Magic Item - Did I price it correctly? (Naval Ship Tracker)

[Solauren]

System: Pathfinder (1e) as the core system, with D20 System books (3.0, 3.X, PFRPG) as addons, including D&D 3.X and Dragon Magazine.
(With pre 3e stuff ported in on occasion).

Currently Playing - Skulls and Shackles Campaign, with side adventures and some expansion.


Magic Item desired -
Regional Naval Map (in this case, the Shackles), as well as the coast up to Corentyn, and down to Eldar. Other versions could be created using different charts, obviously.
To be named: "Pirate Lords Charts of (Region)" (if ever released out to the general public) or "Admirals Fleet Charts of (Region)"

What I want it to do -
1 If you have a piece of a ship, it will show you where on the map that is. It will work with any number of ships you have pieces of.
i.e if a Pirate lord has 8 ships and this map, and has pieces of them, he could track them. If he also kept small pieces of ships he captured, he could track them as well.
(Note: Yes, the Pirate that wants this has been doing that. Hell, if a ship was sinking, he would go after a piece of it so he could come back with a scroll of Salvage () to reclaim it. We have a detailed campaign log)
Ships being tracked appear to be green

Spell that can do that already -
Track ship - Pirates of the Inner Sea (PZO9422) (Bard/Cleric/Wizard 2)
Focus is a piece of the ship to be tracked.

2 Ships being tracked that are near ships not being tracked, turn Yellow
(I was thinking that's almost Alarm....)
Scry Location (Bard 5, Cleric 7, Wizard 6)- Complete Scoundrel (WTC95725)

3 Ability to show ships near the ships that map users is tracking. (Say within a 10 mile radius) via a zoom in function.
If they are not being tracked, they're Orange. No details, just a generic glowing red ship of approximate size.
Scry Location (Bard 5, Cleric 7, Wizard 6)- Complete Scoundrel (WTC95725)

4 If a tracked ship is being attacked, they flash green.

5 Zoom in feature, so the map changes to a view within a 2 mile radius, or a close up on the tracked ship(s) (if in a group), including checking on the crew, or the cargo.
Detailed enough for a teleport there if need be (or to send in an Arcane Eye or similar to check out the crew and cargo).
Scry Location (Bard 5, Cleric 7, Wizard 6)- Complete Scoundrel (WTC95725)

What I'm thinking is this:
Market Price -
Track ship cast at 11th level (2 * 11 = ) 22 x 2000 (Continous use) = 44,000.
x1.5 as it's the lowest cost of multiple functions 66,000
Scry Location cast at 11th level (6*11 =) 66 x 2000 (Continous use) = 132,000

Restriction - must be able to cast Track Ship and Scry Location to use = -30%
Final Market Price - 138,600
(I'm not adding in the cost of the color change, as thats a cantrip. If I have to, I'd add 2000 after the restriction reduction.)

Resulting in
Cost to Create - 69,300 gp
Requirements - Caster level 11, Craft Wondrous Item, Track Ship, Scry Location, Masterwork maps of the region to track ships in.

The unrestricted version would cost 198,000 gp, with a manufacture price of 99,000 gp.



Campaign Notes -
The idea is to use this, along with communication mirrors, for the campaigns newly minted pirate lord, to track his ships, and if need be, teleport to them with reinforcements should they get into trouble. (He's an 11th level Wizard, and doesn't want to use up his spells for day tracking his ships and scrying on them when he might need to lend them a hand)

The campaign log is detailed enough, we've been tracking day by day, including creatures fought, ships fought/captured/can track, and are now doing the same with the ships under the Pirate lords banner, or that join him, or that he's previously captured or encountered so he can check out their cargo and decide if they are worth sending ships to intercept.

He just won BIG at Arena (via a Fighter he sponsored), and is looking to get this made.

[Vaern]

Multiple different abilities incur a cost multiplier of 1.5. But, it would be easy to argue that multiple divination effects being used to the same end would be considred similar effects. Multiple similar effects on a single item instead has a multiplier of 75%. This would make the cost of the track ship ability 33,000 rather than 66,000. Other than that, I'd say your math looks good. The color changing is such a minor effect that I wouldn't bother pricing it and, if you did, it's such a minor portion of prestidigitation's full potential effect that I certainly wouldn't charge a full 2,000 gp for it. Maybe a hundred or two, if anything, but it's basically just a cosmetic effect.

But... The item as a whole still looks a bit too expensive to me. You mentioned winning big, and I'm sure money's not that big of an issue if you're already tossing around the idea of spending nearly 100k on this... but that's no reason to spend more than you have to if we can prevent it, eh?

It seems that Track Ship shows you the ship's location on a map, which is at the heart of the item. The whole point is to keep track of your ship(s). That stays.
Scry Location is giving you visual information about the area surrounding your ship. I recommend Clairvoyance instead to provide the same effect. The item could be functionally identical, but it would end up much cheaper.

Clairvoyance allows you to see from a sensor created at a location of your choice as though you were there yourself. Scry location technically lets you see and hear, but for the purpose of the map you're only getting visual information. You're paying for more than you're getting. That's wasteful spending! Clairvoyance can do that at half the spell level. Clairvoyance does have a range on it, but you could explain away that limitation: The map is magically tethered to the ship via the focus. Magic items don't necessarily have to precisely emulate or follow the exact same rules as the spells being used to create them, after all.
Anyway, someone in the crow's nest can see about 12 miles to the horizon. If the map could "see" via a clairvoyance sensor at that elevation it would easily be able to chart a 10-mile radius around the tracked ship, including showing nearby ships within that area as described in your "zoom" functionality. This should do everything for you that scry location was doing before.

Replacing scry location with clairvoyance cuts the spell level from 6 to 3 and the minimum caster level of the item from 11 to 5, putting the unrestricted market value of the item at about 45k (crafting cost 22.5k).

[Solauren]

Thank you Vaern.

'Lord Bloodeagle' was going to have his Captains chip in for the item (they all won big too), but hey, less of a cheap in!

Combine that with the Mirrors of Communication, and magical hull reinforcement, bad ass ships coming through!