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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack Simth" data-source="post: 3348787" data-attributes="member: 29252">With a limitless use, at-will item over the course of a few years, yes.Oh, you mean like the Hand of the Mage, an existing magic item that costs 900 gp and can't do other things?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....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.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.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.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.</blockquote>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.[/QUOTE]

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