An Item a day

[Muaythaidaddy]

I'm not big on the pricing thing, but if anyone wants to price those items go right on ahead.

Nerull’s Rotting Mantle - Sacred only to the faith of Nerull (and shunned by all others), these disgusting yet potent magical cloaks are made up entirely of living flies, swarming all over the user, that provides an effective natural armor bonus of +5. Furthermore, the cloak absorbs half of all damage taken by the wearer up to sixty points of damage. If more than sixty points of damage is taken, the cloak is destroyed and disperses into a stinking cloud (DC 18). In addition, all good-aligned creatures within a twenty foot radius of the cloak take a -2 penalty to hit, damage and all saving throws. Lastly, the wearer may transform the cloak into an insect swarm compose entirely of flies. If a good-aligned character should somehow don one of these abhorrent cloaks, they are bestowed with two temporary negative levels until the mantle is removed.

Pheledor’s Phase Belt - This broad, red silk sash was devised by Pheledor “the Phase Mage” of ancient Abbathia, as is noted in his memoirs. It allows the wearer to carry up to five hundred additional pounds when using a teleport related spell that has a weight limit. Furthermore, the wearer is unaffected by the restrictions of a dimensional anchor spell and is able to make free use of such spells as teleport, dimension door, phase door and similar magics while within the confines of such a spell.

Quill of Definition - This is a magical writing instrument whose means of construction have been lost down the ages. Most specimens of this magical feather are golden-brown or light brown in hue and close to a foot in length. Upon verbal command, the quill is capable of writing down anything it’s owner says without error, without the use of an inkwell or blotter. The quill is also capable of answering one question each day, acting under the limitations of a legend lore spell.

“Addertounge” - Fashioned by wizards loyal to the Cult of Tiamat, this blade acts as a shortsword +2 and as a dagger of venom. Furthermore, the sword can be commanded once each day to act as a rod of the python for up to 10 rounds.

“Dawnspeaker” - Holy to priests of Ukko, this weapon acts as a holy disrupting mace +4 and is known to have been lost to the hands of men during a religious crusade around 345 MR. The head of the mace is shaped like a roaring lion and is known to shed light upon command.

“Godsplinter” - Legend tells of a powerful blade fashioned long ago from the splinter of a god’s bones, known as Godsplinter, that bestows wondrous powers upon it’s wielder. In reality, this legend doesn’t stray too far from the truth, for Godsplinter was shaped from the thighbone of the god Marduk, a now-dead power who was slain battling Tiamat, the queen of evil dragons, in what is now known as the Dead Kingdoms. Godsplinter has not been seen in Eldarun for many, many years and some historians of the Dead Kingdoms believe that it may have passed from this lane of existence.
Godsplinter is a lawful thundering longsword +4 of knockback. The one who wields it cannot be flanked or be the victim of a sneak attack and he will always know if a lie or falsehood is told, as if he were wearing a ring of truth. For more information on the knockback ability, see Magic of Faerun, page 140.

“Screaming Maiden” - This unholy good priest bane heavy mace +3 is the prize possession of Aznar “the Cruel”, high priest of the faith of Hiisi. The weapon can detect good in a sixty foot radius and can heal the wielder once each day, but only after at least 10 points of damage has been done to a good-aligned creature. It is chaotic evil in alignment, intelligent and delights in slaying good-aligned priests of rival faiths. The head of the mace is fashioned to resemble a screaming woman’s face, contorted in pain.

 

[Jdvn1]

I'm not sure about how the oils should be priced, exactly, but I added prices to everything except the Goggles because I don't know how to price an item that grants a class ability.

 

[genshou]

Here are my own contributions, ranging from high-powered to epic (in price but not spell function):

Mordenkainen’s Staff:

The name of this staff is somewhat misleading - Mordenkainen’s only part in its creation was researching a powerful spell that a young and resourceful wizard placed into this item to create a clever protection for himself, and the item is not a true staff - although it is a quarterstaff, it’s type of magical function makes it a rod.
A Mordenkainen’s Staff is a smooth, six-foot long masterwork quarterstaff made of zalantar wood and topped with a large diamond. Magical runes are carved into the length of the wood, and a few spots sparkle like tiny stars. The staff functions as a +1 quarterstaff, and the person wielding the staff may call upon the Mordenkainen’s disjunction spell as a standard action.
Any time Mordenkainen’s disjunction is cast to affect a point within range (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 caster levels of the Mordenkainen’s Staff), the Mordenkainen’s Staff can be used as a free action to countercast the spell. This function requires the user to be conscious and able to act. The staff alerts the user of the threat, so the user does not have to ready an action and succeed at a spellcraft check to be aware that the spell is in fact Mordenkainen’s disjunction. This use of the item is a spell trigger activation, so a Use Magic Device check (DC 20) is necessary if the spell is not on the user’s class spell list.

