Please help design a magic item devouring ring

[zorenathres]

Hello homebrewers, I am trying to make a magic item for my players that eats their "useless" or undesired magic items (either because of aesthetics, limited item slots, or other reasons), gaining their properties as a more-useful item that takes up less space.

I am using D&D 3.5 or 3.X, & would like to design this for a mid-to-high--op party who go scavenging for relics of the past.

The Ring:

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Version 3, With some excellent help from Debihuman & Guigarci:
Edgar's Devouring Ring: An ornate silver ring that absorbs the magical properties placed on magic items and permanently gains their abilities.

The user simply touches an unattended magic item for a full round. The ring's etched runes come to life & absorb all of the items magic properties, reverting the touched item to a masterwork or mundane item.

The ring cannot devour the properties of consumable items, charged items, artifacts, or epic items. The ring can store any number of properties, but only three can be active at a time (changing these properties requires 10 minutes of Concentration). Only one item can be absorbed per day.

Magical properties that cannot be used in a ring can still be absorbed & temporarily imbued into other appropriate items. The ring can imbue one masterwork or mundane item with up to three magic properties for up to 24 hours, counting as one of each of the ring's three active property slots. Imbuing an item requires 10 minutes of Concentration & contact with the imbued item; but the imbued item can be used by anyone until the duration expires. The owner of the ring may end the duration of this effect at any time, returning the used slots to the ring (though another 10 minutes of Concentration is required to re-imbue any used slots).

Aura: Strong Abjuration; Caster Level: 17; Requirements: Forge Ring, mage's disjunction, greater magic weapon; Market Price: 81,450 gp; Cost to Create: 40,725 gp and 40 days to create).

pretty much done with the concept, though I will try playtesting it soon,

I really appreciate any insight you can share, as well as any potential abuses to either limit or ban before introducing this into a campaign. Let me know if you use it & share your input.

Older versions & failures:

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Version 2
Edgar's Devouring Ring:
An ornate silver ring that absorbs enchantments placed on magic items & permanently gains their properties.

The user simply touches an unattended magic item for a full-round, & the rings etched runes come to life & absorb all of the items magic properties, reverting the touched item to a masterwork or mundane item.

The ring cannot absorb the properties of consumable, charge, artifact, or epic items. The ring can store any amount of properties, but only three can be active at a time (changing these properties requires 10 minutes of concentration). Only one item can be absorbed per day.

Magic Properties that cannot be used in a ring can still be absorbed & temporarily imbued into other appropriate items. The ring can imbue one appropriate masterwork or mundane item with up to three magic properties (appropriate items include any items which can receive a specific magic property) for up to 24 hours (up to a maximum enchantment bonus of +8), counting as one to three of the rings three active property slots. Appropriate magic items can also be Imbued, but any inherent properties are suppressed as long as the item is Imbued.

Imbuing an item requires 10 minutes of concentration & contact with the imbued item. The imbued item can be used by anyone until the duration expires. The owner of the ring may end the duration of this effect at any time, returning the used slots to the ring (though another 10 minutes of concentration is required to re-imbue any used slots).

Aura; Strong Abjuration, Caster Level-17, Requirements: Forge Ring, Mage's Disjunction, Magic Weapon Greater?, GP market value: 61,200 (30,600 GP & 30 days to create).


Version 1
Edgar's Devouring Ring:
An ornate silver ring that can "devour" enchantments placed on magic items & permanently gain their properties. The user simply touches an unattended magic item, & the rings etched runes come to life & absorb all of the items power, reverting the magic item to a masterwork or mundane item. The ring cannot devour the properties of consumable, charge, artifact, or epic items. The ring can store any amount of properties, but only three can be active at a time (changing these properties requires 10 minutes of concentration). Only one item can be devoured per day.
Caster Level-20?, Requirements?, ?-GP market value;


The Cursed Ring, inspired by Guigarci:

I was going to finish this, then Guigarci posted his beauty, The Singular Band, making this venture largely moot...

Edgar's Cursed Devouring Ring: An ornate silver ring that hungers for magic items & permanently gains their properties [Intelligent Item: INT ?, WIS ?, CHA ?, Ego ?]. The ring functions as a unique ring of dispelling & magic detection upon identification?
The ring hungers for magic items, & is uncooperative when it has not been fed for a week? The ring can extend two antenna's which dissolve & absorb a desired item (attended items get a save?). Items consumed this way are "digested" within 24 hours, the ring cannot devour consumable or items or items of ? size or larger. If the ring is destroyed, any undigested items reappear in the space the ring last occupied. Devouring an item is a full-round action.
The ring can store any amount of properties, but only three can be active at once in addition to its dispel magic & detect magic abilities (changing these three requires 10 minutes of concentration). Caster Level-20?, Requirements?, ?-GP market value;

[SamBurke]

So what you're looking for is an item of +5 Kirby?

