Different bonus types on items?!

[Max Caysey]

Can I make a cloak of resistance that grants circumstance bonus?


Cheers!

[AvatarVecna]

Yes and no.

The magic item creation guidelines provide a framework for assigning a price to an item that grants a circumstance bonus to saves: "Save bonus (other)2" costs "Bonus squared × 2,000 gp", and the footnote points to "Such as a luck, insight, sacred, or profane bonus."

"Such as" means "not necessarily limited to [examples given]", so it is not unreasonable to say that an item giving a circumstance bonus to saves would be best priced using this formula by default.

However.

Using this table is, in general, fairly controversial. At its core, it is a set of soft guidelines for DMs to use to price odd items, not a table for players to craft their own super-items on the basis that it technically follows the guidelines laid out. In particular, the section of the table relating to at-will or continuous spell use is almost always going to have a weird price because "spell balance" as a concept is both set-up and punchline.

Ultimately, it's going to come down to your specific DM at any given time. You can present the custom item idea to your DM, and they can give you an idea of whether it can be purchased or crafted, and for how much. In a lot of higher-level higher-power games, DMs tend to be a bit more flexible on this kind of stuff, but only to a point, and even that's not a guarantee. In general, the answer is "ask your DM", because even in a strict RAW environment, these particular "rules" are merely guidelines.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

No.

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm

Circumstance Modifier
A circumstance bonus (or penalty) arises from specific conditional factors impacting the success of the task at hand. Circumstance bonuses stack with all other bonuses, including other circumstance bonuses, unless they arise from essentially the same source.

No, a magic cloak wouldn't be exactly the item you need to help you avoid every effect that allows a saving throw. An item would need to be right for a specific situation to give a bonus. For example, if a dragon uses its fire breath on you with Blinding Breath and you're wearing Inuit snow goggles, you would likely get a circumstance bonus against the blinding portion. Even then, this bonus type is almost always for determining the results of actions, not the results of reactions such as saving throws. You can get a tool that helps what you know you'll be doing for a circumstance bonus, but you can't really get a tool for every situation you may run into.


There are tons of bonus types you can apply to saving throws. You can already pick from luck, insight, and sacred or profane which are listed as examples and all come at the same price (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm). Given the full list of available bonus types (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm), enhancement wouldn't be appropriate for saving throws (it instead applies to the ability score used by a given save), morale generally isn't appropriate for an always-on magic item, deflection only works for AC, and the others (racial, alchemical) wouldn't be appropriate for a magic item.

[Doctor Despair]

However, there is an Artificer infusion called Item Alteration that could cause it to grant an X bonus to charisma for a little while

[Max Caysey]

The thing is, I want to have a bonus that stacks with all the bonuses I can get from buff spells, and I don't want to "waste" a bonus, meaning I don't want any bonus to saving throws that I might get from cleric and wizard spells.

There are Resistance, Greater; Heroism; Insight (from abjurat champ, if I spend a spell slot); competence from ioun stone; luck from stone of luck... so it has to be a bonus from some other source...

I'm unsure if there are cleric spells that grant sacred bonus to saves, which can be giving to others (since I'm the arcane spellcaster), but I'm thinking that sacred might be the way to go if not circumstance??? The reason I thought of circumstance is because you can get save bonus from Marshals aura, which is circumstance, also it stacks with everything...

But yeah, that's what I'm looking for specifically. So, what bonus type should I go with, in my cloak of resistance, for the least amount of overlap with other granted bonuses from spells?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A Luckstone is only a +1, so just toss that aside and get a custom item with a higher Luck bonus.

[Silly Name]

The thing is, I want to have a bonus that stacks with all the bonuses I can get from buff spells, and I don't want to "waste" a bonus, meaning I don't want any bonus to saving throws that I might get from cleric and wizard spells.

There are Resistance, Greater; Heroism; Insight (from abjurat champ, if I spend a spell slot); competence from ioun stone; luck from stone of luck... so it has to be a bonus from some other source...

I'm unsure if there are cleric spells that grant sacred bonus to saves, which can be giving to others (since I'm the arcane spellcaster), but I'm thinking that sacred might be the way to go if not circumstance??? The reason I thought of circumstance is because you can get save bonus from Marshals aura, which is circumstance, also it stacks with everything...

But yeah, that's what I'm looking for specifically. So, what bonus type should I go with, in my cloak of resistance, for the least amount of overlap with other granted bonuses from spells?

I think that Luck, Sacred and Profane are relatively rare bonuses - not sure about exact percentages, but it's certainly easy to find many buffing spells that simply provide a Magic bonus.

[StSword]

Might want to check Practical Enchanter by Distant Horizons Games.

It reverse engineers the canon magic items to expand the rules for item creation, among other things.

So things like giving out different types of bonuses are addressed.

There's a free shareware version of it at drivethrurpg if you want to check it out.

[Max Caysey]

A Luckstone is only a +1, so just toss that aside and get a custom item with a higher Luck bonus.

There is essentially no limit to the amout of bonus a luck stone can be created with... just saying. Pre.epic however, I would set it a +5 tho!


The plan was, to get a slotted version of a luck stone, and keep upgrating it!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If you don't want it to overlap with divine spells, pick the other of the bonus your divine spellcaster would be using. Evil clerics or neutral clerics of evil deities grant profane bonuses with their spells. Good clerics and neutral clerics of good deities (and usually neutral clerics of neutral deities) grant sacred bonuses with their spells. So if you have goodguy cleric get an item that grants a profane bonus to your saves, if you have a badguy cleric get an item that grants a sacred bonus to your saves. Problem solved.

[Remuko]

There is essentially no limit to the amout of bonus a luck stone can be created with... just saying. Pre.epic however, I would set it a +5 tho!


The plan was, to get a slotted version of a luck stone, and keep upgrating it!

Luck Stone +1 Luck Bonus

Luckier Stone +3 Luck Bonus

Luckiest Stone +5 Luck Bonus