Grave Strike Item

[Ceska]

In this Topic I asked about the possibility to craft a Ring of Grave Strike (spell from CAdv), calculating a total of 8000 GP as cost for the ring.

Spelllevel (1) x CL (1) x2000 (continous effect) x 4 (Duration of spell 1 round)

Imho this is way to low for such an item. Any thoughts about this? Are there any rules about swift spells made permanent i have not accounted?

I would be thankful for any comment!

 

[frankthedm]

I'd recommend costing it as a spell several levels' higher. The spell is a personal spell like shield and truestrike.

I'd also recommend giving all undead Unholy toughness [Cha bonus in HP to each hit die] for campains where this item is allowed or reduce undead CRs accross the board since they no longer have enough HP to properly challenge characters.

 

[Ceska]

I'd recommend costing it as a spell several levels' higher. The spell is a personal spell like shield and truestrike.

Thanx for your reply, frankthedm!

Sounds good to me, but how many levels higher? Could I add the spell level requirement for a quickened spell (+4 levels) for calculating the costs? Just an idea (no, I don´t want to quicken a swift spell, this is for cost calculating only! ), this would end up with

Spell level (5) x Caster Level (1) x 2000 (continous effect) x4 (duration 1 round) for an total of 40000GP.

 

[Joker]

Why not just make it a weapon enchantment? From Libris Mortis you have ghost strike which functions just like a ghost touch weapon and allows sneak attacks and critical hits against all incorporeal undead for a +2 bonus. You can create a version that affects only corporeal undead for a +2 or +3 bonus.

 

[Ceska]

Why not just make it a weapon enchantment?

Nice idea, but it would be more suitable to have such an item than different weapons with this enchantment (one melee, one ranged for example) and, of course, it would work on ray spells too.

 

[KarinsDad]

You should use the x5 Rule of Thumb.

Any time a spell is a personal spell, a non-charged item should cost 5 times as much in an item if allowed at all (which it shouldn't). The reason is that only one specific class (or set of classes or whatever) can get that spell. Nobody else should have it.

WotC dropped the ball on this one IMO. They restricted personal spells from Potions, but not from any other items.

Rings, Rods, and Wondrous Items should really be restricted.

Scrolls, Wands, and Staves less so since those are charged items that require certain classes or UMD to begin with to use.


There are a lot of examples where the spell is really potent because it is personal: Grave Strike, True Strike, Alter Self.

Hat of Disguise is extremely cheap. 1800 GP. The spell used is Disguise Self which is personal. The item should cost 9000 GP not because a Hat of Disguise has so much utility, but because at 1800 GP, virtually every villain in the world should be wearing one.


Look at how effective a Ring of Blinking can be.

 

[Ceska]

You say one should multiply the price of such an Item with 5? So, 8000 GP x5 makes 40000GP, which is exactly the price i gave in my last post.

 

[KarinsDad]

You say one should multiply the price of such an Item with 5? So, 8000 GP x5 makes 40000GP, which is exactly the price i gave in my last post.

Actually, you raised the spell level without raising the caster level.

Spell level (5) x Caster Level (1) x 2000 (continous effect) x4 (duration 1 round) for an total of 40000GP.

If you want to raise the spell level, you should also raise the caster level to be consistent. For example:

Spell level (2) x Caster Level (3) x 2000 (continuous effect) x4 (duration 1 round) for a total of 48000GP.

But, I just like the simpler (admittedly house rule) of x5.

 

[FoxWander]

My opinion would be to make the duration multiplier to cost x8 instead of x4. x4 being for spells measured in roundS, then x8 for spells that are, by design limited to a single round, would seem about right.

Then you get an item cost of 16000 gp, which feels about right to me. Grave strike is an effect that only benefits one class (or any that can sneak attack) and you still have to set up a sneak attack to benefit from it.

As for how that multipier works with other swift action, 1 round spells that would be really cool to have... an item of Wraithstrike would cost 64,000 gp (14,000 more than a +1 Brilliant Enrgy weapon- it's closest analog), and items of Vine Strike or Golem Strike would each cost 16,000 gp also. And an item of sneak-attack-anything-and-do-it-as-a-touch-attack (a wraith/grave/vine/golem strike item) would cost 92,000 gp.

 

[brehobit]

This has come up before. I'd call it a +1 weapon enchantment. I know that you don't want it to be a weapon enchantment, but it is clearly what it _should_ be. A lot of bonuses (say flaming) balance nicely because of the way weapons are priced. It would be fairly broken otherwise (I'd go at least 30K if I allowed it at all).

Those who want to to be higher (say +2 or +3):
It is really weaker than undead bane most of the time. For a high-level rogue it may be better than undead bane (say level 9+). But frankly I'm okay with that. (I think FranktheDM and I argued this some time back, perhaps lost in the server crash?) +2 wouldn't offend me greatly.