Need help pricing some magic items

[Folly]

But... bears are sooo much better than elementals

I spoke to the warshaper that I have played with, and he suggested Improved Multi-attack or Improved Natural Attack.

You might want to also direct your druid to look at the Nature's Warrior PRC after he is done with warshaper. Its abilities augment a warshaper well. (for example fast healing from different sources stack, so 2 from warshaper and 1 from nature's warrior)

 

[Folly]

If the bonuses were to be unnamed, I think the items are inappropriate, and if they're named as an inherent bonus a +50,000gp - +100,000gp price premium should be payed (at least) to bring them in line with items such as a tome of understanding.

This is off by abit. The reason tomes are as expensive as they are is because slotless, itemless, and an odd bonus. So you have a base of 1000 * 1^2 = 1000. The odd bonus multipler is 1.25 so: 1000*1.25 = 1250. Slotless is 2 thus: 1250*2=2500. Now you might ask how does itemless cost an additional 25000. Well the item requires wish/miracle that cost 5000 xp. When an item as an addition xp cost to the base creation, it increase the cost by 5 gold per xp. 5000*5 =25000. Then you sum the two components for the resulting cost of 27500. So a magic item that is slotted and not itemless but does give an odd bonus should only cost 25% more than an enhancement bonus.

Now as a DM, I wouldn't allow it to work out like that, since there would be no point in getting a X+1 item until you had gotten all possible X items. When using the magic creation rules, you must keep in mind that they are not perfect and you should use discretion in how you let your players use them. That being said, if the item is a unique item, then you can let things slide keeping in mind that you should keep them unique and probably static. (no upgrades, unless you decide to give it like as part of the end of the next story arc)

 

[eamon]

Now as a DM, I wouldn't allow it to work out like that, since there would be no point in getting a X+1 item until you had gotten all possible X items. When using the magic creation rules, you must keep in mind that they are not perfect and you should use discretion in how you let your players use them. That being said, if the item is a unique item, then you can let things slide keeping in mind that you should keep them unique and probably static. (no upgrades, unless you decide to give it like as part of the end of the next story arc)

Exactly - the "odd bonus" being only 25% more just doesn't work (from where is that guideline anyhow?). The "unslotted" factor is indeed worth at least 2x by 12th/13th level, since you'll generally be able to fill all your slots by then.

The tomes are more powerful principally because of the odd bonus they give. That's it. Their unslotted nature may seem like an advantage, but on the other hand, it's a disadvantage that you can't remove them... a +2 tome costs 55,000gp which is roughly 10x more than expected. Most of that markup is in the odd bonus - I'd say at least 5x. In any case, a different bonus type to an ability is extremely valuable since it's so rare.

 

[Folly]

The odd bonus is from the tables. It doesn't give it for stats, but it does for armor. The fact that the equation still works for tomes to determine their price is why I assume that it works. The reason tomes are soooo expensive is the xp cost to create them. Inherent bonuses normally can only be acquired via wish/miracle with a 5k xp cost per single bump. So 10k xp for +2 and 15k for +3 and so on. With extra xp cost costing 5gp per xp on magic items it causes the price to skyrocket and fast. But to give stat bonuses outside of enhancement without a catch like this is extraordinarily problematic, and is why the DM exists. It is the DM role to not only ensure an interesting story and fun game play, but that the rules are used in an appropriate manor. This is an essential aspect of the game, since how many people have felt an adventure cheapened by someone bending the rules in legal ways that defeat the purpose of the game.