Well, then. I'd have a restriction to make sure they can't do it ten times in a row, and have ten different powers... perhaps 1-3 'saved' powers?

[zorenathres]

thanks for the reply, I updated the OP, do you have any other suggestions?

[Gildedragon]

An intelligent ring with levels in artificer? Special purpose to eat all other rings, rods, wands, and wondrous items.

Have it be able of holding any number of enchantments but it can only keep them for 1 day/CL or some such limitation.
It is effectively a cursed item because it will try and eat all magic items of its owner.

[zorenathres]

An intelligent ring with levels in artificer? Special purpose to eat all other rings, rods, wands, and wondrous items.

Have it be able of holding any number of enchantments but it can only keep them for 1 day/CL or some such limitation.
It is effectively a cursed item because it will try and eat all magic items of its owner.

yes, this is excellent, I was trying to think of a cursed variant that hungered for items when the player was sleeping, but this is cooler...

though it may take some time while i look up the rules for intelligent items & EGO, maybe the ring is free to devour the owners items when it wins the ego contest? I still want to keep a player-functional version, & a cursed version would have to be manageable or it would just cause players to quit, as all their precious items have disappeared overnight.

[Gildedragon]

Ego winning should mean it refuses to work, or hinders the player if not fed something. Giving it dispel magic x times a day is an effective way to go about it.
Have it gain powers as per increasing a magic item in the MIC. Say if it eats a cloak of resistance or a headband of intellect it gains the powers permanently (making refusal to feed it dangerous) for other items: if it eats wealth equivalent to 50% the item's cost (or less depending on feats and affinities?) to make the ability (effectively) slotless. So if it eats 2 of the same item it gains the ability permanently.

It could have rust monster-like antenna that unfurl, letting it eat magic and gold

It's base stats would be a ring of dispelling and detect magic or the like.


If not fed for a long time it might object and seek to leave.

An extra possibility is it can also drain the power of magic weapons. Keep track of those abilities separately and treat it as a pommel shard.

[Gildedragon]

I think I got a pretty clear idea for its mechanics now. Will write it up getting home

[zorenathres]

got a rough draft for the cursed variant up in the OP, I will update later.

EDIT: on second thought, your idea sounds both more complicated & cooler than mine, & I have no experience with making powerful cursed items, I can't wait to see it!

[Gildedragon]

Here it is, the Singular Band. Motto: There can be only one
Note that I've made it a greater artifact as... well it being unique in the world removes the "what happens if one band eats another" problem and fits with the theme. Furthermore it means it is priceless and allows flexibility with the giving of class abilities (retain essence and steal spell effect) and feats.

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The Singular Band
Greater Artifact
This cyrite signet ring is capped with a large moonstone cabochon. Arcane runes in variegated colors flicker over the gem and spill into the band itself

Abilities: Int 18, Cha 18, Wis 10
Alignment: NE
Ego: 25
Skills: Spellcraft 14, Use Magic Device 19, Knowledge (Arcana) 9
Senses: Telepathy, Continuous Detect Magic, Read Magic, Read Languages

Dedicated Powers:

• Identify (1 min casting, touch) (at will)
• Dispel Magic 3/day
• Greater Dispel Magic 1/day
• Share Spells with wearer
• Steal Spell Effect (from bearer only)
• Forge Ring (self only)
• Craft Wondrous Item (self only)
• Retain Essence

Personality:
The Singular Band is greedy, obstinate, selfish, and haughty, holding itself as the pinnacle of magical accomplishment. It thus detests all items that deny it its devouring (other intelligent items in particular), and seeks to destroy them. Its mind is cunning and underhanded, though not overly malicious. It will collaborate with a more mobile being, and one that feeds it well and often.

Special Purpose:
Absorb and destroy all other magic items; especially rings; until it is the sole magic item in the world.

Description:
The Singular Band is capable of destroying and absorbing the powers of magical items. Absorbing a magic items takes 5 minutes of continuous contact; it is not yet capable of absorbing epic, artifact power, or other intelligent magic items; but it yearns for that might. After the 5 minutes all magic is drained from the object, leaving behind slag, ashes, shattered glass, and sawdust.

