Magic Item Pricing - Recharging Staff

[Thanee]

How would you price this ability for a staff?

Recharging (1 charge/day)

Each day the remaining charges of the staff are increased by one (to a maximum of 50).

Obviously, it should depend on the cost of the other abilities, but how much would be appropriate?

Maybe somehow merge with the Wondrous Item charges cost... 1 charge/day means 20% of the cost... +20% seems a bit low, tho. Then again, Wondrous Items cost is about 2.5 times higher than that of Staffs (SLxCLx1.800 gp instead of SLxCLx750 gp), so +50% might be reasonable.

What do you think?


Here's an example staff...

Ghostfire Staff

+1 Flaming/+1 Ghost Touch Quarterstaff [16,600 gp]
- Transdimensional Scorching Ray (CL 9th) (1 charge) [3x9x750 gp = 20,250 gp]
- Transdimensional Fireball (CL 9th) (2 charges) [4x9x750x1/2x3/4 gp = 10,125 gp]
- Fire Brand (CL 9th) (3 charges) [5x9x750x1/3x1/2 gp = 5,625 gp]
Recharging (1 charge/day) [50% of 20,250+10,125+5,625 gp = 18,000 gp]

Moderate conjuration/evocation; CL 10th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Staff, transdimensional scorching ray, transdimensional fireball, fire brand, plane shift; Price 70.600 gp.

(Before someone asks, the CL 10th requirement is because of the Flaming ability.)


How does that sound?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

And a follow-up question...

How would you price an ability to use a charge to improve the weapons melee damage (similar to the Staff of Power)?

For example, the above staff could do 4d6 extra fire damage (channeling a single ray of Scorching Ray) on a successful melee attack with one charge expended (as a free action).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Pyrex]

The ability for the staff to recharge itself is really quite powerful, and hard to cost appropriately. Instead of trying to build it as a recharging-staff, I think I'd just use the x/day Wonderous Item costing.

 

[Thanee]

Thought about that, too, and that's why I based my pricing on the charges/day from wondrous item creation, but it really is more of a staff, I think.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Pyrex]

If you're sure it's a staff, there's only one rechargable staff listed in the SRD to use as a model...

Here's how I'd price as a (staff-shaped) Wonderous Item:
Assumption: 50 uses every 50 days is at least as useful as a 3/day item.


- Transdimensional Scorching Ray (CL 9th) (1 charge) [3x9x1200 gp = 32,400 gp]
- Transdimensional Fireball (CL 9th) (2 charges) [4x9x1200x1/2x3/4 gp = 16,200 gp]
- Fire Brand (CL 9th) (3 charges) [5x9x1200x1/3x1/2 gp = 9,000 gp]

Spell Total: 57,600

- "Staffness" special quality (Caster Level & Save Modifier from Caster) +30%

SubTotal (for the spells): 74,880

+1 Flaming [8,300]
+1 Ghost Touch [8,300]
-> The weapon abilities for each end of the staff are secondary abilities, and need to be increased 50%.
SubTotal (for the weapon abilities): 24,600

Total: 99,480gp

 

[Tessarael]

In our campaign we have the following house rule.

Base price for Rod of X, with one charge, recharging 1/day, that anyone
can use is:

spell_level_of_X * caster_level_of_X * 1,800/5

There is an additional cost of 50 * component_cost
if there is a material component cost.

Cost is 10% extra for each additional charge it can hold.

Example, a Rod of Teleport with 3 charges, recharging 1/day. Cost is:
5 * 9 * 1,800/5 * 1.2 = 19,440gp

 

[Thanee]

Yeah, well, it's a bit of all three, magic weapon, staff and wondrous item. Maybe I should require all three item creation feats? The primary use is definitely as a staff, tho, therefore I think it should be "classified" as a staff, besides the obvious change, since only staffs have the staff special qualities.

Hmm... good point with the multiple different abilities... gotta have to check how the other staffs do this (woodlands mainly).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Pyrex]

Conceptually I agree, it's a staff.

Mechanically, there's no precedent for pricing a recharging staff, so I based my costing off the closest rules available: x/day wonderous items.

Side note: Staves with weapon properties require Craft Arms & Armor.

 

[Thanee]

Moderate conjuration/evocation; CL 10th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Staff, transdimensional scorching ray, transdimensional fireball, fire brand, plane shift; Price 70.600 gp.

Got that last bit covered already.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Mechanically, there's no precedent for pricing a recharging staff, so I based my costing off the closest rules available: x/day wonderous items.

Did that, too, just in a different way.

The problem is, both approaches need some guesswork, as either the recharging cost, or the amount of available charges and the staff qualities are not really priced.

Bye
Thanee