Fountain Pen of Obedience

[Someonelse]

I'm writing an adventure right now that involves a magical fountain pen. The pen is important to the story, but when this adventure is done the PCs will recover the pen from the BBEG's loot. My problem is that if they decide to sell it I have no idea what it's worth. Nor can I decide if this should be a minor artifact or just a regular magic item. And finally, I have a little concern that the players will use the pen to break D&D as they have in the past when I was less careful in creating unique items. So, I'm just going to copy paste everything I wrote about the pen in my notes and ask you to review it. Is it an artifact? If not, what's it worth? And, most importantly, how bad can it be abused?


from my notes: The PCs find a magical fountain pen. The pen never runs out of ink. Furthermore, if the pen is ever used by someone to sign a contract of their own free will the pen will hold them to it as with a Dominate Monster spell, forcing their obedience to both the spirit and the letter of the contract (this effect functions even on subjects who are otherwise immune to mind affecting effects because this magical function of the pen is based on the fact that the subject signed the contract of their own free will, thus accepting the spell willingly and negating any opportunity to resist). If the subject is coerced into signing something against their will (note that coercion is different from reluctance), they get a DC15 will save vs mind affecting effects (creatures immune to MAEs are thus immune to this function) to resist, if they fail they may be entitled to further saves as detailed in the Dominate Monster spell description. A subject who did not know the pen was magical who had no intention of disregarding the contract would remain completely unaware of the compulsion, however, someone who intended to ignore the contract would be surprised to find themselves compelled to obey.

[Dracomortis]

A magic item that simply allowed you to activate a dominate monster effect at-will would be worth 153,000 gp according to the Dungeon Master's Guide (caster level 17 x spell level 9th x 2,000 gp = 306,000 gp, which is then halved because dominate monster has a duration of 24 hours or more).

Your pen isn't quite as useful as the above theoretical item, though, since you can't really use it at-will; it only works if someone signs a contract using the pen, and even then can only control their actions as laid out in the contract. On the other hand, your pen ignores immunities that would normally protect against such effects. I would maybe price it ~20% cheaper than the above item. If you're concerned about your players abusing the pen if they decide to hold on to it, consider removing the ability to force people into the contract against their will; that way you have total control over who does and does not sign using the pen.

[Glimbur]

Seems like a minor artifact to me, and one that would be of great interest to Devils. Just a thought to pursue if the PC's use it too liberally.

I agree that you shouldn't be able to magically compel force people to use it, it should be free will only. Well, unless you kidnap their family and force them to sign or something