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Alternatively it leaves behind: unenchanted objects of masterwork quality, vials of strange-smelling water (in the case of potions), ash-stained blank pieces of parchment or books (in the case of scrolls and spellbooks), and finely carved batons (in the case of staffs, rods, and wands); rings are utterly destroyed.

The Singular Band is only capable of retaining the power of its victims for 1d4+4 days (this is Charisma based) unless it consumes further wealth (while it still has access to the power) to allow it to graft the magic onto itself (following MIC's guidelines for adding powers) generally 50% of the item's cost in valuables; though another magic item of the same type will do.

Spellbooks: The Singular Band considers spellbooks to be magical items and can be used as a Blessed Book or Spellshard. Scribed pages of a spellbook can be fed to it in lieu of magical items; though they must be spells it does not know. The bearer of the band can access the spells devoured by the Band as if they were in their personal spellbook. Spells so stored in the band vanish after 1d4+4 days unless the bearer feeds it valuables totaling to 10gp per page.

Weapons and Armor: The Singular Band can absorb powers from magic weapons and armor (as normal), and lend them to its wielder, infusing them into any one masterwork weapon or shield held in the hand bearing the ring, and into the (masterwork) armor worn by the bearer. If the weapons, armor, or shield are magical, the Band will seek to sap its powers even as it lends its magic; the result is that the powers on the Band suppress and supersede the powers on the ring.

As the Band may hold the power of various pieces of equipment, it takes 1 minute to sort through its powers and select the weapon, shield and armor of one's liking.

As with other magical items, the power of an absorbed weapon fades after 1d4+4 days unless 50% of its worth (counting only the price of its special abilities and not the masterwork and weapon costs) is consumed in said time. Weapons and armor consumed by the ring may be enhanced further by the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat, at 150% normal cost.

Note On Powers: The powers and effects of all items it consumes apply to the Band alone, but it can choose (or be compelled by beating the Will save against its Ego; or, failing that, a Diplomacy Check DC 45) to grant its bearer access to its powers.

Should the bearer fail to gain dominance over the Band, it demands the following:

That its wearer feed it all magic items they come across
That all beneficial spells to be cast on its wearer are cast on it instead; and forces the bearer to cast any beneficial spells intended for themselves on the ring instead.

On a natural 1 on the will save, or a failure by 5 or more on the diplomacy check, it forces the bearer feed it at least 1 magic item in their possession.

Failure to comply means that the band refuses to share its myriad powers with its bearer, and will insidiously counter or absorb any beneficial magics cast on it; without sharing them with the bearer (unless not doing so benefits the band).

Should a poor relationship form between the bearer and the Band, the Band will deliberately seek to have its bearer killed and devour their gear before a new bearer picks it up. Causes for a poor relationship could be: continuous and willful denial of magic items to consume; having another artifact without intention to destroy it; having another intelligent item; extended storage in an antimagic field.

Note on Ego: For every 5000gp of permanent magic items (ignoring potions, scrolls, wands, and other items with limited uses; but counting pages from spellbooks (at 100gp/spell level)) the band consumes, its ego score goes up by 1. For every week it goes without feeding, the band's effective Ego score goes up by 3, and the Diplomacy DC goes up by 10 (these modifiers go away as soon as it has been fed). If there are no magical items around it does not, necessarily hold its bearer responsible; depending on their prior relationship.

[zorenathres]

my hat goes off to you sir, you are truly a scholar & a gentlemen.

truly excellent! thank you for sharing you expertise, it is a beauty...

[Gildedragon]

Glad you like it. It was fun to make.

[zorenathres]

as powerful as it is, I would be afraid to use it in most games, & surely not without player consent? With its growing ego, is it destined to always betray its owner & eat everything in sight? if so, then I know my players would likely make it the core campaign goal (regardless of the current plot) to eliminate this terrible artifact.

[Gildedragon]

... Each could be the center of a whole set of adventures—a quest to recover it, a fight against a opponent wielding it, a mission to cause its destruction, and so on.

No table has been included to randomly generate specific artifacts, since these items should only enter a campaign through deliberate choice on your part.

The Ego growth can be curbed, making the threshold higher (every 10,000 gp it eats as opposed to 5,000gp). But the Ego ought to grow as a show of its increasing power.
A stricter RAW reading would have the Ego go up by 1 every time it consumes an item (thus gaining new powers).

If the player were to spend all their WBL on enchantments and magic items, by level 20 this would have an ego of 177 by my guidelines. 101 if we go per 10kgp for each +1.

