What is with these pricings on Khyber Shard items in Eberron 3.5?

[GuestEleven]

I'm reading through the Eberron Campaign Setting book, all seems fine and fair until I hit this magic item chapter, particularly the segment on Khyber Shards bound to arms and armor. I must be missing something here, these are some very minor effects for tens of thousands of gold. Just going to highlight my favorites here.

Weapons Bonuses

Earthbound: For the price of a +1 bonus you get a +2 enhancement bonus to attack and damage, but only if you and your opponent are touching the ground, otherwise you lose the bonus????

Burning: For a +2 it acts as a flaming weapon. You get a +2 on initiative IF you have your weapon out and ready. The last affect is enemies struck have to make a DC 11 dex save or catch fire. DC 11, that is laughable by the time you can comfortably afford a +3 weapon.

Keeper's Fang: This is, in my opinion, the most egregious property out of them all. A +4 weapon bonus and the only effect is IF you get a killing blow with the weapon, then the soul of the victim is claimed by the god of death. That affect is laughable. A fluff component should not be a +4 bonus, and the only real use I can see for it is a plot device for the DM.

Armor Bonuses (this is where it really gets out of hand)

I would like to point out, for armors these bonuses are flat GP additions. It doesn't take up any +X bonuses which is the only redeeming factor.

Burning: for 90,000 gold, you get cold resistance 10. Also 3/day for 11 rounds each time you can light yourself up, dealing 2d6 damage to up close attackers.

Stonemeld: For 80,000 gold you get DR 5/- and meld into stone 3/day. Meld into stone is nice. I know a lot of people like DR, but I personally don't put much value into it. That being said, the value is /- and this pricing, while I find it ridiculous, is pretty in line for the cost of other DR items.

Underwater Action: For 86,000 gold you can breath under water as the water breathing spell, your armor incurs no ACP on swim check and 2/day you can produce a quench effect as the spell. You heard that right, for 86,000 you only get water breathing, ACP negation for swimming and quench. Wow. Just wow.

Where did they get these prices??? I can get the argument that Khyber shards are very rare and valuable, but at that point make the bonuses worth it. Maybe I'm wrong or maybe I missed something, I just had to rant.

[Telonius]

I'm reading through the Eberron Campaign Setting book, all seems fine and fair until I hit this magic item chapter, particularly the segment on Khyber Shards bound to arms and armor. I must be missing something here, these are some very minor effects for tens of thousands of gold. Just going to highlight my favorites here.

Weapons Bonuses

Earthbound: For the price of a +1 bonus you get a +2 enhancement bonus to attack and damage, but only if you and your opponent are touching the ground, otherwise you lose the bonus????

Burning: For a +2 it acts as a flaming weapon. You get a +2 on initiative IF you have your weapon out and ready. The last affect is enemies struck have to make a DC 11 dex save or catch fire. DC 11, that is laughable by the time you can comfortably afford a +3 weapon.

Keeper's Fang: This is, in my opinion, the most egregious property out of them all. A +4 weapon bonus and the only effect is IF you get a killing blow with the weapon, then the soul of the victim is claimed by the god of death. That affect is laughable. A fluff component should not be a +4 bonus, and the only real use I can see for it is a plot device for the DM.

Armor Bonuses (this is where it really gets out of hand)

I would like to point out, for armors these bonuses are flat GP additions. It doesn't take up any +X bonuses which is the only redeeming factor.

Burning: for 90,000 gold, you get cold resistance 10. Also 3/day for 11 rounds each time you can light yourself up, dealing 2d6 damage to up close attackers.

Stonemeld: For 80,000 gold you get DR 5/- and meld into stone 3/day. Meld into stone is nice. I know a lot of people like DR, but I personally don't put much value into it. That being said, the value is /- and this pricing, while I find it ridiculous, is pretty in line for the cost of other DR items.

Underwater Action: For 86,000 gold you can breath under water as the water breathing spell, your armor incurs no ACP on swim check and 2/day you can produce a quench effect as the spell. You heard that right, for 86,000 you only get water breathing, ACP negation for swimming and quench. Wow. Just wow.

