Magic Item Making

[Corlon]

Alright, my player is telling me that he can make a command word magic-missle (9th level caster at will) firing machine somewhere in the neighborhood of 18k gp.

Is it really not overpowered and am I overreacting, or is that just a tad cheap?

 

[Darkness]

New magic items belong in House Rules. Moved.

Looks like your player might be forgetting there are no strict rules for this; just guidelines.

 

[Corlon]

well, it seems to check out in the DM's guide.

I realize they're guidelines, but I'm wondering people's thoughts on an item like this, and whether it actually does check out based on DM's guide.

Thanks for moving it, I lose track of which one I'm in.

 

[Shin Okada]

First of all, no player can "tell" a DM that his PC can create some new magic item. Magic Item Creation rule is a guideline and which must be under control of each DM. You DM decide if a certain item can be made or not.

Buck to that specific item, I don't think it to be overpowered as long as it occupies appropriate slot or paying 50% cost increase.

Gauntlets will be ideal as the slot has affinity for "Destructive Power". So, apair of Gauntlets of Magic Missile may cost 1 (spell level) x 9 (caster level) x 1,800 (Command Word Spell Effect) = 16,200gp. And, say, a pair of Boots of Magic Missiles may cost 50% more, or 24,300gp. Not bad. A fully charged Wand of Magic Missile (CL9) costs only 6,750gp.

 

[Dracomeander]

On the surface the math works, but I would be tempted to rule for the times four multiplier in the footnote. I realize the footnote is for continously acting items made from spells of short duration, but a Magic Missile usable at will (that never runs out) is effectively creating a continously acting item from an instantaneous duration spell.

I created one for an Epic level game for a character I was playing, and through using it during play, I found that it was broken at the lower price.

 

[dcollins]

Darkness, thank you.

Corlon, remember that the formulas in the DMG are guidelines only for DM's when they make new items (which technically count as House Rules). Read the sidebar carefully on when and how you would use that table. To quote Monte Cook who wrote that section ( http://www.montecook.com/arch_dmonly3.html ):

The most important thing to remember is, Table 8-40 doesn't determine prices. It suggests them. Don't say, "Wow, these shoes of continual improved invisibility sure are cheap." Do say, "Hmm, these formulas don't work when it comes to spells like improved invisibility." When someone asks me, "Can I really make an item that will cast cure light wounds at will, activated by a command word, for only 900 gp?"I now reply, "Only if your DM isn't paying attention."

 

[S'mon]

Don't let players make continuously-functioning items with instantaneous-effect abilities that go off every round! Even 1e artifacts could only cast fireball etc a couple of times per day.

 

[S'mon]

If you _were_ wanting to allow this, given that continuous-short-duration merits x4 cost, continuous-instantaneous merits at least another x4 for total x16, around 260,000gp would be reasonable.

 

[Firzair]

IMC I have my own pricing for once per round spells. The price for this is caster level x spell level x 150.000gp. Yes that's really expensive.
But I also have prices for n times per day (n x cl x sl x 400gp like the SRD), per hour (n x cl x sl x 4.000gp) and per minute (n x cl x sl x 40.000gp).
We have some PCs that use rings of magic missile (9th) that can be used 20 times a day for 20 x 9 x 1 x 400gp = 72.000gp.
Anyway in core rule games I usually rule out the once per round option, so only the n times a day options are allowed. And I prefer a ring of healing (cure light wounds, cl 1st, 20 times a day, price 8.000gp per pricing guidlines from the SRD) over the wands. It's just a bit more expensive than ten such wands and can be used by everybody!

Have fun!

Greetings
Firzair

 

[Victim]

If you _were_ wanting to allow this, given that continuous-short-duration merits x4 cost, continuous-instantaneous merits at least another x4 for total x16, around 260,000gp would be reasonable.

That'd be reasonable only if you have some strange definition of the word, so that reasonable is equivalent to worthless. At the levels when a character can afford a 260k item, the ability to do 17.5 per round (assuming the enemies don't have SR - most high CR monsters will ignore CL 9) is fairly laughable in serious fights. And the characters will a healthy reserve of lower level, but still effective spells even after they run out of big guns. My high level wizard picked up a wand of Maximized Magic Missiles from some foe. I ended up using it a handful of times over the campaign - I believe the wand came out when we were fighting Spectres (so I needed Force damage, which most of my other killing spells didn't do) while we were on the way to the main boss, so I was saving up my spells (turned out to be a waste, since my character got Power Word Stunned along with other bad stuff so I didn't get a chance to use very many).

To some extent, the answer depends on your campaign. If you have tons of fairly small battles or very long fights, then having an unlimited spell attack is good. When the group does have lots of small battles each day, do they come in big groups, making area attacks more attractive? How often does the PC run out of spells now? Do many monsters have SR? How many enemies will have access to Shield potions or spells for extra AC? Do the characters have access to strategic movement or safe havens so that they can rest when needed?

Similar items are also relevant. For the price of limitless magic missiles period, the PC can get like two and half wands of the same spell. Since a free resource will get used more than a plentiful, but still limited one (rats in the sewer?! Yuck! Time for some magic missiles), we can probably ignore the extra half a wand. So that's 100 charges of magic missile, which is quite a bit. If we assume the BS standard 13 encounters (we'll assume combats), and that each fight lasts 4 rounds, he can use the magic missile wands exclusively for two entire levels and come out the same as the guy with the gauntlets shooting unlimited missiles. If the character uses real spells or attacks (I suppose that it doesn't have to be a caster using it) half the time, it takes 4 levels before command work pulls ahead.

Also, the price guidelines for a spell an unlimited # of times per day produce the same result as the same spell 5/day. So, in my game, that unlimited CLW item becomes a 5/day item. Of course, since magic missile is going to require a combat action, unlike a cure, there's a more realistic constraint on how many times it can effectively be used. Especially since using means not using Slow or Evard's Black Tentacles, or some other nasty spell. But if you forsee the PC firing like 20 shots per day from the item, then by all means limit it to 5 shots per day.