Artificer's Handbook - anyone got it?

[der_kluge]

Okay, just out of curiosity, what is the cost in your system of one of the most famously underpriced 3.0e items: boots of striding and springing.

Boots of Striding and Springing.

Our cost = 8,500gp (which I think should be 8,750gp if my calculations are correct, see below)
3.0 cost = 2,500gp.
3.0 errata cost = 6,000gp
3.5 cost = 5,500gp. The 3.5 Boots are much, much weaker than the 3.0 version.

SRD3.5 -> "Boots of Striding and Springing: These boots increase the wearer’s base land speed by 10 feet. In addition to this striding ability (considered an enhancement bonus), these boots allow the wearer to make great leaps. She can jump with a +5 competence bonus on Jump checks.
Faint transmutation; CL 3rd; Craft Wondrous Item, longstrider, creator must have 5 ranks in the Jump skill; Price 5,500 gp; Weight 1 lb."

SRD3.0 -> "Boots of Striding and Springing
The wearer of these boots moves at double his or her normal speed. In addition to this striding ability, these boots allow the wearer to make great leaps. The wearer can jump with a +10 competence bonus to Jump checks, and the wearer’s jumping dis-tance is not limited by his or her height.
Caster Level: 3rd; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, expeditious retreat, jump; Market Price: 6,000 gp; Weight: 1 lb."

The 3.0 version was created using "expeditious retreat" and also a bonus item (+10 skill boost = +2 bonus).

spell slots 15 (1 minute per/lvl spell) caster level 3, spell level 1.
10gp(1 + 3 - 1) * 15^2 = 6,750gp. We went with a caster level as per the bonus item rules, so even though technically it could be created with a caster level of 1, we went with caster level 3 as per the bonus item rules.

4 +2 Equivalent bonus item (i.e. +1 per +5) +1 Second spell in Item. Caster level 6, spell level 3 (due to bonus item rules) (spell: Jump)
10gp(3 + 6 - 1) * 5^2 = 2,000gp + 6,750gp = 8,750gp. I think the book might be off slightly, unless I've made some error, but I don't believe so.

3.5 version
using the "longstrider" spell, which is 1 hr/level.
11 spell slots, caster level 1, spell level 1.
10gp(1 + 1 - 1) * 11^2 = 1,210gp
+5 bonus to jump (+1 bonus item), +1 slot for second effect.
number of spell slots 3 + 1, spell level 2, caster level 4
10gp(2 + 4 - 1) * 4^2= 800gp + 1,210gp = 2,010gp. Ironically, the new 3.5 cost of these boots is too high!

Summary:
Our 3.0 cost of 8,750gp is way higher than the original cost of 2,500gp. Even with errata, the DMG costs are still not quite there.
Furthermore, they scaled the boots back significantly in 3.5, and now the cost is too high!

edit: noticed a problem; fixed it.

 

[Psion]

Cool. While I do understand what jasamcarl is saying, I think that if the system provides a much more "pre guesswork" jump-off point, that's all the better for it. Further, it appears as if, when you do need to use some ajudication, you do it on the design side of the fence instead of tweaking the end product, which AFAIAC makes for more informed estimation.

 

[der_kluge]

Yea, you fine tune it all up front, before the cost is calculated. The more I use it, the better at it I get, and the more intuitive it becomes to me.

Work is boring. Someone give me something really difficult to make. Min/max it out the wazoo.


Here's another example from the book:

"Jacob the insane wants to create an amulet of the planes. These are unlimited-use items, but use the same rules for continuous items. An amulet of the planes is created with the plane shift spell, which wizards get as a 7th level spell. It is an instantaneous spell, which means that it will cost 19 spell slots of 7th level spells to create! Even highly intelligent 20th level wizards don’t have this many 7th level spell slots. Jacob is unable
to create the item by himself (see “Helpers” pg. 24). He could, however, create it as a use-per item, or as a multi-charge item."

Incidentally, clerics would be better at creating Amulets of the Planes, since it's a 5th level spell for them, as opposed to a 7th level spell for sor/wiz.

 

[Anabstercorian]

I want a set of Full Plate armor made out of congealed mercury that has no maximum Dex bonus or skill check penalty. And I want it to inflict 1d6 points of electrical damage to my attacker whenever I'm struck in melee.

