Permanency: Inconsistent?

[The Blow Leprechaun]

also, yes, like FtDM said, it might make it easy for other party members to browbeat the po' wizard into spending all his hard-earned XP on making them see in the dark, when the selfish bastards could just buy some goggles instead.

The real potential for abuse with permanency isn't in brow-beating your party's wizard, but in utilizing the spellcasting services chart in the equipment section.

Permanency is only a 5th level spell (and requires 10th level caster), so it costs 500 gold, plus 5000 for the xp lost. 5,500 for permanent darkvision (if it had a range of touch with permanency) instead of 12,000 for goggles of night or 24,000 for slotless ones.

Leave that poor wizard alone!

 

[PallidPatience]

5,500 for permanent darkvision...

Which goes poof should a successful Dispel check get through. Not suppressed. Gone. Forever. Irreplaceable.

And so items are still better in some ways, after all.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

Which goes poof should a successful Dispel check get through. Not suppressed. Gone. Forever. Irreplaceable.

And so items are still better in some ways, after all.

Eh. Pay an extra 500 to have it cast by a 20th level caster and it's effectively undispellable (DC 31, max you can roll on a dispel check is 1d20 + 10 or 30). Now it's 6,000. Still cheaper!

Mind you, 20th level casters might have better things to do than cast permanent darkvision on your little 5th level fighter.

 

[Hypersmurf]

max you can roll on a dispel check is 1d20 + 10 or 30.

No, it isn't.

-Hyp.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

No, it isn't.

-Hyp.

Yeah, yeah... then I just find me a 30th level caster and it's still cheaper than the goggles!

 

[Hypersmurf]

Yeah, yeah... then I just find me a 30th level caster and it's still cheaper than the goggles!

But then another 30th level caster could dispel it.

-Hyp.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

This spell functions like dispel magic, except that the maximum caster level on your dispel check is +20 instead of +10.

Max dispel roll is 40, DC from a 30th level caster would be 41. I may have forgotten about greater dispel magic, but I can still do math! Sometimes!

 

[Hypersmurf]

Max dispel roll is 40, DC from a 30th level caster would be 41. I may have forgotten about greater dispel magic, but I can still do math! Sometimes!

Good point. But if it's a 30th level caster dispelling, he'll be using Mordenkainen's Disjunction.

Your magic item gets a will save; your spell is just gone.

-Hyp.

 

[mvincent]

Pay an extra 500 to have it cast by a 20th level caster and it's effectively undispellable (DC 31, max you can roll on a dispel check is 1d20 + 10 or 30). Now it's 6,000. Still cheaper!

As mentioned: greater dispel magic is still a threat. For added protection (assuming you have a lot of expensive permanent spells to protect):
1) Have all permanent spells cast at CL20. CL can be increased via orange ioun stone, deathknell (in spell-storing ring if not a cleric), Bead of karma (UMD if not a cleric), candle of invocation, etc.
2) Wear a ring of counter-spelling loaded with greater dispel magic (this counters targetted GDM's )
3) Have a bunch of CL21 magic mouths cast on yourself (this helps counter area GDM's).

 

[gnfnrf]

I think the reason darkvision is expensive as a magic item and not permanenciable (is that a word?) on other people is because, as one of the major racial traits, it seems unfair to let people buy into it too soon or too cheaply.

--
gnfnrf