Need for a 0-Spell Range Cursed Item

[Ibenadar]

We have a sneaky mage who keeps pilfering small magic items from foes when our backs are turned. I would like to drop a suprise on him.

A cursed item that reduces the range on his spells to 0, most probably after failing a save to negate effect, but not curse.

Any ideas on an item to base it on or a CL/cost to Craft?

ps. This would not be the 1st PC/PC kill if it caps him

 

[Dandu]

Are you asking a 4.0 question in a 3.5 forum?

 

[Ibenadar]

Nope, 3.5.

We have a party member most Craft Wondorous, etc feats and a sticky fingered mage. In the campaign some let to be specified magical event is messing with the ability to cast magic correctly.

2 of us slightly less evil players would like to come up with a way of killing the evil mage PC without the player immediately realising it. One thought would be to place a cursed item in a location for the "Evil Mage" to loot and use it. The curse being that the next time he uses offensive magic he erronously targets himself. Is there a game mechanic or suitable cursed item to adapt? Do we need to find another way to force said mage to hoist his own petard?

We are using every official rule book as part of the campaign, its just that there is so much to get through and these damn bound paper things dont have a search function

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I suspect you already know this, but there are quite a few generic cursed item effects, at least one of which targets the user rather than the intended target. I'm not aware of any items that just flat out cause a caster's spells to retarget on the caster, though.

Are you allowed to make something from scratch? Here's a cursed variant of an old standby that might be appropriate (caveat emptor, I just threw this together, so it's total guess work!):

Ring of Spell Returning
(cursed)

Upon examination, this appears to be a Ring of Spell Turning. However, when activated for the first time, the ring will fail to operate in the expected fashion, and the wearer will be struck by the spell that was supposed to be turned. After that, the wearer will be unable to remove the ring without a wish or miracle. As long as the ring is worn, any targeted spell cast by the wearer will automatically target the wearer instead.

Strong abjuration; CL 13th; Forge Ring, spell turning, bestow curse; Price 105,000 gp.

Meh. There's my 2cp.

 

[Ibenadar]

Nice call on the cursed version of the ring of spell turning, unfortunately its more than a little beyond our capabilities, CL max 7 until we level a little further

Any thoughts on how much the costs would come down if there was % chance of it being erratic or a save for its bad behavour. If I can get it down enough we might even get him to pay for the mats

Now I wonder what would be another way to bring the elf down ....

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Hmm, I haven't seen a whole lot about the costs of creating cursed magic items. I suppose the game makers assumed most PCs wouldn't be in that business much.

Given that the PCs are only 7th-ish level, I'd probably just start with an existing item of the appropriate level, and keep it as is. Then add on that the costs of adding bestow curse, and give it some curse effect in line with the effect of that spell. So the resulting item is cursed in some way, but also beneficial in its normal way.

Then I'd raise or lower the curse cost in 25% chunks, depending upon how you power up the curse, how/if it interferes with the item's normal function, whether it allows a save, how easy it is to negate the curse or ditch the item, etc.

But really this stuff is just guesswork. Using this method, my quick price estimates of a few items I can think of off the cuff are popping out market prices (ie, commissioning prices) of 15000gp - 30000gp and more, even for minor Wondrous Items. So yeah, even DIY, the creation gp costs for some of these things are 5x or 10x the price of the uncursed item!

I can post some ideas if you're interested, but you might ask the DM for better guidance on pricing & balancing curses, since this could lead to an arms race if not done carefully.