[zorenathres]

yea thanks for posting that, as I really don't have any experience creating artifacts, as my original goal was to make a more utility item for players to recycle their unwanted items.

[Gildedragon]

It's not too bad as a utility item. You can fiddle with the Ego; make it LG even with the goal of destroying all evil artifacts. As such it'd be less avaricious about items. Heck; it could be the first manifestation of the Becoming God if you play Eberron; seeking to ascend into full godhood.

As for integrating magical items into others; there are rules on the MIC for that.
Giving them access to a magical forge (in RoS) gets them Craft Magic Arms and Armor or Craft Wondrous Items, which lets them do the joining of the items.

You can re-fluff the forge to the Rings and make it a quicker process than 1day/1000 gp (grant the artisan feats from ECS to cut down all costs by 1/4).
Hah! 2 gauntlets:

Gauntlets of Moradin: Price ~ 25K per gauntlet

Gauntlet of The Armorer: Minor artifact, price
Grants Craft Magic Arms and Armor
Grants Legendary Artisan

Gauntlet of Maker: Minor artifact
Grants Craft Wondrous Item
Grants Extraordinary Artisan

Set Bonus:
Grant Retain Essence as Artificer
Cuts down costs (time, gold, and XP) to 50%

[zorenathres]

yep exactly, I was trying to give the original ring that kind of utility in the middle of the wastelands. Just eating up what they didn't want to carry.

Diggin the idea of a different alignment & outlook, though I feel sorry for any BBEG holding the big bad evil artifact (BBEA?).

Now I have the Magic Item Compendium, along with a hundred other books I have only skimmed & yet to really look through in detail. Lately, I have been used to going to the SRD out of reflex & its probably costing me, since the non-core books are more obscure to me.


So I have a question about the retain essence ability, does this stack with its primary ability? I.E. When it absorbs a magic item normally, does it automatically retain the essence within the item or does it have to make a retain essence effect separate from that?

[Gildedragon]

the ring: it's a way to nullify the XP cost of the item.

Retrain essence allows you to siphon the creation XP off an item to craft new items; thus recycling the whole item.

Mechanically what it does is: take away XP and re-craft the item on itself by a UMD check (and assuming it takes 20 always as a result of its artifactness). and craft it as an artificer; destroying the item's magic for its gold cost.

[zorenathres]

gotcha,

are those gauntlets in the MIC? never seen these before...

just announcing that I updated the OP, the ring, & dropped the cursed project staring in awe at the Singular Band.

[Gildedragon]

nope. they are roughly based of the magical forges in Races of Stone, with a surcharge for adding an extra feat, a small deduction for using the ring slot, and a small charge for making them portable, and a bit of finnagling to make them set items; along with the recomendation they be relics or minor artifacts

Relic is actually a great idea. Cut the price down by 5k, require True Believer and 12 HD or a 5th level slot.

[Debihuman]

Edgar's Devouring Ring
An ornate silver ring that can "devour" enchantments placed on magic items & permanently gain their properties. The user simply touches an unattended magic item, & the rings etched runes come to life & absorb all of the items power, reverting the magic item to a masterwork or mundane item. The ring cannot devour the properties of consumable, charge, artifact, or epic items. The ring can store any amount of properties, but only three can be active at a time (changing these properties requires 10 minutes of concentration). Only one item can be devoured per day.

First, it can only store enchantments. Do you specifically mean the school of enchanting or do you mean it can steal enhancements. If you mean it can steal enhancements, you should be aware that you cannot have a +1 ring so that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Debby


: Forge Ring spell turning

[Gildedragon]

False. A ring could store weapon enhancements as a dragonshard pommel or an augment crystal does. Furthermore there are ring weapons (poison ring, garrotte ring, modular weapons)

[Debihuman]

A pommel is part of a weapon and so is a weapon crystal so you can put weapon enhancements on them, whereas a ring is not part of any weapon and so you cannot have weapon enhancements on a ring. I am calling shenanigans on that.

Debby

[zorenathres]

well, do you have any ideas how i can keep things as they are, & both make it look better to your evaluation? i admit i am not too good on the wording, & sorry i have been pretty busy this week taking care of my sick GF...

[Gildedragon]

A pommel is part of a weapon and so is a weapon crystal so you can put weapon enhancements on them, whereas a ring is not part of any weapon and so you cannot have weapon enhancements on a ring. I am calling shenanigans on that.

Debby

Why couldn't the ring function the same way as a weapon crystal though? Or a necklace of natural weapons.

