Magical Cosmetic Surgery

[Jack Simth]

-sigh-

Presto:
Yes, one person to run it, rather than 10+. That is a substantial saving.

With a limitless use, at-will item over the course of a few years, yes.

The weight limit is a problem if you want to stick to the letter of the law, I personally don't think it really matters since you're not actually trying to do anything violent. It's just cleaning, it doesn't matter in the same way a fireball matters.

Oh, you mean like the Hand of the Mage, an existing magic item that costs 900 gp and can't do other things?

If you remember my original post, I said it couldn't be a wand.

Yeah. The reason I was comparing it to a wand is that you were looking for a charged item, and a wand is the most cost-effective way to do so, core.

If you have a less expensive charged item than that, players with min-max tendancies are going to start asking why they can't build them with other spells. Sure, you can say "it's magic" but that doesn't work for all groups.

Then, of course, I breifly suggested how you go about it.

In the cursed item section of the DMG there's a table for requirements. It has such things as "must draw blood when wielded" or "must be cleansed with holy water each day" and various others. At the end of that section....

Requirements are so dependent upon suitability to the item that they should never be determined randomly. An item with a requirement that is also intelligent often imposes its requirement through its personality. If the requirement is not met, the item ceases to function. If it is met, usually the item functions for one day before the requirement must be met again (although some requirements are one time only, others monthly, and still others continuous).

Your wizard makes a 900 gp command-word prestidigitation item, but installs a requirement; once per month, it must have Arcane Mark cast on it; 5 gp market to hire an Arcane Mark, the spell is good for a month of use, the item tracks who's stamped it (they are permanent, personal runes, after all); for a 30 day month, that's 1 and 2/3ds silvers per day of use; meanwhile, you can use it at whim.

There's still the 900 gp investment in the original item, mind.

I personally think you're being too hide-bound to the rules which are, after all, there to support the story rather than the other way arround. Oh, by the way, that's a rule too, it's in the DMG. It doesn't really matter if it's prestidigitation or not, or an entirely new spell or if you have to create an entirely new magic object for it... it's just cleaning, nothing serious. There's no need to throw an entire idea out the window because of one picky little detail.

Yeah, makes perfect sense to have a cleaning cantrip that beats out prestidigitation at cleaning in the same way Mage Hand beats out prestidigitation at lifting.

Surgury:
Yes, but this is where magic is better than science. Why take any risk at all when you don't have to? Heck, the Hat of Disguise is a better option than being turned to stone!

A Hat of Disguise shows up under Detect Magic. The effect vanishes in an Antimagic zone. Some places will be screened for magic. A Hat of Disguise has an interaction Will Disbelief of 11 (it's "as the spell" and by default, items use the lowest ability score possible to still cast the spell - so a 1st level spell with a primary casting stat of 11). Aristocrats have good Will saves. As soon as anyone that matters shakes your hand, they almost automatically see the disguise for what it is. When you put it on, you have to trust that it wasn't cursed in some way (like, say, an alignment change, or a permanent appearence change over long use, or any other number of creative curses out there that aren't instantly apparent for when you test it on your servant).

For something better, you either need to cast it yourself (which requires you be a Wizard/Sorcerer/Whatever), trust the person casting it on you (trust that it's using the spell you hired the way you hired it, rather than, say, a Baelful Polymorph), or be able to easily identify it (which requires ranks in spellcraft... and you'll have basically six seconds to decide what to do about it if you're betrayed - less, really, as you have to ready an action to do anything about it other than try for your save rather than being a willing target).

Flesh To Stone costmetic surgery has no possibility of being disbelieved (it is a real, nonmagical effect), and doesn't actually have anything more in the way of trust issues than hiring any other spell on your person. Okay, there's some trust issues involved. But you can't have effective leadership without some amount of trust. With no trust at all, you have to do everything yourself... in which case, you aren't really a leader, you're a worker.

And for the same reason, I wouldn't subject myself to Polymorph Any Object... plus, it's an 8th level spell which costs a ton of gold and you'd have to disturb an Archmage to get it.

Doesn't matter what spell you're hiring... you have to trust the caster to do what you hired him to do. You don't want to find out the hard way that the 5th level wizard you hired to cast Peter's Persistent Polymorph is actually a 14th level Sorcerer, hired as an Assasin, who replaced the Wizard a week ago just to cast Finger of Death on you now.
[/QUOTE]

Which brings me back to my first conclusion: new spell needed. Heck, is there any real reason why there shouldn't be an Alter Other spell? How many faerie tales and stories have people turning from one person to another with spells cast by people who actually can't demolish an entire castle single-handedly? Would it really break the game? No, not if you think it through.

A 7th level Wizard can, given a bit of time, demolish an entire castle single-handedly. Polymorph into a Dire Badger (which leaves tunnels), dig under everything (this step is only needed so you aren't observed doing this), stack up lots and lots of Explosive runes everywhere, and go through failing to dispel them until they slowly blast the castle to kingdom come.

It's yet another good idea, I see no reason to plague it with problems that it doesn't need.

 

[Ipissimus]

Yep, definitely too many rules clouding the issue there.

Dude, it's a spell that cleans up your house, not earth-shattering magic. If players start wanting to do other things with it, you do the same thing you do with bad dogs: Bat them on the nose with a rolled up newspaper and say 'NO'. Those same players are already abusing the rules, no reason to ruin a game because of a few bad players.

And, if you read the rules, buying spells cast by NPC wizards are actually affected by the spell's level and componants.

Your flesh to stone solution, if it works for you, go for it. Not saying not to. I just think creating the new spell would be a more elegant solution to the problem.