How would you price these items?

[Joker]

Hi, I need some help pricing these sofar unnamed items.

1.) The first one is a shield enhancement. It grants a +1 (or higher) sacred/profane bonus to AC. I was thinking it counting as one higher than the bonus it grants for purposes of calculating prices. For instance a +1 shield granting +1 sacred bonus to AC would have a market price of 9000 gp. +2 would be 16000, +3 would be 25000 to a maximum (non-Epic) of +4 which would cost 36000.

2.) This one I have no idea how to price. It's a scabbard which activates a weapon when it is unsheathed. With activates I mean a single special ability like flaming, shocking, vicious etc.

Thanks in advance.

 

[der_kluge]

There is no spell that creates a sacred bonus to an armor class. So, at least by my imagining, you'd need to first create a spell that did that, and then make the effect permanent on said armor.


Secondly, can the scabbard activate any effect? How long does it last? Does the item have to be a magic item? Does it create a plus on the item?

You'd be looking at spells create magic weapon or greater magic weapon and perhaps something like bestow spell ability.

 

[Sound of Azure]

Magic Items

Hi there Joker

1) I like your idea on pricing here. If you're happy with that, that's cool. For my own campaign, I'd treat it as a seperate cost. In the Estimating Magic Item costs section on page 285 of the DMG you find an entry AC Bonus (other), which costs 2500 x bonus squared. Alternanatively, you could make it the equivalent to a natural armour bonus, being worth 2000 x bonus squared.

One thing to note is I think that sacred and profane bonuses add to touch AC (but I am not certain on this)

2) Not sure on this either. How long would the effect last? The only comparable item is the Sacred Scabbard, but this has a limited duration, and operates three times per day. Could you supply more information?

I hope this helps

 

[Staffan]

1.) The first one is a shield enhancement. It grants a +1 (or higher) sacred/profane bonus to AC. I was thinking it counting as one higher than the bonus it grants for purposes of calculating prices. For instance a +1 shield granting +1 sacred bonus to AC would have a market price of 9000 gp. +2 would be 16000, +3 would be 25000 to a maximum (non-Epic) of +4 which would cost 36000.

That would be "AC bonus (other)", for a cost of bonus^2 * 2,500 gp. Since it's added to another item, there would be an additional 50% surcharge (3,750 gp base cost).

2.) This one I have no idea how to price. It's a scabbard which activates a weapon when it is unsheathed. With activates I mean a single special ability like flaming, shocking, vicious etc.

The scabbard of keen edges is similar to this, adding the keen property to a weapon three times per day, for 16,000 gp. I'd allow a similar item to add any +1-equivalent ability. For a +2-equivalent, I'm a bit torn on pricing it. I see two possibilities:
1: The standard bonus squared times constant thing. Here, the constant would be 16k. That would put a +2 ability at 64k, and a +3 ability at 144k.
2: Compare it to the cost to make a weapon more powerful. 16k is somewhere between the cost of upgrading a +3 weapon to +4 (14k) and a +4 weapon to +5 (18k). So a +2 ability should be between the cost of a +3 to +5 and a +4 to +6, or 36k. This translates to (ability equivalent bonus +1) squared*4,000: 16k for +1, 36k for +2, 64k for +3, and so on.

 

[Derren]

I think you are all misunderstanding item 2.
As I understand it the the scabbard doesn't give the weapon flaming etc, but only activates it when the weapon already has it.

If you don't know, energy enchantments on weapons like flaming have to be activated as a standard action.

 

[Staffan]

Oh, in that case I'd probably only charge like 1,000 gp for it or something like that.

 

[Joker]

Yeah, Derren is right. I wanted a character to have a +1 shocking longsword and shield. And when he would draw it, the scabbard would activate the shocking part of it.

As for the shield part. I did the pricing that way because for some reason I thought a sacred bonus was calculated as bonus squared * 2000. Wishfull thinking I guess . Adding, say, an enhancement which grants a +2 sacred bonus to AC to a shield would then cost +15000?

 

[Sound of Azure]

ooooops!

Sorry about the mistake Joker!

I would have to agree with Staffan: 1000gp, but it would take perhaps 24-48 hours for the scabbard to attune to the associated weapon, do to the bond that needs to be formed.

 

[Staffan]

As for the shield part. I did the pricing that way because for some reason I thought a sacred bonus was calculated as bonus squared * 2000. Wishfull thinking I guess . Adding, say, an enhancement which grants a +2 sacred bonus to AC to a shield would then cost +15000?

Yes, 15k sounds right. If you make it something like an amulet instead it would "only" cost 10k (since that would be a separate item instead of an add-on to an item you already have).

 

[Joker]

All right, that all sounds pretty good.

I got another item for you to look at.

Mask of the Deep (I know, oozing with originality).

This black mask covered with dark crimson flame motifs grants the user Darkvision 60ft. In addition any arachnid that comes within 30 feet must succeed on a Will Save (DC16) or not be able to approach the wearer. The wearer of the mask also gains a +2 bonus on will saves vs. effects that attempt to gain information about or alter his thoughts.

Price?