Javelin of Lightning or other ammo with spells

[Empirate]

It's not an enchanted weapon, it's basically a spell that's usable as an attack. Why should you need an enchanted javelin beforehand? It's not a weapon that will do you any good after you've used it once, unlike, say, a +1 Returning Javelin.


Your formula seems way off: Mwk javelins cost 301 gp, hence a +1 javelin costs 2,301 gp, and where does it say you need 50 x material component cost? That's for wands (which have 50 charges) - and the costs of components that don't give a gp value in the spell description are normally ignored, anyway. Rounding thrown in is unnecessary and is given a close shave by my good pal Occam, btw.

The only formula that can be gleaned from what we know about the Javelin of Lightning is: base price CL x spell level x 100, half that to create. Simple, and thus, probably.


Adding an enchantment to a weapon isn't what has happened here; the Javelin of Lightning is rather unique in its properties. It is most definitely NOT an enchanted weapon in the normal sense, although it does require the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat to create. It's a thing of its own, and it seems the designers thought they'd just give it double potion cost and be done with it.

 

[Sekhmet]

I -was- mistaken on the cost of masterwork/enchanting a Javelin (was using Armor rules, for some reason), however the point stands. It is indeed an enchanted weapon, and should follow all rules for enchanted weapons on top of being a single use, use activated item.

Spell component costs are used in every single created item, although they're usually negligible (IE: The clump of fur). Crystals, gems, or garnets aren't worthless though.

You may be right in that the cost is seemingly arbitrary. It could be one of those cases where the designer didn't think it was worth the full cost of enchanting it properly (and so he lowered it), or that he used the Use Activated, Single Use formula and found that it was too cheap, so he just doubled it.

 

[LiL KiNG]

Nonono.

The formula given for single-use, use-activated items (CL x spell level x 50 gp) is the formula for the base price (usually = market price). To arrive at the cost for creating the item, halve the number.

That's why a Javelin of Lightning (1,500 gp market price, 750 gp to create) can't be calculated according to this formula. It clearly uses spell level 3 (Lightning Bolt), caster level 5 (5d6 damage), and another multiplier of 100, not 50, to calculate its price tag.

Ergo: Javelin of Lightning does not use the standard formula for pricing single-use, use-activated items.

Gotcha. Like I said I don't like the creation rules much. The few custom items I've added to my games I've arbitrarily assigned a price to based on other like items. Weapon and armor formulas are the most common, and easiest to figure.
The Javelin of Lightning being priced in a way that doesn't match the creation rules wouldn't be the first item to be weird like that, or maybe it is the first as it's from the DMG... ?