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[3.5] Please help me price a magic item ... Sword of Nullity, let's call it.
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7101994" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>It's a limited but portable anti-magic field. It's superior to a use activated dispel magic or break enchantment effect as there is no caster level check. The sword just wins almost all of the time. On the other hand, it's quite situational compared to anti-magic field. It only ignores some protective buffs that directly effect chance to hit, but not for example 'cat's grace'. </p><p></p><p>I price that at 63,000 g.p. </p><p></p><p>That price is largely theory based, or simulationist. Such a powerful effect must require a powerful caster and great magical ability because otherwise the setting would be illogical (such items would be fairly common rather than 'minor artifacts'). It's not gamist based, as you could argue that the price I've given exceeds its situational utility. Thinking on my own campaign that has been running about six years, I can't think of one time when this sword would have truly solved a problem that the PC's were facing, and maybe only a couple of times the powers would have even been relevant. (On the other hand, it would have solved a problem the NPC's were facing, so this makes an excellent McGuffin - allowing someone to get into something or somewhere that is magically protected at a much lower level than they would be able to otherwise.)</p><p></p><p>I think you'd find that this item occupies a weird area where if wealth is fungible - that is the PC's can exchange wealth for any other sort of wealth of equal value - that the PC's will in general always trade the Sword of Nullity for something less flavorful but more useful in more situations (the so called 'Christmas Tree' items). Really the only problem this solves is the problem that high level fighters in the RAW don't have a good way of dealing with force effects like Wall of Force. But the problem with this item as a 'solution' is that however much utility it adds, it's also a terrible weapon for a fighter which would much rather prefer a something like a <em>sword +5</em> and a <em>shield +4</em> for about the same cost.</p><p></p><p>But as I said, the real value of an item like this in a campaign AFAIC is that it is an awesome McGuffin. You can unleash this in your campaign without really any fear of breaking it, but it's easy to arrange situations where this is the only practical 'key' to opening up a particular dungeon.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7101994, member: 4937"] It's a limited but portable anti-magic field. It's superior to a use activated dispel magic or break enchantment effect as there is no caster level check. The sword just wins almost all of the time. On the other hand, it's quite situational compared to anti-magic field. It only ignores some protective buffs that directly effect chance to hit, but not for example 'cat's grace'. I price that at 63,000 g.p. That price is largely theory based, or simulationist. Such a powerful effect must require a powerful caster and great magical ability because otherwise the setting would be illogical (such items would be fairly common rather than 'minor artifacts'). It's not gamist based, as you could argue that the price I've given exceeds its situational utility. Thinking on my own campaign that has been running about six years, I can't think of one time when this sword would have truly solved a problem that the PC's were facing, and maybe only a couple of times the powers would have even been relevant. (On the other hand, it would have solved a problem the NPC's were facing, so this makes an excellent McGuffin - allowing someone to get into something or somewhere that is magically protected at a much lower level than they would be able to otherwise.) I think you'd find that this item occupies a weird area where if wealth is fungible - that is the PC's can exchange wealth for any other sort of wealth of equal value - that the PC's will in general always trade the Sword of Nullity for something less flavorful but more useful in more situations (the so called 'Christmas Tree' items). Really the only problem this solves is the problem that high level fighters in the RAW don't have a good way of dealing with force effects like Wall of Force. But the problem with this item as a 'solution' is that however much utility it adds, it's also a terrible weapon for a fighter which would much rather prefer a something like a [I]sword +5[/I] and a [I]shield +4[/I] for about the same cost. But as I said, the real value of an item like this in a campaign AFAIC is that it is an awesome McGuffin. You can unleash this in your campaign without really any fear of breaking it, but it's easy to arrange situations where this is the only practical 'key' to opening up a particular dungeon. [/QUOTE]
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[3.5] Please help me price a magic item ... Sword of Nullity, let's call it.
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