How much should it cost to make this item?

[The_Universe]

One of my players is considering creating an item with the following characteristics, using either Craft Ring or Craft Wondrous Item. Since he doesn't know which route he intends to take, we'll just call it a thingamabob, for now.

Thingamabob of Moderate Healing
On command, this thingamabob allows the bearer to use the magic of the spell Cure Moderate Wounds, instantly healing 2d8+3 hit points.

Faint conjuration; CL 3rd; Craft Wondrous Item, Cure Moderate Wounds; Price 10,800gp(?)

As far as I can tell, because it's a second level spell being cast by a 3rd level caster, and the power of the item is activated by a command word, the market price should be 10,800gp. However, that seems INCREDIBLY low, since it effectively makes characters invincible (capable of healing 5-19 hp per round). For comparison, a Ring of Regeneration, which heals 1-20 hp per hour costs 90,000.

Assuming the math is correct, it would cost 5400 gp and 400-odd XP to actually make the item, right?

Is there something I'm missing here?

 

[javcs]

It takes a standard action to do that.
So, yeah, he can just stand there, healing himself, but he's not doing anything else.

 

[Nefrast]

That is one of the many examples where the price formula simply fails. Cure spells, like many other spells, work very well with their build-in limitations, i.e. if you cast them they are used up and you have only a limited number of them per day.

But if you remove this balancing factor -- and your magic item is doing this -- these spells get far too powerful.

For finding a price I would indeed compare this Thingamabob of Moderate Healing with a ring of regeneration. Even through it's command word activated, it's still much more powerful, thus I would probably rate it somewhere, I dunno, maybe 10 times the price of a regeneration ring, which AFAIK puts it into the realm of epic play.

 

[The_Universe]

Still, it seems like the item as written (though apparently OK by the rules) would make any character wielding it effectively invincible, right?

I mean, there are ways to stop it (a silence spell, for instance), but it effectively forces every combat in the game to revolve around disabling this single item. And even then, the risk to the character in question is minimal at best.

 

[Bad Paper]

Thingamabob of Moderate Healing
On command, this thingamabob allows the bearer to use the magic of the spell Cure Moderate Wounds, instantly healing 2d8+3 hit points.

Faint conjuration; CL 3rd; Craft Wondrous Item, Cure Moderate Wounds; Price 10,800gp(?)

You're on the right path, but you have forgotten to add in the charges-per-day calculation.

Let's try this again: (spell level) * (caster level) * 1,800gp, divided by (5 divided by charges per day)

So 2*3*1800/(5/14400) = 31,104,000gp. You are aware that there are 14,400 standard actions in a day, right?

31.1 million gold pieces for 172,800 hit points per day. This thing becomes cheaper (cost per hit point) than a wand of cure moderate wounds by its third day of (constant) use.

Oh, and make it a ring.

 

[The_Universe]

I have to say I like the result of your argument (the item being impractically expensive), but would I be correct in assuming that it's a minor stretch of the RAW? Command Word activated items are not assumed to have 50 charges unless you "buy them up," are they?

 

[Crothian]

THe guidelines don't work for all spells. Some spells like healing it just doesn't work in the ghame to have unlimited amounts. Note that even in Complete Mage with all their new feats allowing casters to do things all day long Healing is not among them. I'd just be careful about allowing such an item in the campaign as it will alter things.

 

[The_Universe]

Well, there's pretty much no chance I'm going to allow it as originally proposed (though I will probably inform the player that he did, indeed, do the math right). But I might allow it as a 3x/day item or something. That's powerful, but not unimaginably so.

Thanks, by the way, for all the help that you've all provided thus far.

 

[Crothian]

Well, there's pretty much no chance I'm going to allow it as originally proposed (though I will probably inform the player that he did, indeed, do the math right). But I might allow it as a 3x/day item or something. That's powerful, but not unimaginably so.

Thanks, by the way, for all the help that you've all provided thus far.

An item that does healiong even 5/day should be fine. Unlimited is just insane, I've tried it.

 

[Artoomis]

Cure spells are special. The Restorative Ointment give 5 doses of 5th level Cure Light for 4,000 gp. (I guess that's 1x5x800)

5 doses of Cure Moderate at 3rd level ought to be 4,800 gp, if the formula holds (2x3x800).

This seems reasonable.

I would think twice (or more) about allowing an unlimited curing item of any sort. There is a reason why you won't find one in the DMG, after all.