How much for a Scent granting item?

[Grymar]

I have a player who would like to get a magic item crafted that gives him scent (he's a shifter and it works well for his character).

Looking through the MIC, I've seen

Corsair's eyepatch - 3/day see invisibility 1 round or blindsight 1 minute, 3,000gp
Mask of the Tiger - Gain Track feat, low light vision, 4,000gp
Goggles of Night - Darkvision 60, 12,000gp

I'd say Scent would like somewhere between the 4k and 12k line, but that's still a pretty big window. What if we did 3/day?

Thanks!

 

[Deset Gled]

I'd go closer to the 12k side of things, but I'm old fasioned and don't use the MIC pricing guides. Remember that scent can be more powerful than darkvision if the enemy is invisible, when blindfolded, or any similar situation. An item that grants tremorsense would be a better comparison.

Keep in mind that if you do limited uses per day, you will need to be specific about how long it lasts, how it is activated, and whether or not you need a 24 hour "attuning" period.

 

[szilard]

I believe there's a Druid spell in the Spell Compendium that grants Scent. You could use the standard rules for creating a wondrous item and base it off of that.

-Stuart

 

[Grymar]

Thank you for the suggestions. You are right that Scent is more powerful than it seems at first. How about I toss out two options?

Option 1:
Medallion of the Wolf
Price: 12,000gp
Body Slot: Neck
Caster Level: 6th
Aura: Moderate Transmutation
Activation: Constant

This silver medallion gives the wearer the Scent ability.


Option 2:
Feral Cloak
Price: 7,000gp
Body Slot: Back
Caster Level: 6th
Aura: Moderate Transmutation
Activation: Swift/Constant

This cloak gives the wearer a constant +2 bonus to all hide checks. In addition, three times a day the wearer can give himself the scent ability for five minutes.

Those costs are roughly in line with the pricing guidelines based on the Druid spell. I shortened the duration of the effect on the cloak, but tossed in a small hide bonus to compensate.

Suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Deset Gled]

The cloak's hide bonus shouldn't be untyped . I would make it a +2 competence bonus to make it similar to the Shadow armor enhancement. Other than that, I think things looks fine.

You could alter a couple of other things purely for flavor if you wanted to. It would make sense to me that these scent-granting items are race specific. That is, there is a human version, an elf version, etc, and different races get no bonus from using another races scent ability. Also, you could make the first item a set of goggles like Groucho Marx glasses (i.e. with no lenses, and a big fake nose) instead of a medallion. You could do the same thing to the second item, but then you could give a disguise bonus instead of a hide bonus. None of these changes should affect the price.