Amulet that Mightily Blows?

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Amulet of Mighty Blows, Sword & Fist

Requires caster level of three times the plus (+1 to +5) and magic fang.

Cost: 6,000 gp (+1); 24,000 gp (+2); 54,000 gp (+3); 96,000 gp (+4); and 150,000 gp (+5).

OK, I see the formula used to determine the cost:

Bonus squared times 6,000 gp = market price.

But how did they get 6,000 as a base?

 

[kreynolds]

Re: Amulet of Mighty Blows

Amulet of Mighty Blows

Actually, it's called an Amulet of Mighty Fists.

Requires caster level of three times the plus (+1 to +5) and magic fang.

Yup. Just like a weapon.

OK, I see the formula used to determine the cost:

Bonus squared times 6,000 gp = market price.

But how did they get 6,000 as a base?

Pulled it outta there <bleep!>? Basically, this amulet costs twice as much as the Bracers of Striking from Magic of Faerun. Also, the Bracers of Striking specifically state that your unarmed attacks are treated as armed, but this amulet states nothing about that at all. Furthermore, with the Bracers of Striking, you can enhance them with Flaming, Shocking Burst, Disruption, etc, but you can't with the amulet.

 

[Jeremy]

Because it adds an enhancement bonus to all unarmed attacks instead of a single hand? I dunno. That hardly seems fair.

Because at the time that book came out there was nothing like it out there and it was the only way for a monk to get his unarmed damage (instead of kama d6) AND have enhancement bonuses to hit and damage?

Could be fixed now or could remain expensive due to it's limited market appeal and exotic collector's cost... <shrugs>

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Yeah, it should cost less. At the very least give a discount for extra weapon enhancements (related benefit) on the same slot.

 

[Hammerhead]

Actually, they derived the cost of the Amulet of Mighty Fists by multiplying the cost of a normal magic weapon by three, since monks already gain a large damage bonus to compensate (kind of) for their non-magic hands.

+1 Sword=2K +1 Amulet=6K
+2 Sword=8K +2 Amulet=24K
+3 Sword=18K +3 Amulet=54K
etc.

You see? It's just a matter of multiplying the weapon cost by three.

Bracers of Striking do seem rather powerful...

 

[Staffan]

Remember that the amulet can also be used on a druid's animal companion, who can have quite a lot of attacks. The druid in the party I'm running through Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil has a Huge dire badger companion that's pure horror in battle (I'm beginning to suspect there's something wrong with the dire badger advancement range, since an increase of a single HD from the base pushes it from Medium to Large, but there's nothing about it in the errata). If the badger had had an Amulet of Mighty Fists, it would have gained yet another nastiness level.

 

[kreynolds]

[BYou see? It's just a matter of multiplying the weapon cost by three. [/B]

Or replacing the 2,000gp in the formula with 6,000gp, as Vyvyan Basterd pointed out in the starter post. It works either way, but neither is obvious as to why they did it that way.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I believe I have come up with a fair way to price this magic item in my campaign. The only way to get the listed prices that I can see using the normal item creation pricing rules is as follows:

Unlimited use, use activated= caster level x spell level x 2,000 gp

So, for the +1 amulet (3rd level caster requirement):

3 x 1 (magic fang) x 2,000 gp = 6,000 gp

They then used this as the base and continued the progression from +2 to +5 as if the item were a weapon using the base determined above.

This hybrid costing method seems odd to me. I think I will use the base cost method, noting that you need greater magic fang to create the higher versions:

Caster Spell
Level x Level x 2,000 gp
6 x 3 x 2,000 gp = 36,000 gp for +2
9 x 3 x 2,000 gp = 54,000 gp for +3
12 x 3 x 2,000 gp = 72,000 gp for +4
15 x 3 x 2,000 gp = 90,000 gp for +5

At least this method sticks with a single costing method throughout. What do you guys think?

 

[kreynolds]

At least this method sticks with a single costing method throughout. What do you guys think?

I suppose that could be how it was originally priced, but either way, the item is worthless compared to Bracers of Striking. Way too expensive, very little payoff.

 

[Staffan]

I suppose that could be how it was originally priced, but either way, the item is worthless compared to Bracers of Striking. Way too expensive, very little payoff.

In that case, I would say that the Bracers are being priced too low, not the amulet too high. The inability for the monk to effectively combat things with DR is supposed to be one of the monk's limitations, and I think bypassing that should be rather expensive.