Caster Level: 17th; Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Rod, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction; Market Price: 127,040 gp

Bier of Everlasting Youth (a wondrous architecture; see Stronghold Builder's Guidebook):

This large stone bier casts true reincarnate* on any deceased creature placed upon it. The subject’s new body takes one hour to form. At the end of this period, the bier also casts wish to restore the creature’s original form.

Caster Level: 17th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, true reincarnate, wish; Market Price: 3,153,000 gp; Cost to Create: 76,500 gp +606,120 XP
*True reincarnate is a 9th-level druid spell from Masters of the Wild. Details pertinent to this item: it functions as reincarnate, but affects targets dead up to 10 years per caster level, and the revived does not suffer level or Con loss.

Cape of Escape:
This shimmering purple-white cape is highly fashionable. Its true purpose, however, is far more.
At the beginning of each tenday, this cape casts Elminster’s evasion on the wearer. He or she can change the destination at will as a standard action, although the conditions of triggering and the spells used are based on the magic item and cannot be changed.
Upon the death of the wearer, whenever the wearer is affected by magic jar (unless it is the wearer who cast the spell) or binding, imprisonment, or trap the soul, or any time he or she speaks the proper command word, the cape immediately activates its Elminster’s evasion effect to whisk the user away to the intended destination. Note that a caster level check is necessary for binding, imprisonment, or trap the soul. If astral travel is blocked, the cape instead continuously attempts both dimension door (680 ft. range) and plane shift (if necessary) until it finds a place where it can get the wearer back to his or her destination. If in an antimagic field, the cape attempts these spells as soon as magic returns to it. When triggered, the cape also repeatedly attempts the Drawmij’s instant summons spell on all items which were ever on the wearer’s person while wearing the cape, and were taken by anyone without the wearer’s consent or taken while the wearer was under the effect of a charm, compulsion, or domination effect. The cape attempts this once per round. Unlike the normal spell, an arcane mark is not necessary - the cape simply attunes itself to the matter that makes up these items. Also, the cape can take these items if they are in someone else’s possession - but the thief can make a Will save (DC 23) to negate this (although the cape still reveals the location of the item - and who is currently hiding it - to the wearer). Successfully saving against the cape makes that particular person immune to this spell seizing that particular item from them specifically for 24 hours.
The two spells stored by Elminster’s evasion are both summon monster VI spells. One spell summons a pseudonatural large water elemental***, and the other summons a pseudonatural large air elemental***. These creatures appear at the destination of the caster and defend the wearer by default until unsummoned.
If the wearer suffers death or any spell that would trigger the cape, but it has already been triggered that tenday, the cape can do nothing. However, if at midnight on the first day of the next tenday the conditions still apply for triggering Elminster’s evasion, the item immediately triggers. If the attuned person is not wearing the cape at the time, it either immediately teleports itself (as per teleport without error and/or plane shift) to the attuned person’s body or immediately triggers if the wearer’s body no longer exists (teleporting itself and all the wearer’s items to the wearer's chosen destination).

Caster Level: 17th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, dimension door, Drawmij’s instant summons, Elminster’s evasion, plane shift, summon monster VI*, and one Sor/Wiz Conjuration spell and one Sor/Wiz Universal spell, both of at least 8th level, which cannot already be a prerequisite for the item. Heightened spells raised to an adequate spell level count for this purpose.
*This spell must be cast twice, and must be cast by an alienist (prestige class found in Tome and Blood). If you don’t have Tome and Blood, assume a basic wizard with mimimum caster level for 6th-level spells (since that character is only assisting in item creation, you don’t need any further stats)
Market Price: 1,539,660 gp
Cost to Create: 144,830 gp + 261,587 XP**
**Note: Because the XP cost to create this item is so high that it requires a 262nd-level character to sacrifice it all him/herself, such a powerful item requires several casters each sacrificing a certain amount of XP (the exact amount of XP is up to the individual expending it). These people must be payed 5 gp per XP point contributed, and must meet all prerequisites for crafting the item. In general, a character can contribute a maximum of their level x1000 of experience, depending on how much experience they have earned since their last level advancement. If the primary creator was only able to sacrifice 17,000 XP, the creation cost would be 1,367,765 gp (most of which is to pay the other casters for their XP contributions) + 17,000 XP.

