IcyCool said:
As to his original idea, I was thinking of an at will, slotted, command word item for Purify Food and drink.
What slot does it take up?
A slotted item is one that must be used in a particular place on the character's body in order to work. A bag that keeps food fresh doesn't really seem to fit that definition.
I ignored the non-slotted increase because it doesn't really seem applicable in this case. Murlynd's Spoon is technically a non-slotted item, but it doesn't suffer the cost increase. Basically, anything that you need your hands to operate is priced as a slotted item (c.f the lockpicks from the Vest of Escape). Since you need to open the bag, retrieve items from it, and then eat them (or have others eat them), you're talking about something very different from an Ioun Stone of the Masterthief (+4 competence on Open Lock and Disable Device).
Sorry - 4 days. 8 berries per day, 32 berries max = maximum of 4 stored "berrydays."
So, if the Bag produced enough berries to feed 4 people per day, and assuming the miniscule amount of healing was ignored, how much would you increase the price for the preservation effect?
As a fraction of a 1 / day command-activated Purify Food and Water (normally 900gp). The spell works on 1 cubic foot of stuff, and restores nasty, spoiled food and water to pure status. You've got roughly the same amount of food (assuming a good-size bag), but you don't restore spoiled stuff to fresh, as such it's less useful.
I'm thinking we start with 5,400gp for a bag that produces 12 berries per day on command, each providing enough nourishment for a single meal. This duplicates Murlynd's Spoon, just the flavor text is different.
Excellent place to start.
If we allow each berry to heal you for a single hitpoint, that sounds vaguely like adding a charges per day, on command Cure Minor Wounds.
So, 12 charges of Cure Minor Wounds per day. The potion equivalent (which is the closest approximation) is 12 * (50 * 1 * 1/2) = 12 * 25 = 300gp / day.
Good so far.
Continuous, preservation bag = .5 (Purify food and drink) * 1 (Minimum caster level) * 2,000 = 1,000gp. This is the least expensive power, so multiply by .50 to get 500gp.
Here's where there's a problem. You are pricing this item as if it had multiple similar abilities. That's usually not true. In fact, the only items that really have multiple similar abilities are staves - each of the abilities draws upon the same pool of resources (i.e., 50 charges, use 'em how you want).
However, I like the 500gp figure for food preservation. We'll keep that.
12 Charge per day Cure Minor Wounds item = .5 (Spell level) * 1 (Minimum caster level) * 1,800 = 900gp. 900 / (5/12) = 2,160 (rounding the 2,159.99 up). This is the next most expensive ability, so multiply by .75 to get 1,620.
Generally, items with more than 5 charges per day don't get hit with the "/ (5 / Charges)" multiplier. Otherwise, you'd just make it unlimited charges per day and get it cheaper.
Instead, take a look at the potion example above. At most, you can get 300gp worth of potion equivalents per day from this bag.
However, no person may benefit from more than eight of them per day.
5,400 + 1,620 + 500 = 7,520gp. Drop that down to 7,500gp and it looks about right for an item that preserves food, feeds 4 people, and allows folks to carry around a ready made Cure Minor for stabilizing fallen comrades. What do you think?
The reason I am hesitant to add too much more to the cost of the spoon is the following:
1) A 3rd-level Cleric spell makes the food requirements moot.
2) If you price it too high, then the Druid will just burn unspent spells at the end of the day on Goodberries and the heck with expensive magic items. The level CL 7 Druid can just spend Sundays casting a whole bunch of Goodberry spells, and at that point, Goodberries last at least a week (and more if the spell is Extended).
That being said, your final number isn't too bad. I'd knock some more off of it (maybe down to 6,500gp) on account of other items already in existence (Field Provisions Box springs immediately to mind), but otherwise you're probably in a fair ballpark.
Would you qualify it as slotless? What about if it provided the water even when not held or attended to? (i.e. You just unstopper it and upend it, and water comes out forever).
Yes, I'd qualify it as technically slotless. However, since it's one of those "You need to hold it in your hands in order for it to work" items, it gets priced as slotted.
As far as water coming out forever, that's your decision. At 1 gallon / round, we're not talking about an extremely fast flow. You could potentially create a few of these to water your croplands, but at 1,000gp each, you're looking at something far beyond the means of most towns.
I thought the uncustomary space limitation applied to the entire cost.
Interesting wrinkle when it comes to combined items. You can make any wondrous item you want in any slot, and then add further abilities later on.
SRD said:
ADDING NEW ABILITIES
A creator can add new magical abilities to a magic item with no restrictions. The cost to do this is the same as if the item was not magical. Thus, a +1 longsword can be made into a +2 vorpal longsword, with the cost to create it being equal to that of a +2 vorpal sword minus the cost of a +1 sword.
If the item is one that occupies a specific place on a character’s body the cost of adding any additional ability to that item increases by 50%. For example, if a character adds the power to confer invisibility to her ring of protection +2, the cost of adding this ability is the same as for creating a ring of invisibility multiplied by 1.5.
So, given that, you should only apply the "Wrong Slot" charge to those parts which are actually in the wrong slot.
Therefore, when looking at a Belt of UberArmor, what you're really looking at doing is taking a Belt of Armor +4 and a Belt of Natural Armor +2 and smashing them together.
The Belt of Armor +4 is in the wrong slot, and so gets the increase. The Belt of Natural Armor is not, and so it doesn't. However, you're combining two powers in a single slot, so the cheaper ability gets a 50% increase in price.
And I figure that a +2 natural armor is similar to a +4 armor, so I applied the multiple similar abilities discount. ... Do you not think the bonuses to AC are similar enough for the discount?
Don't do that.
Generally, the only time you should provide the multiple similar abilities discount is when the player has to make an either / or choice, as with a staff. You cannot use both the Fireball power and the Flaming Sphere power of a Staff of Fire simultaneously, and using one reduces your ability to use the other (through shared charges).
If you had a belt that could do *either* +4 Armor or +2 Enhancement to Natural Armor, I
might grant the discount.
On a belt that grants both, however, I would not.
