Magic Item Pricing

[Gregor]

Hello everyone,

Im a doofus when it comes to Magic Item creation / pricing so I am turning to the wisdom of this forum!

Could anyone please tell me how much it would cost for the following?:

+1 Scythe that functions as if the spell "Bless Weapon" was functioning upon it at ALL times?

My thanks in advance,

 

[der_kluge]

Do yourself a favor, and pick up a copy of Mystic Eye Games' Artificer's Handbook. It takes all the complexity out of the creation formulas, and provides a clear, and concise mechanism for pricing magic items.

 

[andargor]

Hello everyone,

Im a doofus when it comes to Magic Item creation / pricing so I am turning to the wisdom of this forum!

Could anyone please tell me how much it would cost for the following?:

+1 Scythe that functions as if the spell "Bless Weapon" was functioning upon it at ALL times?

My thanks in advance,

Let's see, Bless Weapon basically allows bypassing DR X/magic and DR X/good on evil creatures.

Holy is a +2 weapon enhancement, but adds 2d6 damage and negative levels.

I'm therefore pretty confident that Bless Weapon is a +1 enhancement, so 8000 gp total.

EDIT: Ok, every threat is also always a critical, but it doesn't warrant a +1.

Andargor

 

[Nail]

+1 Scythe that functions as if the spell "Bless Weapon" was functioning upon it at ALL times?

You'll need to be a bit more specific, I'm afraid.

The Pal spell Bless Weapon does some slightly wonky things, and some of it overlaps the necessary +1 enchantment bonus the weapon will have to have in order to put the spell on it.

Here's the break down of the spell Bless weapon:

• The weapon is treated as having a +1 enhancement bonus for the purpose of bypassing the damage reduction of evil creatures or striking evil incorporeal creatures. Comment: You need to have a +1 enhancement bonus anyway, so this is overlap..in fact, the weapon would be treated as +1 regardless of alignment of the target.
  
  
• The weapon also becomes good, which means it can bypass the damage reduction of certain creatures. Comment: Alright, this is a relevant ability. ..But is this worth an entire +1 bonus all by itself? I think not.
  
• In addition, all critical hit rolls against evil foes are automatically successful, so every threat is a critical hit. Comment: Now we're talkin'! A really ability....combined with giving the weapon a [Good] descriptor, that might be worth an additional +1 bonus.

IOW: The weapon must be +1 to start, and cost an additional "+1" for the extra powers; total of a +2 weapon. Combined with the cost of a Masterwork Scythe (+318 gp), and we have for a total price 8318gp.

I might be tempted to edge the price down a smidgen....but that would be a house rule, sorta.

 

[dcollins]

So every hit with this weapon on an evil creature does x4 damage? Good grief!

First, this is the kind of broken stuff that crops up if the DM allows any arbitrary spell to be made into a permanent item at will. That's not in the rules, and the best option is to simply allow only items only in the existing rulebooks: www.superdan.net/dndfaq3.html

Second, if one must discuss a price for this item, it's very powerful. It's clearly better than "holy". Example: "holy" adds 2d6 (7 average) damage average versus evil creatures. This auto-crit ability adds (I'll grab a sample 10th-level NPC paladin from the DMG) 6d4+9 (24 average) instead. Since it's really going to give around x3.4 more bonus than "holy", I'd have to peg the value at equivalent to a +3 or +4 magic bonus (less if it weren't on a x4 crit weapon).

Call it +4 bonus. Final total: 50,318 gp.

 

[Len]

So every hit with this weapon on an evil creature does x4 damage? Good grief!

I don't think so... Every critical threat is automatically a critical hit without having to confirm it. Or am I misunderstanding?

 

[dcollins]

Oops, there's a pretty bad flub-up on my part there. Thanks for correcting me, Len. Revising that estimate to +1 bonus for total of 8,318 gp.

Mea culpa.

 

[Len]

dcollins, you can redeem yourself if you can answer this: Would a Scabbard of Bless Weapon (3x/day) be the same price or would it cost less? (I don't know if that item is from a book or if my DM made it up.)

The limitations (three uses per day and a standard action to activate) don't seem very limiting - you'd still have a blessed weapon in most combats.

 

[dcollins]

Yeesh. Keep in mind I'm of the school that "all new items = house rules, so it's up to the DM". I tend to only comment on suggested new item prices if I think they're way out of whack (like I thought above).

But, yes, I'd have to say the scabbard would be less -- the rules are clearly set up to say "5/day = as good as permanent" and give a rebate if the uses/day are less than that. Furthermore, with the "blessed scythe" part of what you're paying for is the actual +1 bonus usable against anything, all the time.

Analysis #1) Pricing formulas: 1 (spell) x 2 (caster) x 1800 (command) x 3/5 (uses) = 2,160 gp or so.

Analysis #2) Compare to scabbard of keen edges -- require +2 caster level but give 33% rebate at the end: 1 (spell) x 4 (caster) x 1800 (command) x 3/5 (uses) x 2/3 (rebate) = 2,880 gp.

Something like that. Call it 2,500 gp.

 

[Gregor]

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

The +2 total seems like a fair deal to me and its within the price range of a player of mine who wants this weapon.

Thanks again,