Item pricing question <answered by Sage and CS>

[kreynolds]

Found this interesting. I just noticed that some of the armor abilities in the 3.5 DMG don't follow the pricing guidelines. For example, any armor ability is a secondary power on a magic item, right? Check out Improved Cold Resistance.

Using the resist energy spell at caster level 7 to get resistance 20...

2 (spell level) x 7 (caster level) x 2,000 x 1.5 = 42,000. Now, here's the interesting part. I assume the x1.5 part is for the effect becoming continuous from a duration of 10 minutes/level, but is it really? The x1.5 could also be the extra 50% for being a secondary power. But, if that's the case, then the x1.5 for it being a continous effect isn't applied. It can only be one or the other.

Which do you think it is?

 

[KarinsDad]

Item creation is unfortunately impossible to formulize, since spells are ridiculously incomparable in power.

I wouldn't use the word impossible. I would use the phrase "not always easy".

However, I would also say that item creation is something where "good enough" is generally "good enough", as long as you are in some reasonable ballpark.

For example, say you create an item for 3000 GP. Does it really matter in the large scheme of things if it actually came out to 2000 GP or 4000 GP or 3000 GP? Probably not. It would probably matter significantly if the item was a 3000 GP powered item and the creation cost came out at 10000 GP though.

That is one of the things that I kind of like about Artificer's Handbook. One DM might "fudge" an item a little because he thinks the spell has too much utility (not something that AH recommends, but something it allows for). So, he might bump up the Spell Slot cost by 1. Another DM might lower it by one Spell Slot because he doesn't think the item has all of the benefits of the spell. For an item that already has 6 Spell Slots, that's like increasing the creation cost by 36% or decreasing it by 30% respectively. A noticable amount to be sure, taking an item from 3000 GP to either 4100 GP or 2100 GP, but it isn't taking the item from 3000 GP to 10000 GP, which can mysteriously happen in core rule item creation. Or, having +30 competence bonus for Jump in a ring for the same 2000 GP as having a +10 competence bonus for Hide in a cloak.

In AH, the DM fine tunes the cost (both in spells and money) if he deems it necessary. But, if two DMs create the same item using the same spell(s), there is a good chance they will both come up with the same cost (unless the item is relatively complex and even then, they'll probably come into the same relative ballpark). In core rules, that tends to mostly happen merely for potions, scrolls, wands, and bonus items where the rules are real straightforward, but not for wondrous items, rods, staves, etc.

PS. I also like the fact that AH has additional rules for creating a boatload of items that the core rules either disallow (like potions over 3rd level), or does not even have as part of the game (like gestalt sets or command word single use items like runes or tattoos).