As for weapon rings. They are a thing, the poison ring deals piercing damage even, and helps deliver poison. Stealthy.
And sizing chakram, disguised kaorti ribbon daggers, shrunken and disguised whips, and modular weapons are all ways to get rings that are actually other weapons.

[Debihuman]

Why couldn't the ring function the same way as a weapon crystal though? Or a necklace of natural weapons.

Because unless you are throwing the ring as part of the effect, it's not a weapon! And unless your ring can cause damage, throwing it probably isn't terribly useful. See ring of the ram as an example The ring of the ram creates a weapon but isn't a weapon itself.

Weapons cause damage, rings normally don't (unless they are holding poison or a magical effect and in that case the danger is the effect not the ring itself per se).

That's why there is a craft magical arms and armor and a separate forge ring feat. A poison ring isn't a ring made of poison, it's a ring with a hidden compartment that holds poison. I've never seen stats on a poison ring where the ring itself caused any damage or you'd be in danger of hurting yourself with it.

As for your necklace of "natural weapons", it would likely transform into a weapon because if it didn't, it would be difficult to wield. I could slap you with a strand of pearls, but the odds of them doing any damage is minuscule and more likely to damage the pearls than you!

Furthermore, neither the pommel nor the weapon crystal cause the damage, it's the weapon itself that does the damage. Those items are put on weapons that already cause the damage. A weapon crystal that isn't on a weapon doesn't cause damage.

If you are fighting with a sword, you'd have to remove the pommel from the guard and throw it to use it separately. Most pommels aren't detachable. Your sword's balance would be compromised if that were the case.

A ring that leeches the magic from items that it is placed near and then can transfer that magic to another item would be interesting, but in most cases the magic it would leech would have to be transferred rather than used (unless it is the kind of magic that a magic ring could normally have).


For that ring, this is what it would look like:

Aura: Strong Abjuration and Faint Evocation
Caster Level: 17 (this is the minimum needed to make this item)
Prerequisites: Forge Ring, mage's disjunction, imbue with spell ability. Cost to create: 107,437 gp, 8,595 xp (107 days)
Market Price: 214,875 gp

Math: [17 x 9 x 2,000 gp (use activated) [306,000] plus 7 x4 x 1,800 x.75 (charged) [37,800]. 306,000 + 37,800 = 343,800. 5/3=1.6.
343,800/1.6 = 214,875

Note: I had considered adding identify to the prerequisites but decided it was unnecessary and added too much to the price of the item


Your ring needs a little work.

Edgar's devouring ring is an ornate silver ring that leeches magical properties from magic items that it touches. The ring gains the magical properties properties. The user simply touches an unattended magic item, and the ring's etched runes come to life. They swirl over and around the unattended magic item for 1 round while they absorb all of the item's power, reverting the magic item to a masterwork (if the item has that property) or mundane item. It can only steal the property of one item per day.

The ring cannot steal the properties of consumable items, charged items, artifacts, and epic items. In addition, the ring cannot absorb a magical property that it cannot use but it can still leech the magic from the item. The ring can store any number of magical properties, but only three can be active at a time. Changing among these properties requires 10 minutes of concentration.

Aura: Strong Abjuration
Caster Level: 17
Prerequisites: Forge ring, mage's disjunction
Market Price: 61,200 gp
Cost to create: 30,600 gp, 97 xp (30 days)

Math: (17 x 9 x 2,000 gp) /5 = 61,200 gp

Debby

[zorenathres]

well thanks for putting that up, & i can see where you are coming from, but i think that we can make everyone happy with this... i was possibly thinking of how a magic whetstone can imbue properties temporarily into a weapon, thus the ring could store weapon/ armor properties & temporarily imbue them into items like the magic weapon spell.

really sorry i am running out the door, my GF is sick & we have a doctors appointment this morning.

[Debihuman]

What book has a magic whetstone for 3.5?

Debby

[Gildedragon]

@Zore: don't worry nice thing of having this in writing is that you can respond at your leisure.

@Debby: think they are a 4th Ed thing, haven't seem them in 3.X. But they are little different from a magic oil.
"Necklace of Natural Attacks" my bad, but it does not transform into anything, it merely gives weapon enhancements to the natural attacks of the bearer. Same as the Amulet of Mighty Fists. And only the NNA needs craft MAA.

Check Dragon Compendium, the stats for the poison ring are there; it deals damage by itself. And a bearer is at no more risk of damaging themselves than cutting themselves on their sword.

