D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Crafting Staff: Going Crazy

[Philip]

Since staffs in 3.5 use their wielder's caster level and feats instead of a fixed number I thought to finally take that darned craft staff feat.

Now I am looking at the staff prices and staff creation cost formula, and I haven't yet found a single staff in the DMG that conforms to it.

From the SRD:

The cost for the materials is subsumed in the cost for creating the staff—375 gp x the level of the highest-level spell x the level of the caster, plus 75% of the value of the next most costly ability (281.25 gp x the level of the spell x the level of the caster), plus one-half of the value of any other abilities (187.5 gp x the level of the spell x the level of the caster). Staffs are always fully charged (50 charges) when created.

If desired, a spell can be placed into the staff at only half the normal cost, but then activating that particular spell costs 2 charges from the staff. The caster level of all spells in a staff must be the same, and no staff can have a caster level of less than 8th, even if all the spells in the staff are low-level spells.

Staff of Fire:
Page 244 DMG: Market Price 17750 gp., meaning the creation cost should be 8875 gp., right?
Formula:
Wall of Fire: 375 (highest level spell) * 4 (4th level spell) * 8 (minimum caster level for a staff) / 2 (2 charges per activation) = 6000.
Fireball: 281.25 (next most costly ability) * 3 (3rd level spell) * 8 (minimum caster level for a staff) = 6750
Burning Hands: 187.5 (remaining abilities) * 1 (1st level spell) * 8 (min. caster level) = 1500

Total = 6000 + 6750 + 1500 = 14250 gp.

The creation cost is off by almost 6000 gp.

Other examples:

Staff of Transmutation
DMG: 65,000 gp. Market Price, 32,500 gp. creation cost
Formula: 35,906 gp.

Staff of Defense
DMG: 58250 gp. Market Price, 29,125 gp. creation cost,
Formula: 22,500 gp.

Staff of Life
DMG: 155,750. Market Price, 77,875 gp. creation cost
Formula: 77,281 (not too bad!), but why does it have resurrection as a prerequisite when it casts raise dead spells?

Staff of Frost
DMG: 56,250 gp. Market Price, 28,125 gp. creation cost
Formula: 23,437 gp.

I am going crazy, I am not calculating it right, or have they just guessed all the Staff prices in the DMG instead of sticking to their own formula?

 

[Nail]

Good Question. Looks like they broke their own rules:

From the 3.5e SRD:

If desired, a spell can be placed into the staff at only half the normal cost, but then activating that particular spell costs 2
charges from the staff. The caster level of all spells in a staff must be the same, and no staff can have a caster level of less
than 8th, even if all the spells in the staff are low-level spells.

Unless the above somehow doesn't appy to this:

Calculate the market price based on the lowest possible level caster, no matter who makes the item.

<shrug> Rule 0 it.

 

[Datt]

Staffs are not the only thing screwy.

Take a look at some of the rings. It will blow your mind.

Ex:

Ring of Telekinesis
DMG: 75,000gp market value

Formula:
Spell Level x Caster Level x 1,800 for command word activated.
5 x 10 x 1,800 = 90,000 gp.

 

[Li Shenron]

If you are going crazy, consider the opportunity of using just your formula when a PC creates the item, forget about market price and play with floating market prices when the PCs buy items instead of crafting them.

This way the market price in the DMG won't mean that much anymore, which anyway means that exactly for the same reason you can sell item for exactly that DMG market price, even if inaccurate, because it doesn't matter anymore

 

[Grant_Stoom]

Aren't some of the staffs considered magical weapons in addition to their spell powers? Maybe that could account for some of the difference.

 

[der_kluge]

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but here goes:

Pick up Mystic Eye Games' Artificer's Handbook.

Magic item creation rules that actually make sense. Period.