Broken Magic Item: Infinite Healing?

[Ridley's Cohort]

Anybody else who thinks that magic item prices are generally too low? Particularly prices for spells cast by a npc mage are way too cheap imo, I multiply them by ten.

Huh?

First of all, the majority of wealth gained by PCs is in the form of magic items in most campaigns. It makes it meaningless to say they are too cheap unless your PCs are dispatching whole armies and cashing wagonloads of gear. Maybe you just prefer to run a wealth poor campaign compared to the DMG suggested wealth guidelines? Fair enough, but that has no bearing on the list prices.

Second of all, the proper price of a spell only makes sense in game terms relative to the price of similar permenant magic items. If it costs 1500 gp to hire an NPC sorceror to cast Fly on me, you need to raise the prices of Winged Boots and the Potion of Fly proportionally.

Third of all, I would love to get to charge 100 gp for casting Cure Light Wounds in your campaign. It will make it easy for my 1st level cleric to start his campaigning career with MW full plate, MW large shield, multiple MW weapons, a few henchman, a few warhorses, and a team of trained attack dogs. That would be an improvement to the game, eh?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Also, we couldn't figure out a way to shorten the casting time for an automatic True Res, so it'd go off the round after I went down.

Well, that's easy.

The time taken to activate a power from an item is the same as the casting time of the spell... unless the item description states otherwise.

So just state otherwise in the item description

(See the infusion in Masters of the Wild - standard action to activate, regardless of the casting time of the spell. And since True Resurrection is a divine spell, you can make it into an infusion... which means there's a precedent for True Resurrection as a standard action.)

-Hyp.

 

[rkanodia]

Rel, Kender42, Darkness: if I may be so bold, it also operates on one more level - as a satire of the obvious influence of Lord of the Rings on Dungeons and Dragons. 'Foehammer' is one of the (many) names for Gandalf's sword. And yes, none of my PCs have identify; with any luck, I can at least get one or two combats out of them before they figure out what's going on.

 

[dcollins]

The time taken to activate a power from an item is the same as the casting time of the spell... unless the item description states otherwise.

So just state otherwise in the item description

And that's precisely why I don't allow any new items whatsoever -- www.superdan.net/dndfaq3.html

 

[Staffan]

Are there any magic items anywhere in the book that grant unlimited uses of an instantaneous spell? If not, I'd wager that applying unlimited uses to a spell without a duration is actually outside the guidelines (illegal, if you will).

There is a bow in Sword and Fist that acts like an unlimited-use wand of True Strike. I don't think that's broken though, because you still need to be a spellcaster (or have a decent Use Magic Device skill) to use it, as well as spend every other round to re-cast the spell.

 

[Darkness]

'Foehammer' is one of the (many) names for Gandalf's sword.

Ah, didn't know this either... (I only read LotR in German... And that was more than a decade ago so I probably would have forgotten by now anyway. )
Very cool!

 

[BSF]

Ah, didn't know this either... (I only read LotR in German... And that was more than a decade ago so I probably would have forgotten by now anyway. )
Very cool!

The "proper" name for Gandalf's sword was Glamdring. Which translated to Foe-Hammer. The goblins just called it "beater".

(For more trivia, Thorin's sword, taken from the same Troll hoard was Orcrist, which translated to Goblin Cleaver. The goblins called that one "biter".)

I thought fauxhammer was hilarious!

As far as the bow w/ True Strike, that becomes an activation item, which isn't a continuous affect. I would agree that it isn't really broken. I suspect it is an item that many players would be really excited about when they first saw it. Then, when they figured out how to use it, they would be a little less excited.

 

[CRGreathouse]

As far as the bow w/ True Strike, that becomes an activation item, which isn't a continuous affect. I would agree that it isn't really broken.

While I agree with you about the true strike bow, an activated cure light wounds item with unlimited charges would be a little different, no?

I've often thought about an item like this, essentially trying to figure out why it was too powerful. It's obvious that it's too good, but what makes it too good, in terms of coming up with better guidelines for other items?

 

[rkanodia]

I would still price the true striking crossbow at higher than +1,000 gp or whatever the guideline cost is. It has plenty of utility, especially against hard-to-hit baddies and in ambush situations. But no, I definitely wouldn't call it broken.

A true striking lance, on the other hand, should be pretty expensive. Surprise round: activate true strike. First round: charge (using spirited charge), power attacking for 12. Net bonus: +10 attack, +72 damage!

 

[Rel]

Rel, Kender42, Darkness: if I may be so bold, it also operates on one more level - as a satire of the obvious influence of Lord of the Rings on Dungeons and Dragons. 'Foehammer' is one of the (many) names for Gandalf's sword. And yes, none of my PCs have identify; with any luck, I can at least get one or two combats out of them before they figure out what's going on.

Sorry, I thought this was such common knowlege that it didn't bear repeating. Maybe I know too many LotR geeks (and I mean that in the nicest way possible) .

rkanodia, if you don't think it will tip them off, have it leave welts on the person struck...in the shape of a red cross.