Magical Tattoos

[punkorange]

I have a player that is wanting something like gloves of dex (+4) but rather than the actual gloves he wants a magical tattoo. I don't have a problem with doing that, but how much more would the tattoo be than the gloves. They couldn't be the same price, because the tattoo is pretty much permenant where the gloves could be lost or stolen.

Is there a resource I could check for something like this?

 

[mikebr99]

I have a player that is wanting something like gloves of dex (+4) but rather than the actual gloves he wants a magical tattoo. I don't have a problem with doing that, but how much more would the tattoo be than the gloves. They couldn't be the same price, because the tattoo is pretty much permenant where the gloves could be lost or stolen.

Is there a resource I could check for something like this?

I think PgtF have the 3.5 rules on tattoos... but I may ber thinking of another FR book.


Mike

 

[kyloss]

why not just go with permancy on a cats grace, say its tide to the tattos - less costly but can be dispelled, otherwise just go with taking up same slot and cant be swapped out not to mention necessary character down time-he has to be there while they are being made, should be balanced.

 

[Caliber]

It depends on your DMing style. If you're the kind who likes to deprive his players of their stuff from time to time, double the cost (since he can't really lose his tattoos). If you're going to let him wear gloves on top of the tattoos, double the cost again for not taking up a slot.

Just my opinion though.

 

[darthkilmor]

Or make him get the tattoo's on his hands, and take up the gloves slot.

 

[Mirage_Patrick]

Has a nice benefit to the DM though...character death doesn't give other characters treasure

 

[Babylon Knight]

Unless you skin the corpse and graft the skin.

 

[Alpha Polaris]

It depends on your DMing style. If you're the kind who likes to deprive his players of their stuff from time to time, double the cost (since he can't really lose his tattoos). If you're going to let him wear gloves on top of the tattoos, double the cost again for not taking up a slot.

Just my opinion though.

In the "Table: ESTIMATING MAGIC ITEM GOLD PIECE VALUES", the SRD states:

(Effect)No space limitation (Base Price)Multiply entire cost by 2 (Exemple) Ioun stone

Since there is a footnote explaining that "An item that does not take up one of the spaces on a body costs double", I've wondered for some time if I were to multiply the cost of such items by 2 or 4 (or 3, since doubling a double is tripling, and so on). But a +2 ioun stone costs 8.000 gp, double the price of a standard +2 item, so I guess that's it.

I kinda agree with Caliber though, in that a tatoo is harder to steal, sunder, lose or confiscate, so I'd gladly add a multiplier there, although I'd settle for x3 total, and allow myself as a DM to damage the tatoo if the PCs were to get badly hurt, massively burnt or captured by a sadistic arch-nemesis.

 

[punkorange]

I ended up telling him DMs approval on which item he wants tattooed, it takes a slot, and cost 1000 extra gold.

 

[Staffan]

In the 3.0 DMG, there was a sidebar saying something along the lines of "You could offer magic tatoos, which would have the same benefit as some other item but cost twice as much and not take up a slot." That would tell me that there are two ways of handling the tatoos:
1: Tatoos do not take up a slot, cost twice as much (i.e. 32k for Dex +4).
2: Tatoos do take up a slot, and cost roughly the same (plus a little for not being stealable, minus a little for not being replacable with some other item - probably a net plus though).

A slighlty different version would be to use a psionic tatoo of animal affinity with the Permanent Tatoo feat (from Hyperconscious) applied. It would be able to be activated once per day, giving +4 to Dex for 3 minutes. A permanent tatoo doesn't cost more, but it does take up four tatoo slots (out of 17). The prereqs are: manifester level 7, Scribe tatoo, Enduring tatoo, Craft (tatooing) 12 ranks. Enduring tatoo, in turn, is another feat from Hyperconscious that let you use a tatoo twice (with at least 24 hours in between), taking up two slots. Prereqs: manifester level 5, Craft (tatoo) 6 ranks, Scribe tatoo.