Help me price this magic item?

[Jeff Wilder]

Kamjen's muffler

The small spheres are slightly larger than sling-stones, and roughly formed of what appears to be fired black clay. They're typically found in pouches of 1d4+1.

Each sphere holds a weak charge of negative energy, which is released when the sphere shatters upon any forceful impact. Any target which can be affected by ray of enfeeblement can be affected by a muffler. Once released, the mufflers's negative energy selectively weakens the target, such that it is incapable of making any verbal noise above that of normal conversation. (In other words, a muffler does not inhibit spellcasting, but a creature under the effect of one of these items cannot shout to raise an alarm or bellow in rage, for example.)

The effect lasts 1d6+1 minutes [rounds?]. The target receives no saving throw, but breaking the muffler upon a target requires a ranged touch attack. The spheres are perfectly sized for throwing; an attacker suffers no non-proficiency penalty, and the range increment is 20 feet. Alternatively, the spheres can be launched from a sling. Even when used in this manner they do no physical damage, but they do benefit from the sling's range increment.

Faint necromancy; CL 3rd; Craft Wondrous Item, ray of enfeeblement; Price [?]; Weight 0.5 lbs.; Cost to create [?]

 

[Pielorinho]

Moved to House Rules.
Daniel

 

[Pielorinho]

Oh, and very cool item! I'd consider charging 25 gp per muffler: the effect seems weaker to me than a first-level spell, but more powerful than a cantrip; however, their successful use is not guaranteed.

A first-level potion--i.e., an item useable by anyone that grants a first-level spell--costs 50 gp. Since this isn't quite as strong as a first-level spell, and since its successful use isn't guaranteed, I'd put it at 25 gp each.

Daniel

 

[Clay_More]

I agree with the 25 gp cost. It doesn't ensure success and it doesn't have direct impact on combat capabilities. The item is cool, really rogueish. I like it.

 

[Piratecat]

After some discussion we've decided that when it's just a matter of pricing new magic items, it is indeed a Rules issue. My apologies for the confusion.

 

[der_kluge]

The cost according to the Artificer's Handbook.

use-activated, multi-charge item. The minimum is 10 charges (10 pieces of ammunition).

6 spell slots of silence. I see this as silence, not ray of enfeeblement. I'm going to apply a -1 spell slot cost since it requires a ranged touch attack to use it. So, you could miss.

Range increments are attributes of weapons, not of ammunition.

silence has a radius of 20' which we can use for this effect.
The duration is based on the caster level. 1d6 minutes is really arbitrary. We'll go with the minimum for a 2nd level spell which is 3rd level. That's a 3 minute duration.

10gp(3 + 2 -1) * 5^2 = 40gp*25 = 1,000gp creation cost. That's a market value of 2,000gp.

Now, that's the silence spell, which is of course way more powerful than what you're talking about. That's also for 10 bullets. So, that's 100gp per bullet to have a silence effect on a slingstone. Which is way cool by any standard.

If you create it with a ray of enfeeblement (as written), the cost is as follows (caster level 3 to maintain a 3 minute duration):
10gp(3 + 1 -1) *5^2 = 30gp*25 = 750gp (or 75gp per bullet).

Creating it with some variant ray of enfeeblement that only affects the voice is probably about a -2 to the cost.
10gp(3+1-1) *3^2 = 30gp*9 = 270gp.

Or, 27gp per bullet.
That's creation cost. Market cost would be 54gp per bullet. Though I would round up to 55gp.

 

[dcollins]

After some discussion we've decided that when it's just a matter of pricing new magic items, it is indeed a Rules issue. My apologies for the confusion.

Actually, I feel strongly that these discussions should be in House Rules. What's the distinction between new classes, spells, or monsters, versus magic items?

Or was this discussed in the Meta forum?

 

[shilsen]

Actually, I feel strongly that these discussions should be in House Rules. What's the distinction between new classes, spells, or monsters, versus magic items?

Or was this discussed in the Meta forum?

Usually pricing discussions involve applying the pricing guidelines in the DMG, so it seems close enough to the rules for me. YMMV, and apparently does.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

After some discussion we've decided that when it's just a matter of pricing new magic items, it is indeed a Rules issue. My apologies for the confusion.

Yeah, I hesitated between the two fora before picking Rules. So there's no need to apologize ... I could as easily have picked House Rules, and moving it didn't hurt my feelin's none.

 

[Terwox]

Thunderstones, from the SRD:
Thunderstone: You can throw this stone as a ranged attack with a range increment of 20 feet. When it strikes a hard surface (or is struck hard), it creates a deafening bang that is treated as a sonic attack. Each creature within a 10-foot-radius spread must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or be deafened for 1 hour. A deafened creature, in addition to the obvious effects, takes a –4 penalty on initiative and has a 20% chance to miscast and lose any spell with a verbal component that it tries to cast.

Since you don’t need to hit a specific target, you can simply aim at a particular 5-foot square. Treat the target square as AC 5.


Moving on,
It's actually a bit harder to use than a thunderstone (ranged touch vs victim rather than square) but yeah, it seems a little weaker than a thundersone, 25gp apiece sounds dead on. (27 would work, but, eh, multiples of 5 being preferable and all that.)

And yeah, cool item, neat effect.