Where did they get these prices??? I can get the argument that Khyber shards are very rare and valuable, but at that point make the bonuses worth it. Maybe I'm wrong or maybe I missed something, I just had to rant.

Yeah, the prices are in no way reflective of what they do mechanically. My guess is that the prices are supposed to reflect the difficulty of creating them - since they all require an extra feat (Bind Elemental) and a successful Planar Bind. I don't think they're supposed to be for players to buy, but for Artificers (who get Bind Elemental as a bonus feat) to make and sell. Getting a Khyber shard, searching out an elemental, binding it, selling it to some rich guy in Sharn who has more money than sense - that might be worth 40-45k gp worth of bother.

[GuestEleven]

Getting a Khyber shard, searching out an elemental, binding it, selling it to some rich guy in Sharn who has more money than sense - that might be worth 40-45k gp worth of bother.

I like the way you think. I still find it incredibly disappointing though.

[Chronos]

Does Earthbound stack with normal enhancement bonuses? And if so, does it make the weapon count as epic when fighting enemies on the ground? Because given the habit at some tables of casting Greater Magic Weapon on everything anyway, a bonus that stacks with normal enhancement bonuses can be pretty good.

And isn't "khyber" a Star Wars thing?

[Bohandas]

And isn't "khyber" a Star Wars thing?

I think it's originally the name of a place in Pakistan.

Why two seperate speculative fiction franchises have decided to name magic gemstones after it I don't know. To the best of my (admittedly extremely limited and thus possibly incorrect) knowledge the place isn't known for gemstones. It seems to be more closely associated with marble quarrying.

[Tzardok]

Earthbound doesn't seem so bad to me. A +2 bonus for half price under a fairly common circumstance in exchange for no bonus if that circumstance isn't given? Seems good.


Does Earthbound stack with normal enhancement bonuses? And if so, does it make the weapon count as epic when fighting enemies on the ground? Because given the habit at some tables of casting Greater Magic Weapon on everything anyway, a bonus that stacks with normal enhancement bonuses can be pretty good.

And isn't "khyber" a Star Wars thing?

In the Eberron setting there's creation myth according to which the world was created from three dragons called Siberys, Eberron and Khyber. From Siberys came the planet's ring, Eberron became the world's surface and Khyber the local Underdark equivalent. Each of the three dragons is associated with a specific type of crystal called dragon shard that can be used for different magic items: Siberys shards fall as meteorites, Eberron shards can be found in the soil, and Khyber shards are mined deep in the earth.

[Bohandas]

But it's ALSO the name of a Star Wars thing, AND a region in Pakistan, and it seems strange to me that these three things would have the same name by coincidence (although I don;t know nearly enough about statistics to figure out how strange specifically)

[Anymage]

The odds of two separate franchises independently settling on the name of the same pakastani region are pretty slim. The odds of a setting packed with geek references looking for a reason to include something called "khyber crystals" as a direct reference is a lot higher.

[Malphegor]

The odds of two separate franchises independently settling on the name of the same pakastani region are pretty slim. The odds of a setting packed with geek references looking for a reason to include something called "khyber crystals" as a direct reference is a lot higher.

it… might be the other way around, i think star wars didn’t call them khyber crystals until the disney new canon. So if anything it’s star wars referencing eberron, which is wild.

(there were crystals before but afaik it wasn’t specific types, to the point where a big dragon’s gizzard pearl could be stuffed jn a lightsaber)

[Zanos]

it… might be the other way around, i think star wars didn’t call them khyber crystals until the disney new canon. So if anything it’s star wars referencing eberron, which is wild.

(there were crystals before but afaik it wasn’t specific types, to the point where a big dragon’s gizzard pearl could be stuffed jn a lightsaber)
Kaiburr or Khyber crystals are referenced multiple times in pre-disney canon, both in novels and KOTOR itself, assuming that's where you're getting the funny dragon pearl jammed into a lightsaber thing.

