Am I pricing this Intelligent item wrong?

[Oryan77]

I'm not too savvy when it comes to creating magical items. This is my first attempt at creating an intelligent item. But after I was finished, I noticed there was already a similiar item given in the example intelligent item chapter of the 3.5 DMG.

The example item (DMG pg 271) is Jomnoth, Giantblight: +3 giantbane dwarven waraxe. It's priced at 176,430gp.

Sheesh, I was estimating my version to be around 9000gp according to the charts. The big difference with mine is that it doesn't have a dedicated power & it's +1 instead of +3. And even when I calculated Jomnoth, I figure it costs about 115,000gp (but it's priced at 176,430gp).

What am I doing wrong here?

Jomnoth:
waraxe = 330gp
+3 enchantment = 18,000gp
giantbane = 2,000gp
Two at 14, one at 10/speech/120ft vision/hearing = 4,000gp
Lesser Power: Cure moderate wound 3/day = 6,500gp
Lesser Power: detect amgic at will = 3,600gp
Special Purpose: Defeat/slay giants = nothing?
Dedicated Power: Song of Discord = 81,000gp
Total = 115,430gp?

What would my version be priced at?
Mine:
Longsword
+1 enchantment bonus
giantbane
Two at 14, one at 10/speech/120ft vision/hearing (but I only want 1 lesser power instead of 2)
Lesser Power: Deathwatch continually active
Special Purpose: Defeat/slay giants
Ego ?


And I thought creating intelligent items seemed pretty straight forward when I first tackled this project :\ Am I STILL supposed to figure in gold value for it's Lesser powers according to the chart on pg 285 of the DMG? That just dawned on me.

 

[Hypersmurf]

+3 enchantment = 18,000gp
giantbane = 2,000gp

I haven't analysed the whole breakdown, but this is wrong.

A +3 enhancement bonus and a +1 special ability is not 18,000 and 2,000. The two combine to give you a market price modifier of +4, and thus cost 32,000.

-Hyp.

 

[Stalker0]

hype's right, but other than that I went through it and your analysis seems right, the books price is off the standard by about 40k or so.

DO you have to pay more for 2 lesser powers?

I have priced yours at 14,700.

 

[Oryan77]

hype's right, but other than that I went through it and your analysis seems right, the books price is off the standard by about 40k or so.

DO you have to pay more for 2 lesser powers?

I have priced yours at 14,700.

Oh that's right. If it's a giantbane weapon, it has to already have a +1 enchantment right? I didn't mean for my version to be +2. I just wanted a giantbane sword +1.

According to the chart on pg 269, if you choose the "Two at 14, one at 10/speech/2 lesser powers/120ft vision/hearing" option, then it comes with 2 lesser powers. You pay the standard 4k for this option on the chart, but when you select which lesser powers you want, you have to pay additional costs for the powers you choose. But since I really only want 1 lesser power, I figure the item is worth about 1k less.

With that 40-50k difference with Jomnoth that seems to be an error, I was hoping that my item wasn't going to cost 70k instead of the 9k I figured it up as

 

[Hypersmurf]

Oh that's right. If it's a giantbane weapon, it has to already have a +1 enchantment right? I didn't mean for my version to be +2. I just wanted a giantbane sword +1.

That's a +1 enhancement bonus, and a +1 special ability, which gives you a total market price modifier of +2, or 8000gp.

Plus 6,700 for the Intelligent bits, and 300 for the masterwork, and you're looking at just over 15k.

-Hyp.

 

[Evilhalfling]

does it have a dedicated power to use against gaints?
In all other systems of intelligent items they went hand in hand, but not in 3.5, curious.
Ego
1.....enhancement bonus +1
1......gaintbane +1 equivilent
1......1 Lesser Power
4......14(x2) stats
0-4... 4 for purpose (and dedicated power) I would say +1 for purpose w/o power, your call.

Ego = 7-11

 

[Oryan77]

That's a +1 enhancement bonus, and a +1 special ability, which gives you a total market price modifier of +2, or 8000gp.

Plus 6,700 for the Intelligent bits, and 300 for the masterwork, and you're looking at just over 15k.

-Hyp.

Oh I see. I thought you were referring to it being a +2 enchantment bonus and that's why you said it was 8000. But I understand now.

I was thinking of it like:

+1 enchantment = weapon bonus +1: 2000gp
+1 giantbane = weapon bonus +1: 2000gp

but you're saying that you add all bonuses together which would make it a +2 weapon bonus: 8000gp.

So I was figuring this out wrong anyway. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

So correct me if I'm wrong then, but a weapon can't have spell abilities (lesser powers for intelligent items) without being a +1 magic weapon can it? Or is it just that for the purposes of bypassing DR/magic, it's concidered magic, but doesn't necessarily have a +1 enchantment bonus?

So for example, could you have a bane weapon that doesn't give a +1 enchantment bonus to attack/damage? If making an intelligent weapon, do they never have a +1 attack/damage bonus unless I pay the extra 2000gp to add that property?

 

[Orius]

I don't worry too much about the prices of intelligent items. I use magic item pricing for two things: first to determine how much a PC will have to spend to create the item, if a PC decides to do so. Second to determine the general power level of the item, i.e, is it a minor, medium, major or epic item? This is for my own use as a guideline when giving out treasure.

The way I see it, intelligent items by their very nature are unique. I suppose by the rules a PC could create one, but I'm not sure if I'd allow it, due to the unique and sentient nature of the item. It could happen trandomly when the caster makes the item, in much the same way cursed items are accidentally created. And secondly, I'd give out an intelligent item in much the same way I'd give out an artifact; never randomly, but always predetermined.

Though I suppose my preferences really don't help you much.

 

[Dracomeander]

According to the magic item creation guidelines, a weapon must have a +1 enhancement before other abilities can be given to it. I believe the reasoning goes something like this: the inert material needs to be invested with a basic amount of power so that the more complex magics won't be rejected by the mundane nature of the item.

Of couurse, there is nothing that says your world has to follow conventional reasoning. It you want to give a weapon magical properties without enhancements, then that is the way it works for your world.

 

[Oryan77]

According to the magic item creation guidelines, a weapon must have a +1 enhancement before other abilities can be given to it.

That's what I thought. But does that mean that this is already figured into the pricing charts for making intelligent items? Do I really need to add in 8000gp to make an intelligent item function as a giantbane +1 sword? If an intelligent weapon is already a +1 sword, wouldn't I just need to add another 2000gp to the price so it can have the bane property (bane = +1 bonus which costs 2k)?

Don't get me wrong, my intentions aren't to allow a PC to create an item or to hand it out randomly. This will be a special item that will be planted for a PC to find. I've been thinking about what to give this PC that will be special to them, and this item sounds good. I just want to make sure I'm not giving an item that's too expensive for their level. And I just need to figure out how I'm going to give it...I haven't planned that far yet