[3.5] Cursed Epic Items' Market Price (or What Would You Do For a Cloak of Charisma +10?)

[Maiden Paladin]

A Cloak of Epic Charisma +10 is worth a cool million GP on the open market, but what if it were "cursed" with a major drawback? I plan to introduce into my campaign one which is tube-like in shape and which, when donned, tightly affixes itself to the wearer's upper body, pinning his/her arms uselessly to his/her sides. The cloak still grants a +10 enhancement bonus to Charisma, but without the use of one's arms or hands, there is precious little one can do with it (no spells with somatic components, no playing instruments, etc.)!

To not be too evil, I am allowing it to be removed normally by another character, but the wearer is mostly helpless until s/he receives such a helping hand. I consider the cloak a major treasure regardless, but don't think it would be worth anywhere near full market price due to its aforementioned restrictions.

My question is, how much would you think such a cursed item is worth (I'm thinking ~1/30th of the normal listed value of a Cloak of Epic Charisma +10, to put it at the value of a Cloak of Charisma +6​)?

 

[Greenfield]

Odd that you picked that particular item.

The description of the cloak of Charisma specifies that one need merely "possess" the item, not wear it.

Many consider that a mis-wording, but the rules do say that some itesm need to be worn, while others need merely be possessed, and that the item descriptions say which is which.

As for the item, I'd specify an Escape Artist DC or Strength check to escape it. Since there isn't any rule for "pinned upper body" (you can be "pinned" in a Grapple, but it isn't body-part specific, and Grapples can be broken.) You might look at the Entangled condition as an option.

 

[Maiden Paladin]

You make some intriguing points.

It seems to me that the writers added diversity to item descriptions that were not so interchangeable as they may have thought. While both the Cloak of Charisma and the Cloak of Resistance are clearly garments, the former need only be "in a character's possession" while the latter simply "offers" its magical bonuses without any specific requirement to obtain them. In both cases, I am going to assume oversights on the parts of the writers, and use my Dungeon Mistress powers to house-rule that both must be worn to be benefited from if necessary.

Now the fun part: I don't thing the Entangled condition will suffice to simulate the sort of restraint I seek to inflict, so I shall go with check DCs in the Epic range appropriate for a Cloak of Charisma +10, assuming failure to indicate no use of the arms whatsoever (I recall some monsters of yore being able to snatch characters and potentially pin one or both arms, but I agree that this isn't really a Grapple per se).

It's tricky to determine, but the Devastation Spider's CR of 41 means that it offers over half the normal GP value of a normal Cloak of Epic Charisma +10 in average treasure/EL, and to free oneself from its web requires an Escape Artist DC 38 (about that for a properly-tied backhand Guanyin/reverse-prayer tie) or a Strength Check DC 44 (a task worthy of He-Man). In fact, I think I'm going to rule that this particular Cloak of Epic Charisma +10 was woven from Devastation Spider silk to help explain its...unusual properties. Thank you for the fun ideas!