How can I cast a spell into an item for it to be casted again and again?

[Zhepna]

Hi,

we start level 3, I'm an artificer and I want to make the life of people in the city as best as I can.

I would like to cast spells into objects. Low level spells like mending, prestidigitation, creat water at the beginning and make better as we level.

It could change dramatically the way the commoners live.

I found spell clock but it's way too expansive at 130 000 gp

I have vague memories of a way to make a trap that cast repeatedly the same spell over and over and cost like 4x less than a infinite wand of the same spells but I cannot find anything. The item cannot move but that's exactly what I want since it's for public use.

I remember a book that was talking about constructing castle that was talking about this kind of items.

Do you know items that could do it?
How would you help a city as an artificier?

We can use dragon magazines, all 3.5 and pathfinder books.

Thanks for the information and have a nice day.

[Arael666]

You're looking tor auto reseting traps, luckly they are available in the SRD https://www.d20srd.org/srd/traps.htm

[Rebel7284]

Auto-resetting traps of beneficial spells are widely considered to be an oversight by the developers and thus very cheesy. Check with your DM before using trap rules this way.

Other options:
- Eternal Wands are one way to cast low-level spells once per day forever.
- Minor Schema are very similar to Eternal Wands.
- Energy Transformation Field + anything with an at-will SLA (level 1 warlock for example) can lead to repeatable beneficial spells.
- Collar of Perpetual Attendance gives you an at-will Unseen Servant, which can greatly improve quality of life by doing many simple tasks. Note that the item is from an April Fools article, but nothing prevents it from being usable in a normal game.

edit: If you can't find someone with low level SLAs for Energy Transformation Field, the spell Call Faithful Servants can give you 1d4 of them for a full YEAR. Lantern Archons definitely have an at-will SLA, I suspect the other options may too.

[Crake]

You can create custom, at-will, use activated wondrous architecture at a cost of 500x spell level x caster level (half of that to craft), so for a cost of 125g and 10xp you could create an infinite water fountain

[Gruftzwerg]

Drow House Insignia can store spells up to 3rd lvl. They are usable once a day and need no requirements to do so (compared to eternal wands where the user needs to be an arcane caster). Maybe you can adapt it without being a drow if your DM is willing.

[Saintheart]

Permanent runes (FRCS)

[Maat Mons]

Races of Stone has Rune Circles, which are just generic, immobile magic items that cost only 25% normal as compensation for being immobile. Also, Rune Circles get a cost adjustment based on size, because it effects how many people can benefit from it at the same time. The default size is 10 ft. x 10 ft., and a 5 ft. x 5 ft. Rune Circle gets a 50% cost reduction.

Stronghold Builder’s Guide has many specific immobile items listed, some of which were reprinted in Draconomicon. I believe there are also a smattering of items scattered around various other book.

I seem to recall a general rule that magic items that are difficult to move should cost only 50% normal, and magic items that are essentially impossible to move should cost only 25% normal. I’m not sure where that was printed though.

[Crake]

I seem to recall a general rule that magic items that are difficult to move should cost only 50% normal, and magic items that are essentially impossible to move should cost only 25% normal. I’m not sure where that was printed though.

Thats the wondrous architecture rules i quoted earlier, theyre in stronghold builders guide.

[ericgrau]

Self-resetting traps and custom magic items require special DM permission and for good reason. Abusing them goes directly against the intent and the right price is one that makes it similarly desirable to to existing items. But a custom magic item is what you want. Explain the situation openly to your DM without trying to cut corners for an unfair discount.

[Maat Mons]

The player is giving away their wealth to NPCs, not increasing their own personal power. Calling that "abuse" is... perplexing.

If I were DM, I'd give the party extra loot if there was an understanding that they were going to toss it to charity. No reason the players should be punished for choosing to RP altruistic characters.

Ideally, the game wouldn't have been designed so that a +1 sword costs more than an unskilled laborer makes in 50 years. It raises uncomfortable questions about how many poor people you could feed with the money adventurers ask for their services.

[Feantar]

You could use spell clocks (https://web.archive.org/web/20150905171430/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070312a); they cast their spells every hour.