The dragonshard pommel is explicitly detachable; check out The Forge of War for info on them.

Note also that an item's CL is not equal to the CL of the crafter. It is a separate property that is unrelated to everything. An Artificer or a Warlock could craft the item much earlier than that.

Lastly: in many ways the forge ring feat is redundant except to create the DMG rings. Craft a wondrous item that is a stone, can be set on a ring, and voila: magic ring on the feat-cheap.

[Debihuman]

@Debby: think they are a 4th Ed thing, haven't seem them in 3.X. But they are little different from a magic oil.

Okay, thought I was missing something there.

"Necklace of Natural Attacks" my bad, but it does not transform into anything, it merely gives weapon enhancements to the natural attacks of the bearer. Same as the Amulet of Mighty Fists. And only the NNA needs craft MAA.

It's okay.

Check Dragon Compendium, the stats for the poison ring are there; it deals damage by itself. And a bearer is at no more risk of damaging themselves than cutting themselves on their sword.

The ring itself doesn't cause damage, the needle that flips down causes the damage (a single point of damage). It also requires a successful touch attack to use.

The dragonshard pommel is explicitly detachable; check out The Forge of War for info on them.

That at least makes sense. I'll check it out. Here's the important section from that book,"On its own, a dragonshard pommel stone serves little purpose. Over the course of 1 minute, however, it can be attached to any masterwork melee weapon. The weapon then takes on all the qualities imbued in the pommel stone." The pommel isn't a +2 keen weapon, it confers that to a weapon but if I threw the pommel at you, you'd be hit with a rock :-)

Note also that an item's CL is not equal to the CL of the crafter. It is a separate property that is unrelated to everything. An Artificer or a Warlock could craft the item much earlier than that.

Here is the older rule:

Caster Level
For potions, scrolls, and wands, the creator can set the caster level of an item at any number high enough to cast the stored spell and not higher than her own caster level. For other magic items, the caster level is determined by the creator. The minimum caster level is that which is needed to meet the prerequisites given.

I bolded the pertinent section. Yeah, I kinda hate that WotC changed CL to mean the item's level and made it irrespective of the actual caster. Pathfinder made it so much easier (and for that matter made pricing items a lot easier since CL actually means something).

Lastly: in many ways the forge ring feat is redundant except to create the DMG rings. Craft a wondrous item that is a stone, can be set on a ring, and voila: magic ring on the feat-cheap.

Technically it's not a magical ring but a magical stone set in a mundane ring. Those are very different things and act differently. For example, imagine that the nonmagical ring might not survive some effects that a stone could dish out. If you cast detect magic on the ring, the ring would register as mundane and only the stone would radiate magic. A disintegrate spell would destroy the ring but not necessarily the stone, etc.

Debby

[zorenathres]

ok folks here is my current update, its a little rushed but i think its a step in the right direction for what i'm going for.

i know its probably not RAW, but IMO, may put limitations i'd rather not have, as my players (who know nothing of item creation rules), will likely bicker to no end as to why they can absorb a wondrous item of whatever, & they cannot take that +1 keen dagger & absorb its abilities.

without further ado, my updated ring, also updated in the OP:

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Edgar's Devouring Ring:
An ornate silver ring that absorbs enchantments placed on magic items & permanently gains their properties.

The user simply touches an unattended magic item for a full-round, & the rings etched runes come to life & absorb all of the items magic properties, reverting the touched item to a masterwork or mundane item.

The ring cannot devour the properties of consumable, charge, artifact, or epic items. The ring can store any amount of properties, but only three can be active at a time (changing these properties requires 10 minutes of concentration). Only one item can be absorbed per day.

Magic Properties that cannot be used in a ring can still be absorbed & temporarily imbued into other appropriate items (similar to the magic weapon spell?). The ring can imbue one masterwork or mundane item with up to three magic properties for up to 24 hours, counting as one to three of the rings three active property slots. Imbuing an item requires 10 minutes of concentration & contact with the imbued item, but the imbued item can be used by anyone until the duration expires. The owner of the ring may end the duration of this effect at any time, returning the used slots to the ring (though another 10 minutes of concentration is required to re-imbue any used slots).

Aura; Strong Abjuration, Caster Level-17, Requirements: Forge Ring, Mage's Disjunction, Magic Weapon Greater?, GP market value: 61,200 (30,600 GP & 30 days to create).

thanks to Debi for the item requirements & revisions, & thanks to Guigarci for some excellent feedback & one sweet artifact!