it would probably fulfill the more magical inclination you are going for, identifying the type and strength of magic.

Edit: If you wanted to make it more difficult, you could require Autohypnosis check to basically memorize it correctly.

[Selion]

So in the world campaign is set in, trained arcane magic is exceedingly rare and the crafting of magic items other that magic arms and armor is even more rare. Essentially they just became things and my wizard is one of the first to be doing such things (gods a few hundred years ago pretty freely provided magic and items but they are taking a back seat for the new age). So essentially in this world there are no standard magic items, everything that i try to make is custom and there is a heavy influence towards experimenting especially since it would act as a money sink.

So my wizard is wanting to learn more and more about magic, and the item he is trying to make is essentially a one use item to make a record of any magic he encounters. Essentially, he happens upon magic event, he uses item, and then when he has free time he is able to actually sit down and study it (useful if magic event is blink and you'll miss it). What the the effect would actually be is just an extended timeframe to be able to study a magic event, or the possibility of being able to learn the spell with the item functioning sorta like a fake scroll (cant actually cast the spell contained within, but can learn from it).





Question is, how would this actually work, what spells should I try using as the prerequisites for the item. So far I am trying to go as overkill as possible with the spells that I have trying to ensure at least one or a combination thereof can approximate the effect that I want. Using detect magic, read magic, identify, and blood transcription along with 500 gp's worth of gems (apparently I guess at how much money I think it will take). I am currently level 4 with the opportunity to learn new spells being restricted to: travel to the few colleges int eh world where 99% of the trained arcane casters are concentrated or make your own.


There is a 2th level spell, greater detect magic, which has some of the required effects. https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/d/detect-magic/
I think this item would be too powerful for the required price, especially if it can be used to learn new spells, for a comparison blood transcription is a second level spell and works only if the caster is death, while applying permanency to detect magic costs 2500 GP (and can be dispelled!).
If i had to evaluate the prize, this item grants continuously a powerwise similar effect of two 2th level spells (greater detect magic+ blood transcription), applying magic creation rules it would cost 24000 gp at the very least, because your item has a higher versatility.
There is actually a simple way to tune down the item powers which makes a lot of sense: the item has a store capability, when it records more than three levels of spells it stops working for 24h (you can set the item in such a way it ignores a few selected individuals, so that it won't overload with your spellcasting) and it needs to be discharged to use it again. It would break the game if the magic item created by a 4th level character could record at will any spell.
Learning a spell from a record should require a higher than usual spellcraft check, usually your wizard is not able to reproduce spells just watching them, watching a spell repeatdly would make it just barely possible. In d&d 3.0 this would be impossible no matter what, the spells were just the last part of a longer ritual performed during the morning study, in pathfinder there is not such interpretation, so it's up to DM.
Even this way the item should cost a few thousand of GPs and to be honest i would buy it anytime at that prize.
More powerful versions of the same item should be available at higher prizes, just like lesser and greater rods of metamagic.

[mehs]

Making it as a one use item. Shouldve clarified that I guess.

...wait i did clarify that i am making it as a one use item...


Specifics so far is that I only might be able to learn spells from it and if i am able to do so, it would probably require a higher level version of it for higher level spells.

Though i have to question something, why did you use blood transcription as a comparison when i already said that i am using blood transcription as a prereq?

[Selion]

I apologize then, I totally missed the "one use" part. This way the item is totally fair, as prerequisites I think greater detect magic would fit better the theme, but an argument can be done for blood transcription, if you already have that spell. So I'd say cl 3, greater detect magic (or blood transcription) and 250 gp (500 halved) would suffice as prerequisites