 

[Anabstercorian]

Second, I want an item that will continuously function as both an Empowered Fire Shield, Caster Level 10, and an Empowered Fire Shield (Acid Substituted), Caster Level 10.

Third, I want to know how much it would cost to create a magical weapon that could transform in to ANY other weapon at will with a command word.

 

[Anabstercorian]

And, I want a Fireball Generator, which can fire a 10d6 fireball DC 15 to resist at caster level 10 once a round with no limit on charges.

And I want a Pearl of Power that can be activated as a free action!

And I want to know the price of an artifact that can produce 3d4 Meteor Swarm spells as a full round action with no upper limit on charges.

 

[Anabstercorian]

While you're at it, how much for true love?

 

[der_kluge]

I want a set of Full Plate armor made out of congealed mercury that has no maximum Dex bonus or skill check penalty. And I want it to inflict 1d6 points of electrical damage to my attacker whenever I'm struck in melee.

Ok, that sucks. I just lost everything I type for some bizarre reason. Ok, here we go again.

I have no idea what congealed mercury is, but that cost would be included in the cost of the base armor. Not the magic cost.

The first effect is essentially Freedom of Movement, with some slight changes. I'll base the effect off that. And since we're not getting the benefits of an actual Freedom of Movement, we'll reduce the cost by -4. FoM is a 10 mins/level duration which has a cost of 13. We'll reduce that to 9. Caster level is 7, spell level is 4.
10gp(4 + 7 - 1) * 9^2 = 8,100gp.

Second effect is essentially fire shield, which would be a new spell which is lightning-based. Fire shield also provides energy resistance, which we aren't using, so we'll also reduce our cost. FS has a duration of 1 min/level which has a cost of 17. We also add a +1 since this is our second effect. Let's reduce the cost by 4 for not getting the energy protection. That gives us a spell slot cost of 14. Spell level is 4, caster level is 7.
10gp(4 + 7 - 1) * 14^2 = 19,600gp

19,600 +8,100 = 27,700gp creation cost.

There are several ways to create this item. This is how I chose to do it.

 

[DonAdam]

For the bag of roses... it's just a freaking rose. Why not prestidigitation?

 

[der_kluge]

Second, I want an item that will continuously function as both an Empowered Fire Shield, Caster Level 10, and an Empowered Fire Shield (Acid Substituted), Caster Level 10.

Third, I want to know how much it would cost to create a magical weapon that could transform in to ANY other weapon at will with a command word.

Easy. Empower spell raises the level by 2. So, that becomes a 6th level spell. That would require caster level 11, actually.

I'm not familiar with anything that changes a spell's element (is that energy admixture)? For purposes of this, I'm just going to assume that it doesn't add any levels to the spell.

Since I've already calculated Fire Shield above, it's a 1 min/level duration, which to make continuous is 17 spell slots. That's 17 6th level spells in this case. I don't know many spellcasters that can cast that many 6th level spells, but let's calculate it anyway.
10gp(6 + 11 - 1) * 17^2 = 46,240gp

Plus the same thing again with an additional +1 for the second effect.
10gp(6 + 11 - 1) * 18^2 = 51,840gp

51,840 + 46,240 = 98,080gp (that's creation cost). Market cost for this item would be 196,160gp. Pretty impressive.

----------

There is no spell to transform an item. Well, aside from Polymorph Any Object, which is an 8th level spell. That's probably WAY more powerful than what we need. But, we could base the construction off that spell, which some serious cost reduction.

An unlimited-use item such as this doesn't have any additional cost for command-word activation, since most are typically use-activated anyway for this kind of thing. Because changing a sword into a mace is pretty high on the Polymorph Any Object's duration scale, we'll set the duration to permanent, which ends up being fairly cheap. It doesn't cost that much to make a permanent effect continuous in a magic item. The cost for this is 5 spell slots, in fact. I'm going to apply a -2 cost because you're voiding a large chunk of the power of that spell.
caster level is 15, spell level is 8.

10gp(8 + 15 - 1) * 3^2 = 1,980gp.

Now, these are mundane weapons for combat purposes. You have a normal magic item that can change from a longsword to a mace to a battleaxe. The cost would be greater if you expanded the capabilities of what it could change into, like if you wanted it to be able to change into silver, or adamantine, or cold iron, or whatever. Also, this assumes the same size category, so it would also be more if you wanted to be able to change a greatsword to a dagger.