Magic Item Question

[DerianCypher]

Okay, a player in a campaign I play in made a magic sword as part of a PrC that he took (Soul Warrior from Monte Cook boards).

Here are the stats +4 Longsword, Semiempathic, 2 Primary Abilities and 2 Extraordinary abilities and a special purpose with an appropriate special power.

The Abilities granted (primary and extraordinary) are : Expertise, See Invis (at will), Levitation (3/day), and Cat's Grace (3/day).

The special purpose is to protect the group and it's special power is a modified flame strike. It does 1d6/2 character lvls, it eminates as a cone from the sword. Also, it has a will save DC 18 or enemies who hear it are shaken. If they succeed they are immune to it for a day (Long story). All this 5/day

Price for a weapon like this?

 

[Christian]

8 extra-large pizzas with extra pepperoni and 2 cases of Mountain Dew.

Well, that's what I would charge if I were the DM.

Sorry I can't contribute anything useful-buy.com hasn't sent me my ELH yet. If this isn't an epic-level campaign, I strongly suggest you find out what kind of food/drink/chocolate the DM really likes. It'll make the game so much easier.

 

[kreynolds]

Okay, a player in a campaign I play in made a magic sword as part of a PrC that he took (Soul Warrior from Monte Cook boards).

Here are the stats +4 Longsword, Semiempathic, 2 Primary Abilities and 2 Extraordinary abilities and a special purpose with an appropriate special power.

The Abilities granted (primary and extraordinary) are : Expertise, See Invis (at will), Levitation (3/day), and Cat's Grace (3/day).

The special purpose is to protect the group and it's special power is a modified flame strike.

So far, it sounds like a standard Intelligent Item...

It does 1d6/2 character lvls, it eminates as a cone from the sword.

Now that's strange. I don't particularly dig on item powers that increase based upon your level because the item value would need to forever increase as well.

Price for a weapon like this?

Well, you'll need to figure up the cost of that flame strike thing, but other than that, it's just an intelligent item. The DMG has everything you need to figure it up.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The prices in the DMG for intelligent items are very quirky IMO because they do not take into account the potency of the individual powers.

A +4 weapon has a base price of 32,000 gp.

A special purpose counts as an extraordinary ability. Your sword has 2 primary abilities and 3 extraordinary abilities. A sword with 4 primary abilities and 2 extraordinary is listed as +90,000 gp. A sword with 3 primary abilities and 2 extraordinary powers is +78,000 gp.

The special purpose power is quite potent. Offensive ranged abilities are purposefully rare or limited on the list of sword powers. Offensive AoEs are not listed at all.

I would estimate the value of the Flame Strike as a base of 5th level spell x 15th level casting X 1800 gp equals 135000 gp. I choose 15th level casting as an arbitrary fudge.

I would guestimate the price as 32,000 + 78,000 + 135,000 = 245,000 gp. I have ignored any stacking penalties because they don't feel right but gave no discount for semiempathy.

 

[kreynolds]

The prices in the DMG for intelligent items are very quirky IMO because they do not take into account the potency of the individual powers.

Exactly. However, they pretty much have a built-in management system to aid the DM. Intelligent items have personalities of their own, and they also possess free will. They work when they want, which is one of the balancing factors of their power. Alignment, predisposition, current quest, and the wielder all determine the behavior of the intelligent item and whether or not it will perform to the best of it's abilities.

It's no worse than having an NPC Cohort with the same spells. In fact, it might even be better, depending on how you look at it.

 

[Artoomis]

This weapon seems to not follow the rules.

Semiempathy give ONE primary ability only and adds +10,000 to the price.

This sword has 5 abilties associated with it (2 primary, 2 extraordinary, one special purpose) - the table does not even go up that high. At 4 it's +90,000, but we'll be generous and say that 5 abilities would be 100,000.

This item appears to be of minor artifact status - and I would guess is semi-empathic to ensure complete character control over the sword - and I think the powers were selected and not random at all. (the odds of getting 2 primary, 2 extraordinary and one special purpose at random, starting with semempathy, are, roughly, 1 in 325,000,000 [I think - that's probably wrong, but you get the idea]).

Because you must roll an 81-90 five times plus a 91-00 three times, plus a 91-100 (that's not the only way to do this, but teh other ways are equally unlikely).

According to the intelligent item creation rules, powers are selected randomly, not by character choice.

