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JellyPooga
2008-01-07, 08:08 AM
O.k, making a character (Killoren Druid/Wu Jen/Geomancer/Arcane Heirophant) with a Medium Viper for his Animal/Familiar Companion and I was thinking about kit for this snake...clearly he can't wear gloves, boots or bracers, cloaks and mantles are probably out, I might get away with a vest or shirt, but I doubt a Robe would work. So I'm left with goggles, an amulet and a helmet (3 out of potential 11 or 12 magic item slots...not good). So, would it be fair to introduce an item that makes up the difference...a Tail Ring? Basically a Wondrous Item, wearable by a snake in the same way that a humanoid wears boots, gloves, etc. (the character has Craft Wondrous Item and is kind of swamp/jungle themed...lots of snakes, insects, poison and disease)

Also, thinking about increasing the DC of the snakes Poison special attack, I didn't want to just increase his Con (though I shall probably be doing thatas well), so what would you recommend as a good guideline for the price of an enhancement bonus to the DC of a special ability? There's not any magic items or spells in any of the books I've got that do this, so I've got nothing to go on except the rather vague magic item pricing guide in the DMG. I was thinking (bonus squared) x 500, but I wasn't sure if that was too cheap.

Cheers for any help you can give,
JP

Keld Denar
2008-01-07, 08:31 AM
I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure that most animal forms remain legal targets for necklace and cloak slots. That about it though. I'll have to dig a bit to find the citation for this, but I remember seeing it somewhere around the clarification of druids wildshape in respect to what item slots didn't meld and become non-functioning when in non-humanoid forms.

Animals can also use Ioun Stones, so a +2 CON Ioun Stone would be 8k, a +4 CON Ioun Stone is 32k, and a +6 CON Stone is 72k gold.

Ability Focus is a feat in the MM that increases the DC of a natural attack form by 2. Granting your familiar the feat Ability Focus: Venom would increase its DC. There is an Ioun Stone that grants a feat (Alertness) and that would be a good starting place. Since AF:Venom is considered to be more powerful than Alertness (most feats are) increasing price by 1.5 or 2 would probably be fair.

EDIT: Fixed Ability Focus...yea yea yea....

Khanderas
2008-01-07, 08:31 AM
Replace a scale or ten with a gem with the magical enhancement you want ?
Sure that would be an unslotted item (with the extra cost that incurs) and problebly so non-standard you have to make it yourself. But it would look awesome.

A tongue ring ?

Most items would be quite encumbersome for the snake bodytype/movement.
Magical tatoos would work better.

Fishy
2008-01-07, 08:32 AM
A fang ring would be pretty pimpin'.

You might be able to justify more than one amulet, if they were more like neckbands or collars: Snakes are basically all neck. On the other hand, lack of equipment slots is part of what makes animals in D&D. Balance, and stuff.

Lord Lorac Silvanos
2008-01-07, 08:45 AM
Lack of appendages and an uncustomary body shape was never meant to be a balancing factor, so it is entirely reasonable to allow for other items.
Perhaps allowing more rings, allowing gems as wondrous items or specially shaped bracers etc.

I think lussmanj has the price right for the feat at about 20000 gp. I can inform you that it adds +2 though, so it is not as expensive as it sounds.

Your formula is too cheap in my opinion. If you are going to allow the bonus to be bought without buying the feat I would suggest a price around half of what it would cost to acquire the bonus through ability increase:
(2xbonus)^2 x 500

13_CBS
2008-01-07, 08:48 AM
The various splatbooks on dragons have equipment that could fit such creatures, so I'm sure you could adapt some of them to your snake. Items include tail rings (three rings that fit over, well, the tail), "fake teeth" made of metal (to increase bite damage), collars...

Chronicled
2008-01-07, 09:57 AM
Ability Focus is a feat in the MM that increases the DC of a natural attack form by 1. Granting your familiar the feat Ability Focus: Venom would increase its DC. There is an Ioun Stone that grants a feat (Alertness) and that would be a good starting place. Since AF:Venom is considered to be more powerful than Alertness (most feats are) increasing price by 1.5 or 2 would probably be fair.

Actually, Ability Focus (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#abilityFocus) increases the DC by 2.