How do I price a sword that absorbs other weapon's abilities?

[sirgarberto]

If a merchant wants to sell a Ring of Spell Storing with a spell in it, he can do so, but as per RAW in the DMG I haven't seen anything that suggests increasing the price.

I have, as a PC, often paid spellcasters to fill items like this with spells I was unable to cast. Are you saying that they should have done it for free? If not, then what happened to the value of what I just paid? because, according to your logic, my ring still has the same value, so I didn't get anything from the transaction.

 

[PureGoldx58]

I have, as a PC, often paid spellcasters to fill items like this with spells I was unable to cast. Are you saying that they should have done it for free?

That is a different matter entirely and completely covered by RAW as there are rules for it.

I even decided to double check the ring of spell storing and it only suggests the meager price of a scroll if it has a spell in it even though the spell storing ring is more powerful than said scroll by far, by so very far.

This isn't really relevant to the cost because those are one time use as opposed to the sword. Hence, treating the home-brewed enchantment as +9 (you know +4 more than instant death [vorpal] ) is being very fair towards all parties involved.

 

[PureGoldx58]

I even decided to double check the ring of spell storing and it only suggests the meager price of a scroll if it has a spell in it even though the spell storing ring is more powerful than said scroll by far, by so very far.

I decided to triple check this, it mentions nothing about price, but it does mention treating it as a scroll for random generation, so I was correct initially. Also this isn't my "logic", this is RAW. My logic would say never give that kind of item to a party member and expect him to pay for it more than the maximum he has access to which is +10.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

The simplest answer is that items of artifact power do not need to be priced.

 

[PureGoldx58]

The simplest answer is that items of artifact power do not need to be priced.

Unfortunately for what he/she wants to do, the pricing is a necessary evil.

 

[sirgarberto]

That is a different matter entirely and completely covered by RAW as there are rules for it.

I even decided to double check the ring of spell storing and it only suggests the meager price of a scroll if it has a spell in it even though the spell storing ring is more powerful than said scroll by far, by so very far.

This isn't really relevant to the cost because those are one time use as opposed to the sword. Hence, treating the home-brewed enchantment as +9 (you know +4 more than instant death [vorpal] ) is being very fair towards all parties involved.

The cost of the spell in the ring is a one time use, yes, so it makes sense that it has to pay the price of another one time use item (a scroll). The sword is an at-will use item, so to speak, but so is it when it is inside the WF sword.

Also, let's go back to this:

the meager price of a scroll if it has a spell in it even though the spell storing ring is more powerful than said scroll by far, by so very far

According to the SRD, this is what hiring someone to cast a spell for you costs (the same thing that the ring does):

Service Cost
Spell, 0-level Caster level x5 gp
Spell, 1st-level Caster level x10 gp
Spell, 2nd-level Caster level x20 gp
Spell, 3rd-level Caster level x30 gp
Spell, 4th-level Caster level x40 gp
Spell, 5th-level Caster level x50 gp
Spell, 6th-level Caster level x60 gp
Spell, 7th-level Caster level x70 gp
Spell, 8th-level Caster level x80 gp
Spell, 9th-level Caster level x90 gp

For example, a 4th level spell cast by a 7th level wizard would cost 280gp.
And this is how much purchasing a scroll of the same spell costs:

spell level × its caster level × 25 gp

For the same spell, it would cost 700gp.

 

[PureGoldx58]

At this point that is moot, I looked back and it doesn't actually change the price because as I assumed and someone else mentioned the potential is already in the price. Have you looked at the ring's price? Minor -18,000 Regular 50,000 Major- 200k it factors in the fact that it will be holding very powerful spells in it and doesn't charge you if you happen find one with a spell in it.

 

[sirgarberto]

I think I may be going at this the wrong way, though. Instead of wrecking my brain trying to come up for a cost for this, it may be easier to give an artifact to the PCs that don't have any already.

 

[Dandu]

Unfortunately for what he/she wants to do, the pricing is a necessary evil.

Why does it need to be priced? Is a PC going to sell it?

 

[sirgarberto]

Why does it need to be priced? Is a PC going to sell it?

As explained in my previous post:

I'm DMing a campaign in 3.5, and after they tackled the main objective, they set their next objective themselves. The thing about it is that it was impossible to do that in their current level (they want to destroy the Wall of the Faithless, if you need to know), so I agreed on taking them to epic levels.

Since there was a lot of disparity in levels and treasure between the party (because of some of them showing up every time and the rest only now and then and stuff like that), I took this as an opportunity to make them all start in the same page, so I set them all to level up their characters to the same level and choose equipment so that the value of everything they own, including what they already had, is worth the same amount of money; so I need to calculate how much the stuff they have is worth so each of them can know how much they can spend.