Pricing robe of the archmagi

[Cheiromancer]

Anyone know how this item is priced? It gives a +5 armor bonus, SR 18, +4 resistance bonus to saves, and a +2 bonus to caster level to overcome SR. It's a slotted item that doesn't use charges, so price the most expensive benefit first, and the secondary benefits should all get a +1 modifier. It's restricted by alignment (and class), so reduce the final cost by 30%

SR 18 is 60,000
+5 armor bonus is 25,000 x 1.5 is 37,500
+4 resistance bonus is 16,000 x 1.5 is 24,000
+2 bonus vs SR is at least 6,000 x 1.5 is 9,000
(I'm guessing bonus squared x 1500)

Total 130,500 x 0.7 = 91,350

However,If you just added up all the powers (without a 50% surcharge) you'd get 107,000 gp, which multiplied by 0.7 would give you 74,900 gp. Which is awfully close to 75,000. But shouldn't an item like this have the costs of secondary functions multiplied by 1.5?

The reason for asking is that I want to see how much it would cost to upgrade a robe of the archmagi by the book. Give it better SR (SR 30 or so), make the resistance bonus equal to the best ring, the armor bonus equal to the best bracers, and so on. To do this I want to understand the rationale behind the pricing of the original item.

And if I understand that rationale, I can better price other multi-function slotless items.

 

[frankthedm]

The magic item rules are not intended as a point buy system ala GURPS. They get you to the ball park for costing the items, but WotC / DM discresion is a big part of it. Some items are given breaks on cost, othertimes the upcharge is through the wazoo.

The armor bonus for example is nice, but hardly optimum. A 5 point armor bonus is only a single point up from the 1st level mage armor spell. if it were any higher, the cost break the robes got would need to be removed when recomputing the cost.

Also those bonuses are nice all around, but they could / will be outgrown, specific items that get breaks are often costed because of this.

 

[szilard]

Other than the +2 to caster level, there is a good chance that one or more (and possibly all) of the other functions of the item are redundant with the capabilities of anyone likely to have the item. This was probably taken into account by not multiplying things by 1.5 - or something.

-Stuart

 

[Cheiromancer]

I'm approaching the question as a DM, and I'm trying to figure out appropriate equipment for high level wizards; 30th level and up. Figuring out how to price higher level items is part of it. No matter how good the item is, it will eventually be outgrown. And single function items will by necessity be more cost effective than a multi-function item.

The principle that an ability should be suboptimal for its level is a good one; perhaps the alternative is to pay the surcharge. And it's probably a good idea to remove the alignment restriction as well, at least for PC created items. I think alignment restrictions are mostly a DM tool to prevent the BBEG's equipment from falling into PC hands.

Hmmm. My calculations indicate that if the robe's save bonus were absent (as it might as well be if the owner has a cloak of resistance +5) it would cost 74,550 with the 50% surcharge. If the AC bonus were absent (or not counted because of bracers of armor +8), it would cost 65,510. The notion of expected redundancy seems to give good results.

I don't want to be too tight-fisted, however. Epic characters deserve epic equipment to face epic challenges with. And so I'm halfway tempted just to follow the precedent of robe of the archmagi and not give a surcharge to the secondary functions.

 

[Pyrex]

Not having some sort of surcharge at all doesn't feel quite right either.

By wearing a Robe of the Archmagi the character is freeing up the Bracer and Cloak slot which would otherwise be used up for Bracers of Armor and a Cloak of Resistance.

Item slots are/should be precious.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Not having some sort of surcharge at all doesn't feel quite right either.

By wearing a Robe of the Archmagi the character is freeing up the Bracer and Cloak slot which would otherwise be used up for Bracers of Armor and a Cloak of Resistance.

Item slots are/should be precious.

How about this: if priced with the surcharge and without the alignment discount (which doesn't reduce player utility at all) the item should cost 130,500 gp. It actually costs 75,000, a difference of 55,500 gp.

So when a PC improves this item they work out the cost of the final item with the surcharge and without the alignment discount. But then they reduce the final amount by 55,500 gp.

For example, suppose a player wished to improve the item to give a +8 armor bonus, SR 32, +5 resistance bonus on saves and +4 spell penetration. Then they'd calculate the cost as follows:

SR 32 is 200,000
+8 armor bonus is 64,000 x 1.5 is 96,000
+5 resistance bonus is 25,000 x 1.5 is 37,500
+4 bonus vs SR is 24,000 x 1.5 is 36,000
(According to the formula I guessed above)

Total: 369,500 - 55,500 = 314,000

This is an increase of 229,000 over the base 75,000 price of a robe of the archmagi, so they'd have to pay 114,500 gp in materials and 9,160 xp to upgrade it. It would take about 4 months. That's quite a while; I hope the DM allows lots of down-time between adventures!

 

[Infiniti2000]

Total: 369,500 - 55,500 = 314,000

Don't forget the x10 cost for being epic.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Don't forget the x10 cost for being epic.

What makes it incur the epic modifier? I don't think any of the powers are epic, not even the SR (the mantle of epic spell resistance is pretty close to the value predicted by the (SR - 12) x 10,000 formula, and that's for SR 40. SR 32 is well short of that).

 

[Infiniti2000]

What makes it incur the epic modifier? I don't think any of the powers are epic, not even the SR (the mantle of epic spell resistance is pretty close to the value predicted by the (SR - 12) x 10,000 formula, and that's for SR 40. SR 32 is well short of that).

I was viewing the SR as epic because it's higher than any standard magic item SR. YMMV.

But, even if you don't cost it higher, you still need the epic item creation feat and the XP will be 13,140 (not 12,560) though that is not such a big difference.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I forgot that the epic item creation feat kicked in at 200,000 gp. Thanks for reminding me.

I can't seem to find if the creation times are different for epic items; are they still 1 day per 1000 gp value?