Questions about magic items

[Max Caysey]

I have a bunch of questions about magic items:

1) If I wanted to craft an item that yielded a +5 bonus to every skill in the game, would I have to pay for each individual knowledge skill? And how many skills are there in total in the game?

2) How many Orage Ioun stones can one have at one time, and do they stack, for infinite bonus to CL?

3) Same question with Ring of Arcane Might? Could one have two (or more with extra slot feat) of the same ring? Would they stack? Would it be possible to create a Ring of Ultra Arcane might, that had a higher bonus than +1?

Cheers!

[Rleonardh]

Same benefits is same price so say +5 I think it's 1250gp per skill.

Total skills is alot as you gotta add profession, perform, and all knowledge ones. So easy 40+ skills.

[Thurbane]

I mean, on top of all the skills (and potentially the plethora of sub skills of Knowledge, Perform, Craft, Profession etc.) in the SRD, you've got stuff like Iaijutsu Focus (OA), Truespeak (ToM), Martial Lore (ToB), Lucid Dreaming (MotP), Control Shape (MM/SRD) and probably other I've forgotten.

Also the psisonic stuff in the SRD: Autohypnosis, Knowledge (psionics), Use Psionic Device...

[Rleonardh]

In truth maybe only do the ones you really need boosts to.
Say rogue:
Search
Spot
Disable trap
Umd
Tumble(if going that route)

Maybe some rpg skills:
Gather info
Diplomacy
Umd

I left out hide and move silent as honestly alot of later monsters can sence or see you no matter what unless you got dark stalker feat even than true sight, see invisibility, or like can still see you.

[pabelfly]

I'd suggest a custom item, a command word "Wieldskill" ring. The price is 1800 gold and would work on any skill you have at least one rank in for one minute (you could increase the duration by increasing the price of the item), but I think this is quite underpriced for getting what's essentially a +5 competence bonus to almost any skill check your character would be interested in.

[Harrow]

I have a bunch of questions about magic items:

1) If I wanted to craft an item that yielded a +5 bonus to every skill in the game, would I have to pay for each individual knowledge skill? And how many skills are there in total in the game?

2) How many Orage Ioun stones can one have at one time, and do they stack, for infinite bonus to CL?

3) Same question with Ring of Arcane Might? Could one have two (or more with extra slot feat) of the same ring? Would they stack? Would it be possible to create a Ring of Ultra Arcane might, that had a higher bonus than +1?

Cheers!

1) There are no rules for custom magic items, only guidelines. Which is to say, it's even more of a DM call than most things in this game. Personally, for an item that gave +5 to all skills, I would look at spells that did similar. There's a first level equivalent spell-like ability with a duration measured in rounds that does this, Universal Aptitude from the list of Truenamer utterances. That would give us a price of 8,000 gold, which feels low to me. A single +5 competence item costs 2,500 gold, so that's where I would look to next. I would say about 4 of those is where I'd just say "whatever, just take all the skills". That's 10,000 gold, before you factor in the extra cost of combining items. I'd let my players have such an item for probably around 12,000 gold. That's less than the cost of buying a combined +5 competence to 4 skills item, but +50% over a continuous Universal Aptitude item. It feels about right to me, but every DM will be different.

2) Multiple bonuses from the same source don't stack.

3.1) See the answer for 2) above

3.2) There is no formula provided for caster level boosts, so the guidelines are even less helpful than usual here. You could look at spells that give caster level bonuses above +1, but there aren't a ton of those. A couple of bard spells and Spell Enhancer. The bard spells are Harmonic Chorus, Hymn of Praise, and Infernal Threnody, none of which were intended to be used by the caster. Spell Enhancer is 4th and only lasts for a single spell. If it could be made continuous at all, which many would argue it either couldn't or technically could but would require a standard action to re-activate after every use, it would cost 4 (spell level) X 7 (minimum caster level) X 2000 (base price adjustment for a continuous spell effect) X 4 (extra adjustment for having a duration measured in rounds) for a total of... 224,000 gold? Huh, that's a bit higher than I figured. If I didn't mess my math up, I believe a single item of that cost runs afoul some kind of epic magic items clause that makes it cost X10 more and also not available at all if you don't have epic rules in play.

[KillianHawkeye]

As for skills like Craft, Perform, and Profession, there's no practical limit to how many sub-skills there could be. Craft maybe a bit less so, but the lists in the books are basically just common examples. You could make up a Profession (circus clown) skill, or anything else you can think of.

[aglondier]

Perhaps crafting an item that gives you a +5 bonus to one or more skills, but you can switch them around with 10 minutes of meditation once per day...

[sleepyphoenixx]

I left out hide and move silent as honestly alot of later monsters can sence or see you no matter what unless you got dark stalker feat even than true sight, see invisibility, or like can still see you.

Where did you get that idea? Neither true seeing nor see invisibility work against hide.
With Darkstalker the only things that work against hide are spot, mindsight, touchsight and lifesight.


True seeing does not help the viewer see through mundane disguises, spot creatures who are simply hiding, or notice secret doors hidden by mundane means.


The spell does not reveal the method used to obtain invisibility. It does not reveal illusions or enable you to see through opaque objects. It does not reveal creatures who are simply hiding, concealed, or otherwise hard to see.

[Biggus]

I have a bunch of questions about magic items:

1) If I wanted to craft an item that yielded a +5 bonus to every skill in the game, would I have to pay for each individual knowledge skill? And how many skills are there in total in the game?

2) How many Orage Ioun stones can one have at one time, and do they stack, for infinite bonus to CL?

3) Same question with Ring of Arcane Might? Could one have two (or more with extra slot feat) of the same ring? Would they stack? Would it be possible to create a Ring of Ultra Arcane might, that had a higher bonus than +1?

Cheers!

1) The nearest thing I can think of to base this off is the Circlet of Persuasion which gives +3 to all Cha-based checks for 4,500GP; extended to six ability scores that would be 27,000GP. Assuming its price is based on bonus squared, as most magic items are, that would be 3,000GP for a +1 bonus and thus 75,000GP for a +5 one.

This does apply to ability checks as well as skill checks; presumably if you wanted just skill checks it would be cheaper, although by how much I think you'd have to ask your DM.

2) and 3a) In general, two of the same spell/item/bonus don't stack/can't be used together.

3b) As far as I know, there's only one source in 3.5 where items which suggest this might be possible appear: Larloch's stat block in Lords of Darkness p.161-2. It's 3.0 so the orange prism didn't exist yet, but it does contain a pale green prism which gives a +5 competence bonus to attacks, saves and checks, and another one which acts as a +5 stone of good luck.

There's no price given for them, and it's not stated whether they're artifacts, epic items or what, so the details are very much in "ask your DM" territory, but it does show that such items can exist in 3E.