| Looking at them on a spreadsheet, I find I dislike the jumps in price that my method gives when the multiplier changes. But the numbers are ugly when I use decimals instead of whole numbers.
I think I could go with 200,000 + bonus cubed x 400 for weapons. (and anything with a cost of 2000 x bonus squared)
How about 100,000 + bonus cubed x 200 for shields? (and anything with a cost of 1000 times bonus squared)
Sure it means an epic item would technically be available to non-epic characters. But it requires an epic feat to make, and I don't think there would be anything game-breaking about having a +6 shield that costs 143,200 gp. Compare it to a +5 shield; +1 AC more, at a cost of 93,200 gp.
By symmetry, an item with a cost of 2500 x bonus squared should cost 250,000 + bonus cubed x 500.
A skill bonus item (normally bonus squared x 100) should be 10,000 + bonus cubed x 20.
Generally if the cost of the non-epic item is bonus squared x N, then the cost of the epic item would be (N x 100) + bonus cubed x (N/5).
Spell resistance is an odd one. As a non-epic item it is linear. As an epic item it should be quadratic. It should have a constant term, though.
Maybe 180,000 + (SR-10) squared x 360?
The non-epic mantle would be about 2.5 times as expensive if priced according to this formula. That's about right; look what happens if you price a +5 (non-epic) shield according to the epic formula. The mantle of epic spell resistance would be 504,000 if priced in this scheme. Pricey, but probably still worth it.
How does that sound? Go with the cubic formula you propose (though with different additive terms), and a quadratic formula for SR items? |