Cheapest 1 use polymorph

[Raishoiken]

Away from resources atm, what is the cheapest it's possible to buy a 1 use/charge magic item of polymorph any object?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Away from resources atm, what is the cheapest it's possible to buy a 1 use/charge magic item of polymorph any object?Buying spellcasting services is probably the cheapest way (except for below), if you don't have access to UMD or a spell list with polymorph on it.

Otherwise, 7 levels in wizard would get you a spell slot with polymorph in it for free. Leadership would get you a minion that could cast it, and it wouldn't cost any gp at all.

[Thurbane]

Scroll would be the cheapest (700gp); there's also Skull Talisman (Frostburn) which would be 2800gp, if I'm calculating correctly; a potion (possible by the Master Alchemist PrC: MoE) would be 1400gp.

Oops, was looking at Polymorph, not PAO.

Scroll 3000gp; skull talisman 12000gp; potion 6000gp (assuming I haven't missed anything).

[Feantar]

Going for some cheese here, possibly a scepter of Sanctum Polymorph any Object(That can -only- be used outside of your sanctum)? It costs 13*7*750/50=1365 gp per charge.

Otherwise maybe look into a staff?

[Raishoiken]

Going for some cheese here, possibly a scepter of Sanctum Polymorph any Object(That can -only- be used outside of your sanctum)? It costs 13*7*750/50=1365 gp per charge.

Otherwise maybe look into a staff?

This is closest to being what im after. Adding in the 10% and 30% reductions for oymly functioning for certain people gets that down to just under 900gp. Is there either: a way to further reduce it further or to have 900gp at level 1?

[Thurbane]

If the DM will allow that level of chesse, just say that a high level NPC (relative?) owed you a favour, casts the spell for you, and be done with it.

[Raishoiken]

If the DM will allow that level of chesse, just say that a high level NPC (relative?) owed you a favour, casts the spell for you, and be done with it.

There is no dm? It's for a TO build I've been mulling over for a while that requires being able to use PAO as early as possible

[satorian]

Pazuzu Wish? If it's TO, might as well treat it like TO.

[Vaern]

Going for some cheese here, possibly a scepter of Sanctum Polymorph any Object(That can -only- be used outside of your sanctum)? It costs 13*7*750/50=1365 gp per charge.

Otherwise maybe look into a staff?
But sanctum spell still uses a spell slot of the spell's normal level. If you apply sanctum spell to PAO, even if the spell's effect is treated as being effectively one spell level lower when cast, it's still an 8th level spell that uses an 8th level spell slot. The item's crafter would still be required to expend an 8th level spell slot while crafting the item as though casting the necessary spell with the applicable metamagic feat attached, and the item's price would still be determined as though it was an 8th level spell with a minimum caster level of 15.

An artificer qualifies for crafting items at a lower level than a spell could normally be cast, though, and could make the item with a reduced caster level of 13.
The section on caster level for spells says that you can choose to cast a spell at a reduced caster level, but the caster level you choose must be high enough to cast the spell normally. If you want to cheese this rule a bit, you might go so far as to say that it only applies to voluntarily reducing your caster level and that a spell may still be cast if your caster level is forcibly reduced below that point in some way.
To that end, Mage Slayer and the two feats that branch off of out of it each reduce your caster level for all spells and abilities by 4, for a total of -12. This means that, if you're lenient with the rulings on the subject, a cheesy mage-slaying artificer could conceiveably craft a single-use spell trigger item of POA with a total caster level of 1 for a grand total of 120 gold.

[Feantar]

But sanctum spell still uses a spell slot of the spell's normal level. If you apply sanctum spell to PAO, even if the spell's effect is treated as being effectively one spell level lower when cast, it's still an 8th level spell that uses an 8th level spell slot. The item's crafter would still be required to expend an 8th level spell slot while crafting the item as though casting the necessary spell with the applicable metamagic feat attached, and the item's price would still be determined as though it was an 8th level spell with a minimum caster level of 15.

Yes, the crafter would have to expend an 8th level slot, but the slot has nothing to do with the level of the spell: For example, extended mage armour takes a 2nd level slot but is a first level spell.

On the other hand heightened mage armour takes a 2nd level slot and -is- a second level spell. By the same logic a sanctum polymorph any object cast outside the sanctum is a seventh level spell taking an 8th level spell slot.

I am not saying this isn't insanely cheesy and I would disallow it in any campaign I run, but I think it is RAW. Once again, I apologise for the lactocity(new word!) of this suggestion.

However, going by the staff price per charge (750*7*15/50=1575) is not that far off, so it isn't overtly destructive cheese.

[Thurbane]

Pazuzu Wish? If it's TO, might as well treat it like TO.

I agree. Pretty much anything you could achieve with PAO at 1st level could probably be done better by one of the various incarnations of Pun Pun.

[Trandir]

By combining the power of the custom items cost rules, a calculator and a little spicy shredded cheese we can get it to less than 12 gp

Price: spell level × caster level × command word item price ÷ (charges per day ÷ 5)

Just make the item work once every 10 years and you get:
8×15×1800÷(5÷1/3652)= 11 gp 82 sp 91 cp


And this is accepted by every DM right?

[Raishoiken]

By combining the power of the custom items cost rules, a calculator and a little spicy shredded cheese we can get it to less than 12 gp

Price: spell level × caster level × command word item price ÷ (charges per day ÷ 5)

Just make the item work once every 10 years and you get:
8×15×1800÷(5÷1/3652)= 11 gp 82 sp 91 cp


And this is accepted by every DM right?

Yknow, it's kinda messed up that it doesn't say it has to be minimum 1 charge/day, and i totally forgot about limiting charges per day. Even without being extra abusive, 8*13*750*.9(10% for skill requirement) *.7(class requirement)/5(1 charge per day)/50 (single charge left)= 211gp 6sp 8cp, unless I'm mistaken. Which would also be a bit wonky