Magical long distance communication

[Felix]

I'd like to put together a magic item for communication. For style purposes, it would be a lip-ring connected by a chain to an earring that pierces the pena (the bump forward of the ear canal). The lip-ring would transmit a message to someone else's earring, and they would be able to respond.

Ok, so possible spells:
Message (cantrip)
Whispering Wind (2nd level)
Rary's Telepathic Bond (5th level)
[Edit Sending (5th level) [/Edit]

I'm thinking Whispering Wind since it would be able to work over long distances, but unable to cross planes. How would this be crafted and how much would it cost?

And what do you think?

 

[smetzger]

Don't forget Sending.

 

[dcollins]

My opinion is that introducing a telephone-device would potentially change the D&D campaign setting in a radical way that I wouldn't be happy with. If it's not already in the core rules, this is the type of item I would not allow.

 

[calypso15]

Hmm... so someone is going to go into combat situations with a giant handhold on their face? That would just be BEGGING to get yanked out of their face.

Calypso

 

[Felix]

It's not a telephone... it's a Nextel 2-way walkie-talkie set!

Lipring 1 (magically connected to Earring 2)
Lipring 2 (magically connected to Earring 1)

The 1's are worn together, as are the 2's. And while I can understand how this would change worlds, I am less interested in whether folks would use it in their campaigns, and more interested in the mechanics (rules) of how these things would be priced and crafted. Thanks!

 

[dcollins]

Like all new items, it first-and-foremost depends on the DM and how he wants it to fit into the campaign world. How many of these do you want in the world? What level of character do you want to be able to afford it and carry one around? 5th level, 10th level, 20th level?

 

[Felix]

10th to 15th level.

Because of the potential slew of interruptions these things could become (not to mention how wizards hate to be disturbed) I would think they would be given to the 10th to 15th level assistants to very powerful people (kings, archmages, underworld bosses). Basically it's a "have your man contact my man" kind of device. The assistant would decide if the information is important enough to bother the bossman.

 

[dcollins]

Then that argues for around a 10,000 gp valuation? (Over half of a 10th level NPC, 1/6 of a 15th level NPC's gear...)

 

[JimAde]

According to the SRD (if I'm doing this correctly, which is doubtful...) it would be worth more than that. If you are effectively making a wondrous item that duplicates either Sending or Telepathic Bond (5th level spells), and it's a Command-Word activation, it would be worth 81,000 GP.

If it can only be used once a day, that drops to 16,200. If it's Sending, I suppose you should double that since it works in both directions and the spell normally doesn't.

Of course, the effect you describe is not quite as good as either of those spells. If you base it off Whispering wind, and it's command-word unlimited use, the base price is about 10,800. Again, you may want to increase this because it's two-way, but Whispering Wind would imply a limited range.