Anyway, this is definately a minor artifact, I'd price it at:

315 + 32,000 + 100,000 (for the powers, including the "shaken" ability, but not the Flame Strike) + 81,000 (9*5*1800 for the Flame Strike) or

213,315 g.p.

Of course, I wouldn't let him create this as written in the first place.

 

[DerianCypher]

This weapon seems to not follow the rules.

Semiempathy give ONE primary ability only and adds +10,000 to the price.

This sword has 5 abilties associated with it (2 primary, 2 extraordinary, one special purpose) - the table does not even go up that high. At 4 it's +90,000, but we'll be generous and say that 5 abilities would be 100,000.

This item appears to be of minor artifact status - and I would guess is semi-empathic to ensure complete character control over the sword - and I think the powers were selected and not random at all. (the odds of getting 2 primary, 2 extraordinary and one special purpose at random, starting with semempathy, are, roughly, 1 in 325,000,000 [I think - that's probably wrong, but you get the idea]).

Because you must roll an 81-90 five times plus a 91-00 three times, plus a 91-100 (that's not the only way to do this, but teh other ways are equally unlikely).

According to the intelligent item creation rules, powers are selected randomly, not by character choice.

Anyway, this is definately a minor artifact, I'd price it at:

315 + 32,000 + 100,000 (for the powers, including the "shaken" ability, but not the Flame Strike) + 81,000 (9*5*1800 for the Flame Strike) or

213,315 g.p.

Of course, I wouldn't let him create this as written in the first place.

Well, part of his PrC that he chose is he can choose how many primary/extraoridnary abilities and whether or not it will have a special purpose. The balancing factor is that he burned 4 con and 5 cha that he'll never get back to get the sword.

 

[kreynolds]

Semiempathy give ONE primary ability only and adds +10,000 to the price.

That's not too strange in and of itself though. I've created intelligent items before that were pretty powerful, but for creative purposes, I limited their communication capabilities to semiempathy. There's just something really cool when I see that creeped out expression come over a player's face when they feel a sudden tidal wave of savage rage pouring out from their new weapon.

This sword has 5 abilties associated with it (2 primary, 2 extraordinary, one special purpose) - the table does not even go up that high. At 4 it's +90,000, but we'll be generous and say that 5 abilities would be 100,000.

It's really not that big of a deal if you have more than 4 powers on the weapon, so long as the price is right.

That, and of course, so long as the powers make sense. It would be kinda silly for an intelligent weapon to have Fireball, Flame Strike, Flaming Arrow, Burning Hands, and then have Cone of Cold in it.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

According to the intelligent item creation rules, powers are selected randomly, not by character choice.

I would advocate a middle ground. I do not think either purely randomly or allowing the character full control are appropriate.

IMHO, the DM should consider character input about what he is hoping for, and fudge the dice until the results seem right.

 

[Artoomis]

I would advocate a middle ground. I do not think either purely randomly or allowing the character full control are appropriate.

IMHO, the DM should consider character input about what he is hoping for, and fudge the dice until the results seem right.

For the most fun, I think one should take the intelligence from some deceased person, especially if the sword has a special purpose. Certainly, no semiempathic sword should have all these powers - a sword with all these powers should have a mind of its own and the possibility of EGO problems.

As it exists, the EGO of this weapon is:

4 (for +4)
2 (for 2 primary powers)
4 (for 2 extraordinary powers)
4 (for special purpose)

For a total of 18.

Plus it should be at the table position of "99" for three primary abilities (one of which gets transformed into a special purpose) and two extraordinary abilities (I read the table wrong earlier, the price I gave should be 22,000 less, or 191,315, and it's not minor artifact status, merely extremely rare.)

Thus it should normally be able to Read Languages and Read Magic, each worth +1 EGO. I 'd also expect some stat bonuses (2d6 + 11 for two, 3d6 for one), let's say a total of +5, for +5 to EGO

So, normally, we'd expect an EGO of about 25 for this weapon, and for it to always consider itsefl superior to its weilder.

Thus, anytime the weilder does not agree with the sword, a personality conflcit would occur - a WILL save vs. DC 25

Without the increased mental stats, there might be no personality conflicts at all - taking away a major role-playing aspect of this weapon. Accoridng to the rules, you only get personality conflicts if the EGO is at least 20.

In the present case, you may want to add 2 more EGO points for the double-effect special purpose power, resulting in an EGO of 20, and possible personality conflicts, which, with empathy only, could lead to all sorts of misunderstandings!