D&D 3E/3.5 Magic item pricing in 3e/v3.5

[martynq]

I'm trying to get my head around how magic item pricing is actually supposed to work in 3rd edition/v3.5 Dungeons & Dragons.

As my first example, I can't seem to retrofit the rules in the 3rd edition Dungeon Master's Guide to match with the figure for the acid fang dagger in the Arms and Equipment Guide. (In particular, I'd like to work out how to update it to v3.5!)

It's a +1 dagger which does an additional +1d6 acid damage, permits the use of animal friendship once per day but only on reptiles and snakes, and speak with animals when holding the dagger but again only with reptiles and snakes.

(Obviously, the animal friendship will become charm animal in v3.5, but that's not going to help sort out the pricing.)

Final price should be 19,102 gp.

Right - the easy bits: a masterwork dagger is 302 gp and the +1 modifier contributes 2,000 gp to the price.

The rest needs to be priced presumably according to Table 8-40 in the Dungeon Master's Guide (or Table 7-33 in v3.5 version). But I've no idea which row to use to price the +1d6 acid damage. For the other two, I presume we treat them as requiring command words?

If so, the animal friendship prices as: 1 (level) x 4 (CL) x 1800 = 7200, divided by 5 for charges per day (it can be used once): giving 1440 gp

The speak with animal prices as: 2 (level) x 4 (CL) x 1800 = 14,400gp.

When I add that all up, I get: 23,902 gp + whatever the +1d6 acid damage is worth.

Which is already 4,000 gp more than given in the original book.

So what am I doing wrong / not understanding?

 

[delericho]

The +1d6 acid damage is pretty much equivalent to the frost or flaming special qualities, which count as a +1 enhancement. (Actually, per the MIC, it is indeed the same, though the A&EG came first.)

So, what we have is a masterwork dagger (302) with a +2 enhancement (+1 'real', +1 for acid, 8,000gp).

It looks like the spells should be "use activated or continuous", though I'm not 100% certain of that - I don't have the book to hand.

So, for animal friendship that would be 1 (SL) x 4 (CL) x 2,000 x 0.2 (uses per day) x ?? (see below).

And for speak with animals it would be 1 (SL) x 4 (CL) x 2,000 x ?? (see below).

But both spells are limited by applying only to reptiles and snakes. That should apply a reduction (marked ?? above), perhaps reducing the cost to a third of normal.

But there's a further wrinkle - when combining multiple effects into a single item, the lower cost effects should be multiplied by 1.5 times their cost.

Which means the values are actually:

For animal friendship that would be 1 (SL) x 4 (CL) x 2,000 x 0.2 (uses per day) x 0.33 x 1.5 = 800.

And for speak with animals it would be 1 (SL) x 4 (CL) x 2,000 x 0.33 x 1.5 = 4,000gp.

Which would give a total for the item as 302 + 8,000 + 800 + 4,000 = 13,102.

Which, obviously, still doesn't work out. It's possible they've used a different reduction for the "reptiles and snakes only" limit, or for the "once per day" limit, or have used a different designation than "use activated or continuous".

Truth is, magic item pricing is one of those areas where 3e pretends to be a lot more mathematically rigorous than it actually is - as Andy Collins explored when putting together the MIC, following the formulae presented leads to the development of the "Big Six" items that give far more bang for their buck than anything else. So you're generally better setting prices by eyeballing against similar items (if you can find any), rather than slavishly following the formula. And that dagger, as written, is probably overpriced by quite a ways.

 

[martynq]

Thanks. I think I've managed to work out how to get to the 19,102 gp total using what you suggested.

Masterwork dagger = 302 gp

+2 equivalent modifier for it being essentially a +1 corrosive weapon = 8000 gp

animal friendship: 1 (spell level) x 4 (CL) x 1800 (command word) x 0.33 (reptiles only) x 1.5 (additional property) = 3600 gp

speak with animals: 2 (spell level as cleric spell in original 3e PHB) x 4 (CL) x 1800 (command word) x 0.33 (reptiles only) x 1.5 (additional property) = 7200 gp

Total = 19,102 gp (as priced in the book).

The animal friendship property appears to be overpriced: it's only useable once per day, so it should be divided by 5, as in your calculation.

My guess is that this item should have been priced as 16,222 gp?

 

[billd91]

My guess is that this item should have been priced as 16,222 gp?

Keep in mind that the price formulas, particularly when it comes to spell abilities, are guidelines. The final price should be based on a judgment of whether it is over- or under-priced based on how well it compares to items of similar utility. If that means you deviate from the guidelines a bit, that's what you need to do.