[Tzardok]

I think it's propably random happenstance. Things like that happen. Asari is a Japanese family name, a community in Latvia and the blue-skinned space babes in Mass Effect. Heck, I once saw a small village in Germany called Borg. The people there certainly didn't like assimiliating others. Or the fact that Overlord is the title of both an anime and a Western video game, and both involve a protagonist with funnily crazy minions, despite having nothing else in common. That two different fantasy settings have places called Khyber that are associated with crystals doesn't seem that unlikely.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Weapon bonuses don't seem that bad to me. +2 enhancement bonus for the price of +1 if both are on the ground will often come up, and seems like the appropriate price. Making it +3 would be too much, I think. Burning is strictly better than Flaming, they couldn't have put it at +1. I agree it's probably a bit worse than Flaming+Eager, but it's definitely +2. Keeper's Fang seems way too expensive, until you wonder how you can replicate that effect. Barring Barghest shenanigans, the only ways to prevent True Resurrection are generally 9th-level spells (Imprisonment, Mindrape to make them unwilling, Soul Bind, Necrotic Termination...) with only Barghest's Feast as an obscure 7th level spell that isn't even certain to work. The weapon ability is supposed to replicate Soul Bind, which requires material components upwards to 20,000 gp. Being able to do it at will for 50,000 is not egregious. It's quite expensive, and would probably fit at +3, but +2 would be too cheap for that kind of effect, for example.

Now, the armor prices are really not justifiable, but they're the standard prices for similar spell effects. For example, Continuous Water Breathing and Quench 2/day at CL11 should be priced 1800*3*11*(1+2/5)=83160. They didn't take into account the fact that Quench is a lame spell, and that Water Breathing could be 1/day instead and it would change nothing since it's 2h/level, but the given price is the standard one for items replicating spells. If you want a more affordable price, the Magic Item Compendium printed the Greater Crystal of Aquatic Action, which gives the same benefits without the Quench part, for 3k gp.

[Bohandas]

Kaiburr or Khyber crystals are referenced multiple times in pre-disney canon, both in novels and KOTOR itself, assuming that's where you're getting the funny dragon pearl jammed into a lightsaber thing.

Indeed, they date back all the way back to Splinter in the Mind's Eye, which IIRC was the second piece of Star Wars media ever produced

[Metastachydium]

I think it's originally the name of a place in Pakistan.

Why two seperate speculative fiction franchises have decided to name magic gemstones after it I don't know. To the best of my (admittedly extremely limited and thus possibly incorrect) knowledge the place isn't known for gemstones. It seems to be more closely associated with marble quarrying.


But it's ALSO the name of a Star Wars thing, AND a region in Pakistan, and it seems strange to me that these three things would have the same name by coincidence (although I don;t know nearly enough about statistics to figure out how strange specifically)


The odds of two separate franchises independently settling on the name of the same pakastani region are pretty slim. The odds of a setting packed with geek references looking for a reason to include something called "khyber crystals" as a direct reference is a lot higher.


I think it's propably random happenstance. Things like that happen. Asari is a Japanese family name, a community in Latvia and the blue-skinned space babes in Mass Effect. Heck, I once saw a small village in Germany called Borg. The people there certainly didn't like assimiliating others. Or the fact that Overlord is the title of both an anime and a Western video game, and both involve a protagonist with funnily crazy minions, despite having nothing else in common. That two different fantasy settings have places called Khyber that are associated with crystals doesn't seem that unlikely.

Interesting fact: the Khyber region in our Asia might not be famous for its gemstones, but the Khyber Pass is an infamous hub of local gunsmiths known for their production of handmade copies for various mass-manufactured firearms. While occasionally decent, these counterfeits are often pretty but of an atrocious to mediocre quality.

[Feantar]

Keeper's Fang seems way too expensive, until you wonder how you can replicate that effect.

Don't thinaun weapons do that?

[Tzardok]

Not quite. A thinaun weapon can hold only a single soul at once. Imprisoning a second frees the first. On the other hand, a Keeper's Fang only catches the soul of people that it kills, while thinaun catches the soul of anyone who dies while touching, including the wielder.

But yes, the difference isn't that large.