How much would you price this item?

[Lord Pendragon]

Hey gang,

I have a proposed item that I'd like to get some opinions on.

Circlet of Unearthly Grace.

While wearing this golden circlet, you partially gain the unearthly grace of a Nymph. You gain a deflection bonus to your AC equal to your Charisma modifier.

So, the questions:

1. Would you allow this item in your game?
2. If so, how much would it cost?

The closest core item I could find was the Monk's Belt, which grants the monk's Wisdom-to-AC ability to non-monks (I know some contend that this is incorrect, but please, if you disagree, let it lie for the duration of this thread, I'm not looking to turn this into an argument about the monk's belt.) The Wisdom-bonus-to-AC seems very similar to Charisma-bonus-to-AC.

The Ring of Evasion also has a similar feel, in that it grants a class ability to those who don't have it from their own class. The Unearthly Grace ability of the Nymph could be seen as a "monstrous class ability" in a way.

So, thoughts?

 

[Thanee]

100,000 gp or 50,000 gp and some drawback related to nymphs (no, not that one ) or rather fey in general (i.e. vulnerability to cold iron).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Vorput]

Well.. a deflection bonus is normally bonus squared x 2000.

I'm assuming this deflection bonus won't stack with other protection bonuses, like from a ring of protection.

Problem is for a sorcerer this is a huge bonus, and for a fighter- not so much... making a standard price hard to come by.

Ring of prot+5 is 50k... so I think I'd use that as my base price as Thyla suggested, maybe make it 60k to incorporate the possibilty of a higher charisma. I'd also make a clause that it only uses base charisma, so no putting on a cloak of charisma to kick your AC even higher... maybe.

And yeah, some sort of fey-effect... vulnerability to cold iron is good... but for 60k, you could also throw on a + circumstance bonus while dealing with other feys, say +2 on diplomacy, sense motive, bluff... something along those lines... or just whatever a redcap tooth (MM3) does... i forget.

Vorp

Edit: Looked at nymphs... maybe make it 80k, but attach the bonus abilites- cicumstance bonus, cold iron vulnerability, swim speed... depends on if you just want charisma to AC- or want to make this very nymph based.

 

[brehobit]

Yeah,
Keep in mind the monk's belt only works if you don't have armor on. Further, one or two classes that tend to have high CHR (sorc and bard) don't tend to have heavy armor. For Wis, only druids really are like that (and they have some nice ways to get heavy armor).

There is a class in the Best of Dragon that gives this bonus (Battle Dancer I think), though again, only with no armor. I think it is a dodge bonus.

I'd suggest just plain avoiding the item. If you are going to give it out, I'd seriously consider adding the following restictions:
* Has no effect if you have an armor bonus of any type
* Makes your CHR 4 lower for spell casting purposes (DCs, # of spells etc.) Your "force of will" is being redirected...
* Only works after being worn for 24 hours.

At that, I'd give it a 20K price or so.

The cold iron ideas are also nice ones....

Mark

 

[axp_dave]

One thing to look at is you are giving a deflection bonus to AC with a "head slot". By giving the PC another AC bonus besides armor, bracers, or amulet you are allowing them to raise their AC even higher than their resources could usually afford. Because you are giving AC bonus to a "slot" that does not offer AC bonuses, I would double think about making it a head piece.

David

 

[frankthedm]

1. Would you allow this item in your game?

Not without a lot of mulling over what this item is really worth. Even if i did allow such an item, i'd cost it pretty high.

2. If so, how much would it cost?

If the game will NOT go epic, 3,032,000 gp or 2,016,000 gp in the neck or cloak slot. Drop one zero if you don’t fell epic items should have the x10 costing issue.

1. Deflection is one of the best types of AC bonus in the core game, working even if you are helpless.
2. Head slot is not a ‘protective slot’, adding 50% to the cost.
3. IMHO should be priced at the greatest bonus it can grant.
4. Since only a select few could ever get that bonus, a 30% discount in order.
5. The item creates an epic bonus. Deflection goes epic at +6 and up, that means the price just went up x10!

Elite Human, aged to venerable Charisma 18
20 levels +5
Inherent +5
Enhancement Item +6
Final charisma 34 [+12]
To that character the item is worth 3,032,000 gp or 2,016,000 gp in the neck or cloak slot.

Half celestial gold dragon, great wyrm, with elite scores. 41 base
Enhancement Item +6
Inherent +5
Final Charisma 50 [+20]
To that dragon the item is worth 8,400,000 gp. Or 5,600,000 gp in the neck or cloak slot.

 

[Land Outcast]

HUm... I wouldn't allow it, but...


I'd consider it a +10 deflection bonus (10*10*2k=200k)
Bard? You will achieve that Charisma
Sorcerer? You will achieve that Charisma
Paladin? Don't be a sissy and use your Armor Proficiency
Rest? Too expensive? the buy an item which grants a +10 deflection bonus.

 

[frankthedm]

I'd consider it a +10 deflection bonus (10*10*2k=200k)

The item creates an epic bonus. Deflection goes epic at +6 and up, that means the price just went up x10!

 

[FireLance]

Here's what I'd do:

1. Cap the bonus at the non-epic limit of +5.

2. This sets the base maximum value at 50,000 gp, same as a +5 ring of protection, or 75,000 gp if you accept the argument that the price should go up by 50% since the head slot doesn't have an affinity for protection.

3. Apply a small discount (maybe 10%) since the item requires a minimum ability score to function at full effectiveness.

It probably isn't what you are looking for (it isn't much better than a vanilla +5 ring of protection), but it has less chance of resulting in a PC with a runaway AC.

 

[Bront]

I think the Wisdom applied to the AC of the Monks Belt is actualy an important diferentiator, and if that was factored into the cost, then most of what you have priced that new item at has it quite overpowered, even if it requires you to not be wearing any armor.

Also, A Dualist or Swashbuckler could benifit from an item like that (and the belt) quite easily, and is likely to have some amount of CHA bonus to get something out of it.

That being said, I think a Ring of Evasion is priced abour right. I'd probably make it an amulet though, not a circlet. So 25,000 is probably not bad (assuming you feel the monks belt gives you wisdom as a bonus).

Could that be abused? Most certaintly, but so can many items. I'd probably require the crafter to be a nymph, making it fairly rare.