How much would you pay for a Helm of Protection from Evil?

[Allegro]

Well your right I did play fast and loose with the concept of slot less - a true slot less item would be an ioun stone. But the original concept is not all fluff, a horn allows the user to wear a head slotted item. Consider it the cool stuff you could wear on your head versus this silly helm that doesn't protect against badgers, elephants, town guards, and most slaads.

The people I play with do tend to start the day with 10/min buffs extended once the PCs hit level 8 or so. These buffs, in the game I play in, tend to be all day buffs greater than 90% of the time. Play styles will change this - exploring large overland areas versus dungeon delving would obvious effect how long the adventuring day is. The key difference between having 2 horns and a wand of protection from evil is with an one hour buff you have a pretty good chance of already being buffed before combat. Perhaps, I tend not to face as many cunning foes who always debuff the party. as you do.

Magic circle can be used offensively to retroactively protect the ally who is posed by the vampire. The single person protection from evil can not do this. Thus in my opinion magic circle is substantially better.

After reading the comments of the thread I'd say the bigger complaint is protection from evil is underpriced - not what should it cost compared to the closest magic item which is a horn of goodness in my opinion. Keep in mind this is all opinion versus hard fact.

 

[Celebrim]

After reading the comments of the thread I'd say the bigger complaint is protection from evil is underpriced - not what should it cost compared to the closest magic item which is a horn of goodness in my opinion. Keep in mind this is all opinion versus hard fact.

No, protection from evil is rather fairly priced; it's just that your experience causes you to drastically underestimate the value of 'always on' compared to 'action activated' and 'one hour duration'.

From you description, I can tell you aren't even considering the main reasons why 'always on' is better than 'use activated'. You seem to think that the adventuring day is definable down to two hours or something. This strongly suggests a particular sort of kick the doors down style versus static foes in a dungeon that are waiting for the PC's to show up and who don't have a lot of organization beyond that. This is the Undermountain school of adventuring - hop down beneath the inn go kill something that's been waiting for you for centuries then return quickly to the complete safety of the surface. You mention debuffing. That's the least of your problems. You play style probably doesn't have alot of:

a) Mysteries or intrigues where the PC's have a hard time telling friends from foes, and combats tend to be unexpected and the first sign that you may be under attack is that the DM asked for a saving throw and barbarian is suddenly acting strangely.
b) Long travel times.
c) Villains who are proactive, who move and scout, and who will track, scry, waylay and send minions after the PC's at every opportunity.
d) Villains who never stand and fight but view their lairs as something to delay and distract the PC's with while they make a clean get away out the back door, or who have no fixed abode at all and must be hunted or chased down, or who deliberately wait out the adventuring day before counterattacking when the party is probably getting ready for bed.
e) Villains who actively pursue the PC's when the PC's decide to retreat for the day.
f) Villains who cunningly lure the PC's into attacking illusions and/or charmed and/or summoned minions in the hopes of luring the PC's into 'going nova' early in the 'adventuring day' so that they may counterattack after the PC's have used their big spells/dailies/potions/wand charges whatever. Or villains which view the whole initial purpose of combat as dragging it out past a few hours of time so that the PC's buffs will run out of duration.
g) Wandering monsters.
h) Outer planar travel or other scenarios where you are constantly in a hostile situation.

Keep in mind I priced 'casting protection from evil a few times a day' as being 1/66th as valuable as 'having protection from evil on you at all times'. I also consider the horn of goodness to be pretty much fairly priced, but it's nothing compared to the security of an always on 'Protection from Evil'.

 

[Andras]

That was one heck of a Raise Dead cast on this thread.

 

[Empirate]

Wow, only noticed that now! Is that... 8 years? My goodness! Sorry for going along.

 

[Celebrim]

That was one heck of a Raise Dead cast on this thread.

Indeed it was. I didn't even notice until you mentioned it.

And the Raise Dead was cast by a 1st level poster with a fresh character as well.

If I'd noticed that, I might have been a bit more welcoming.

Welcome to the boards Grummer. Now that you've got your board scars and battle XP, I hope you feel more free to post. Our bark is much harder than our bite.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Interesting old thread. Can't leave it alone.

Typically, I've found that the pricing estimation guidelines work pretty well and it's the spell levels which are more often whacked. I'm inclined to lay the blame with protection from evil itself, a legacy spell which should probably be 3rd level and not 1st given its power.

This would give you 3 x 5 x 2 x 2000 = 60K.

Pretty close to what's been suggested.

 

[Slife]

I'd say it's slightly better than the Dracanite helm from Ghostwalk (12k for +2 deflection and protection from any form of possession). That'd make it around 18-24k or so, depending upon how common summoned monsters and neutral enemies are.

 

[jefgorbach]

[MENTION=77166]Grummer[/MENTION], correct per the formula ... but as others have stated your campaign's final market price really comes down to how often Charm/Mental Compulsion effects are encountered in your campaign for the simple reason the +2ac/saving throw modifiers are only effective when fighting EVIL creatures with over 10 hit dice ... thus the majority of foes are NOT effected by Protection vs Evil (see Detect Evil).

 

[Empirate]

Where do you get the 10 HD thing from?

 

[John Blackwood]

Would this item have spell failure? It's not the same as armor right?