***The pseudonatural template can be found in Tome and Blood under the Alienist class description. The modifications specifically to the creatures used in this item are listed below.

Pseudonatural Large Water & Air Elementals:
As standard Large Water & Air Elementals, except:
True Strike (Su): Once per day, usable as a free action on a single attack roll. Works as spell.
Electricity, Acid resistance 15.
DR 10/+2.
SR 16.
Alternate Form: Assume form which appears as a mass of writhing tentacles as standard action. -1 morale penalty on attack rolls made against elemental when in alternate form.




More (and less powerful) to be revealed later

 

[Jdvn1]

***The pseudonatural template can be found in Tome and Blood under the Alienist class description. The modifications specifically to the creatures used in this item are listed below.

Cool stuff there. Just wanted to mention pseudonatural template is also found in the more recent Complete Arcane. If you haven't updated this (assuming there aren't differences) you might want to look at it.

 

[genshou]

Cool stuff there. Just wanted to mention pseudonatural template is also found in the more recent Complete Arcane. If you haven't updated this (assuming there aren't differences) you might want to look at it.

I don't have access to Complete Arcane-is it 3.0 compatible? The campaign from which the two more expensive of those items was spawned started when 3.0 was first released, and ran from 1st-level to 15th-level when Savage Species was released (at which point my character acquired the feral template ), then very rapidly up to ECL 30 after that. I don't have any plans to adjust to 3.5 at this point. I'm not sure about compatibility between the two pseudonatural templates; get with me privately about the template traits and let's see if there are any differences.

P.S. One of my all-time favorite self-made magic items, the Cloak of the Airmaster, will be shown in its initial form in my next item-listing post. It is also from this campaign, and is the reason my character became so notorious, yet so untraceable at the same time.

 

[palleomortis]

What exactly is the meaning of this "Psuedo-natural template"?

 

[gamecat]

Here are my own contributions, ranging from high-powered to epic (in price but not spell function):

Mordenkainen’s Staff:

The name of this staff is somewhat misleading - Mordenkainen’s only part in its creation was researching a powerful spell that a young and resourceful wizard placed into this item to create a clever protection for himself, and the item is not a true staff - although it is a quarterstaff, it’s type of magical function makes it a rod.
A Mordenkainen’s Staff is a smooth, six-foot long masterwork quarterstaff made of zalantar wood and topped with a large diamond. Magical runes are carved into the length of the wood, and a few spots sparkle like tiny stars. The staff functions as a +1 quarterstaff, and the person wielding the staff may call upon the Mordenkainen’s disjunction spell as a standard action.
Any time Mordenkainen’s disjunction is cast to affect a point within range (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 caster levels of the Mordenkainen’s Staff), the Mordenkainen’s Staff can be used as a free action to countercast the spell. This function requires the user to be conscious and able to act. The staff alerts the user of the threat, so the user does not have to ready an action and succeed at a spellcraft check to be aware that the spell is in fact Mordenkainen’s disjunction. This use of the item is a spell trigger activation, so a Use Magic Device check (DC 20) is necessary if the spell is not on the user’s class spell list.

Caster Level: 17th; Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Rod, Mordenkainen’s Disjunction; Market Price: 127,040 gp

Two qualms with this item:
You've vastly underpriced it.
Command word activation: Spell level * caster level * 1800
17*9*1800 = 275,400

The autocounterspell ability is a bit hard to price, but I'd say it's worth about 40,000. YMMV.

A +1/+1 quarterstaff is 4,600 gp.

275,400 + 40,000 + 4600 = 320,000 gp. Epic magic items start at 100k, if I'm not wrong. Seeing in my head, I wouldnt let a character below 27th level own this item.

Second qualm: Your flavor text is a bit wrong - Mordenkainen is a character from Greyhawk, but Zalantar is the Forgotten Realms name for Darkwood.

 

[domino]

What exactly is the meaning of this "Psuedo-natural template"?

Well, in short, it's the pseudonatural template.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/pseudonaturalTroll.htm

As the one that's been applied to the troll, there.

 

[genshou]

Two qualms with this item:
You've vastly underpriced it.
Command word activation: Spell level * caster level * 1800
17*9*1800 = 275,400

The autocounterspell ability is a bit hard to price, but I'd say it's worth about 40,000. YMMV.

A +1/+1 quarterstaff is 4,600 gp.

