PDA

View Full Version : Question about Magic Item pricing



Jimp
2008-05-07, 11:06 AM
Are there any guildelines for enchanting a weapon or piece of armor with something other than the standard +1,+2, etc enchantments? For example a longsword that could cast fireball 1/day with a command word, or something similar.
My first thought is it use the wonderous item guidelines. Would this work or is there an official guideline about it?

Telonius
2008-05-07, 11:16 AM
I'm not aware of guidelines to do that. But if I were DMing, I would say that yes, you could turn a sword into a wondrous item. You'd need to have the Craft Wondrous Item feat, rather than the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat. I might add on extra cost if you want to then make it a +1 Sword on top of being a 1/day fireball item (some fluff about magical fields interacting oddly, or something like that).

Chosen_of_Vecna
2008-05-07, 11:21 AM
1) You would use all the Wondouros Item rules.

2) It would be an unslotted magic item, costing twice the base price.

Jayabalard
2008-05-07, 01:31 PM
"Rods usable as weapons must include the masterwork weapon cost." (footnote 1 of Table: Summary of Magic Item Creation Costs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm)). Since rods can be made using weapons, it would probably be appropriate to use the rod/staff/wand creation rules, especially if the effect you're looking for already exists as a rod staff or wand.

SoD
2008-05-07, 01:39 PM
There are also some wonderous items that can be used as weapons...

BrainFreeze
2008-05-07, 04:35 PM
You can make it as a wonderous item pretty easly, just create the weapon using the magical weapon charts then default to the wonderous item charts and add that cost as a modifier. Using that you can make a +2 Long Sword of Fireball, that will cast Fireball 3 times a day with a command word. Just price it as a +2 Long Sword first, then add the price for casting Fireball 3/d at whatever caster level you want.

Though you would need both the magic arms/armor and the wonderous item creation feats.

Fear my +2 Last Breath crossbow bolts.

Megafly
2008-05-07, 06:10 PM
This is explained in exhaustive detail in the MIC

Chosen_of_Vecna
2008-05-07, 06:20 PM
You can make it as a wonderous item pretty easly, just create the weapon using the magical weapon charts then default to the wonderous item charts and add that cost as a modifier. Using that you can make a +2 Long Sword of Fireball, that will cast Fireball 3 times a day with a command word. Just price it as a +2 Long Sword first, then add the price for casting Fireball 3/d at whatever caster level you want.

Though you would need both the magic arms/armor and the wonderous item creation feats.

Fear my +2 Last Breath crossbow bolts.

Except you also have to double the price of the wondorous part of the item to account for it being unslotted.

Jack_Simth
2008-05-07, 06:57 PM
Except you also have to double the price of the wondorous part of the item to account for it being unslotted.
It's not exactly unslotted - there's a virtual "hand slot" that's off-slot for basically everything. Multiply by 1.5, as is done for the various energy resistance abilities stacked on shields compared to the cost of the corresponding ring of energy resistance.

A Sword that can make a caster level 5 DC 14 Fireball once per day with a command-word isn't particularly broken - making it a +8,100 gp add-on to a magical weapon is fairly reasonable. It's not like direct-damage effects aren't in line with magic weapons, after all. In most cases, a melee character would do just as well (if not better) using a bow, instead - for less cost, too.

Funkyodor
2008-05-08, 08:41 AM
Hmmm, just imagine smashing together a tricked out Great Sword and a Rod of Absorption. Arrows and Beads of Force. Bolts and Necklace of Fireballs. Sling Bullets and Rod of Cancellation. Sword and Belt of Strength. Bow and Boots of Teleportation. Quarterstaff and Immovable Rod, just imagine the cool acrobatic maneuvers that a character could pull off.

It would not be considered unslotted, because these items would not work if stored in a backpack, or carried in a handy haversack. They must be out and in hand to operate.