Decanter of Endless Water

[BSF]

The decanter is an 'open-ended' item that an get a lot of creative use. For the clever player and a DM open to ideas, it may be underpriced. But in terms of pure utility for D&D, it isn't all that great.

 

[Bad Paper]

Why?

I was just trying to price the item according to the guidelines in the DMG. Doesn't make sense.

I ask because a player wants to create a magical well/font/aquifer/whatever in a tower (he has claimed Nightfang Spire as his keep, ha ha) in the middle of the desert. I'm trying to figure creation requirements. The well doesn't have to be fancy, but must provide at a minimum for about twenty creatures per day, but ideally will provide more, including possibly the ability to irrigate surrounding land, provide water for passing guests/horses/camels/mules, etc. This is a weird thing to scale... 40 gallons per day up to maybe a thousand? I don't know much about agriculture. OK, I don't know anything about agriculture; I can't even keep a potted fern alive.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Why do you think it is underpriced, though? Besides the huge effect on local and even global economies, the decanter really has little game effect for adventurers. In your specific case, it would have even less effect. It's almost entirely for flavor and, IMO, you should encourage it by making it cheap. Just take the decanter and divide by 3 if you want just a third of its capability.

Keep in mind that the pricing of magical items based on spell level, caster level, etc. is just a guideline. You always have to adjust the price based on similar items and how useful you think the item would be.

PS Sandstorm might have some additional ideas about this keep, water, and the like. I'm betting it mentions the decanter specifically -- probably, "don't let this item into your desert-based campaign."

 

[Delemental]

I was just trying to price the item according to the guidelines in the DMG. Doesn't make sense.

I ask because a player wants to create a magical well/font/aquifer/whatever in a tower (he has claimed Nightfang Spire as his keep, ha ha) in the middle of the desert. I'm trying to figure creation requirements. The well doesn't have to be fancy, but must provide at a minimum for about twenty creatures per day, but ideally will provide more, including possibly the ability to irrigate surrounding land, provide water for passing guests/horses/camels/mules, etc. This is a weird thing to scale... 40 gallons per day up to maybe a thousand? I don't know much about agriculture. OK, I don't know anything about agriculture; I can't even keep a potted fern alive.

Well, conventional wisdom says that a human needs eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day (this figure is disputed as being too high, but we're talking about people living in a desert, probably toiling all day, so it works). That's 64 ounces a day, or half a gallon. Since even at the lowest setting the decanter pours out 1 gallon a round, you could get enough water for 20 creatures in one minute.

For livestock, it varies, but from what I've found in Google (admittedly a minimal-effort search), cattle need about 20 gallons a day, horses around 15 (assuming a high average temperature since it's a desert).

Agriculture is harder to answer, as it varies by soil type, crop type, etc, and in everything I could find online they don't really measure it in terms of "gallons per day". But it's safe to assume that you need a lot of water to grow staple crops. Regardless, as written the decanter can probably cover it with minimal effort.

As others have stated, magic items are priced according to their short-term, dungeon environment use, and little consideration is made to what extended effects they might have on a campaign world. FOr another fun discussion along those lines, ask about the Lyre of Building ("Hey, we've got a free weekend... let's build a palace!")

 

[William_2]

I do, actually. But then, I enjoy thinking out the long term effects of seemingly minor alterations to economies and way of life when I DM. My poor players have wreaked havoc (unsuspectingly or otherwise) on several nations in our last campaign.

Yea, I do this too, I just didn’t want to say. Even when I’m the only one that will know, I do it. I tell you, it isn’t a sign that we are healthy…

 

[Hypersmurf]

I've always been fond of the decanter-powered horseless carriage engine

-Hyp.

 

[AuraSeer]

PS Sandstorm might have some additional ideas about this keep, water, and the like. I'm betting it mentions the decanter specifically -- probably, "don't let this item into your desert-based campaign."

Of course it'll be worth more in the middle of a desert. If you go changing the base assumptions about the gameworld, you rearrange the relative value of all kinds of magic.

In the 2E desert setting Al-Qadim, create water was a 9th-level spell!

 

[ElectricDragon]

You can always rule that since it is a desert that the item works much less effectively. Instead of 20 gallons a minute, let it only put out 2 gallons a day. The arid environment makes it harder for the magic to make water. Look at the Manual of the Planes and apply the "Impeded" trait to water magic in the area. In 2e I could list several sources that you could look at to find similar rules (Anaroch and Al' Quadim [sp] to name the first two I can think of), but for 3.xe, I have few books and a long wish list (so no help there).

Ciao
Dave

 

[Taloras]

I always thought it would be interesting to sit at the top of a dungeon and simply pour water into it...sit there for a few days....drown the creatures inside, cast water breathing, go in, pick up stuff, come out.

 

[Infiniti2000]

I always thought it would be interesting to sit at the top of a dungeon and simply pour water into it...sit there for a few days....drown the creatures inside, cast water breathing, go in, pick up stuff, come out.

Despite the quick rate of the decanter, the dungeon will fill very slowly (unless the 'dungeon' were really just a thin hole). The monsters therein will come out soon enough to figure out what is up. Of course, that in itself might be a good use of the decanter. Kinda like smokin' 'em out.