275,400 + 40,000 + 4600 = 320,000 gp. Epic magic items start at 100k, if I'm not wrong. Seeing in my head, I wouldnt let a character below 27th level own this item.

Second qualm: Your flavor text is a bit wrong - Mordenkainen is a character from Greyhawk, but Zalantar is the Forgotten Realms name for Darkwood.

Since you don't know the history of the item, your second qualm is correct but unfounded. If you must know, however, the first of these staffs was crafted by the owner of a magic wagon which utilizes Shadow to travel between worlds.

As for the first qualm, it seems there was a typo on my part. You see, there is an alternate version of this item (a wondrous architecture) which can only perform the countercasting ability of the item. I believe the price I posted is the price of the wondrous architecture plus the weapon enhancement bonus

17*9*1800=275400 (though an ad hoc adjustment is necessary for the countercasting ability, which I base on percentage of overall price in order to accommodate the countercasting function with weaker spells)
2*(2000+300)=4600 (thanks for reminding me to charge for enchanting both ends of the staff; forgot that the first time)
I would apply a flat multiplier of +10% to +30% to the item's spell function cost, depending on the prevalence of magic in the campaign. I'd reserve the +30% for campaigns where magic is as common as water, so in a standard D&D game I'd use 16%. That would adjust the price to 324,064 gp (at least, according to my 16%). But remember that the POWERS an item has are what makes it an epic item, NOT the price. It's just that usually only epic-level characters can afford a single magic item with a cost above 200,000 gp.

Still, it's a handy item for your magic-laden, epic-level, plane-wandering Spellfire Channeler, isn't it?

Hey, thanks for noting the price discrepancy. I'm glad I was able to fix that.

 

[genshou]

As promised, in this item listing I'll show you the beginnings of a true gem among magic items. My rogue/ranger/bloodhound just loved it.

Cloak of the Untraceable

The Story:
Already a powerful adventurer at this point in time, the human rogue/ranger/bloodhound Evendur Greycastle discovered an arcane scroll in Myth Drannor. Neither he nor his bardic companion could identify the spell (Evendur used Cosmopolitan to gain Spellcraft as a class skill, but it wasn't a spell known to the world, so the checks to identify the spell automatically failed). Though we never found any other instance of this spell in Faerûn, it was identical to the spell Mordenkainen's private sanctum from Tome and Blood (just created by someone else because–as pointed out earlier in this thread–Mordenkainen is not a resident of Toril).
Now, since myself and my PC Evendur both happen to be enterprising individuals, we took the scroll to a local NPC wizard we had befriended in recent adventures, and let him copy it to his spellbook. After seeing the spell's function, I had an idea. So, Evendur asked the wizard to forge an item using that spell (plus one other), and thus was born an enchanted cloak which eventually reached a level of power equal to that of a major artifact. This cloak is primarily responsible for Evendur Greycastle being a man of such reknown, but without anyone really knowing anything about him.

Item Description:
This cloak appears as a dark forest green, wrap-around cloak with a deep hood. It has a texture similar to that of silk, but was woven from the strands of phase spider webs. At all times, it seems to absorb some of the light from around it, but occasionally a bright light will cause a faint shimmer to reflect off of it.
The interior of the cloak has a few pockets useful for stashing away thieves' tools and a small amount of gems or coins.

Item Abilities:
Whenever worn, the cloak prevents all Divination attempts against the wearer or any gear on the wearer's person. When the hood is drawn up around the wearer's head, it blurs and distorts the wearer's image, making him appear as a dark, foggy mass which twists and bends light confusingly. This grants one-half concealment and a +15 circumstance bonus on Hide checks in shadows (this does not stack with the shadow armor quality, nor with a cloak of elvenkind). In addition, the drawn-up hood ensures any sound the wearer makes cannot be heard, and the wearer cannot hear any sound except the sound he himself makes. This prevents the wearer from using or being affected by language-dependent or deafening effects, but does not prevent the character from using spells with verbal components (others simply cannot hear the verbal components).

Statistical Information:
Caster Level: 9th; Craft Wondrous Item, blur, Mordenkainen's private sanctum; Market Price: 140,000 gp; Weight: 1/10 lbs.

Price Breakdown:

Mordenkainen's private sanctum (5th-level Wizard spell), use activated:
Spell level * caster level * 2000 gp
5*9*2000 gp=90,000 gp
Blur (price increased to match that of identical benefit minor cloak of displacement, then doubled for being an additional enchantment on the item):
25,000 gp*2=50,000 gp