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Brother Ezra
Learned Scribe
USA
268 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Sep 2004 : 16:45:01
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My group recently came upon what appears to be a discrepancy between the cost of listed magical items and the calculations used to obtain those costs.
Here's the scenario. The human fighter in our group is tired of being unable to see in the dark without a light source. He wishes to commission the forging of a ring of darkvision. Simple enough, right? Table 7-33 in the DMG gives us the methods by which we can do so. However, after calculating the costs for such an item and reducing it by giving it limited uses per day, the player says to me "but a ring of invisibility costs much less, and it works all day!"
So, I went back and deconstructed the cost of a ring of invisibility to see what logic was applied to determine the cost as listed. The answer was no logic at all, seemingly.
A ring of invisibility is listed as 20,000 gp market value. To determine the cost of forging this ring, you would use the formula (caster level x spell level x 1800 gp). This assumes that you use a command word to activate the ring. Since the spell duration is listed in minutes per caster level, you multiply the result by two. Therefore, the only variable in the above equation is the caster level. In effect, we are looking at an equation of 2(2X x 1800) = 20000, where X is the caster level. Unfortunately, the solution to this equation is a caster level of 2.7777777, too low to even cast an invisibility spell.
Using the item creation rules with a minimum spell caster level of three, the price I come up with for a ring of invisibility is 21,600 gp.
Has anyone else encountered this discrepancy, and if so, how did you resolve it?
There's also a secondary question here. The forge ring feat requires a minimum caster level of 12. For the purposes of calculating market value, would you use the minimum caster level needed to forge the ring, or the minimum caster level needed to cast the associated spell? Why would a mage charge less for a lower-powered ring, when no one of lesser power could forge such an item?
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"Suffering is the touchstone of all spiritual growth."
-St. Sollars the Twice-Martyred |
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Capn Charlie
Senior Scribe
USA
418 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2004 : 17:07:10
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Quite simply, sir, through guesstimation and DM imposed logic.
The books themsleves and that the logic breaks down for certain items, to use your best judgement.
Much as some would hate to admit it, certain level spells are just more powerful than others of that same level, and some are certainly far more powerful due to a limited duration.
I just have to look at it on a case by case basis and determine what I believe to be a market price that is balanced within my game, then alter the reality of the setting so that the price ingame reflects it.
Certain items for me have proven to need much higher prices. The ring of invisibility I went back and forth on, and eventually balanced it by making it considered restricted goods, and thus having to be purchased on the black market or double price, or it's expensive material components of costruction payed extra for resulting in a rough total cost of around 25-32 thousand.
The hat of disguise is another I thought was too low in price, and upped by approximately 60%, which was stil a bit low.
Pricing magical items is an art, and I still sometimes have the store be out of certain rare ingredients, forcing the players to go off on a nice little adventure hook to obtain them as I see fit. |
Shadows of War: Tales of a Mercenary
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Edited by - Capn Charlie on 06 Sep 2004 17:09:02 |
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Arivia
Great Reader
Canada
2965 Posts |
Posted - 06 Sep 2004 : 20:31:21
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quote:
Originally posted by Brother Ezra
There's also a secondary question here. The forge ring feat requires a minimum caster level of 12. For the purposes of calculating market value, would you use the minimum caster level needed to forge the ring, or the minimum caster level needed to cast the associated spell? Why would a mage charge less for a lower-powered ring, when no one of lesser power could forge such an item?
A mage can create any power of a magic at any caster level up to their own, as long as that caster level is sufficient for the power. Typically, items in WotC sourcebooks are priced with as low as possible caster levels to drive the price down.
As for the why, well, you'll have to figure that out yourself. |
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Market values of created magic items
