Permanent Deeper Darkness item?

[SteelDraco]

I'm writing up a classed imp NPC, using the rules from Savage Species. One of the items I want him to have is a shadow gem that has a constantly-active Deeper Darkness. Since that spell lasts 1 day/level, I don't think the normal pricing rules will work terribly well - it's not that big a jump from 1 day/level to permanent.

Would you price it just as casting Deeper Darkness 1/day? That's my first inclination, which puts it at 5400 gp. Does that seem fair?

 

[clark411]

with a mage's ability to use make it appear to be a gigantic Sphere of Annihilation under his control with a 10 sp amulet, a bit of mage hand, and a lot of Bluff.. I'd easily set this item to around oh... 85,000 g.

But.. barring that, 5,500 sounds about right. The demand for such an item amongst ne'er-do-well's (hi, it's like +80 to Hide man!) would probably jump it's worth up to 200% given Black Market only availability or sellability (source Arms and Equipment Guide).

 

[SteelDraco]

Well, it's not terribly useful if you can't see through it. Fiends get that ability, which is why I'm writing him up with it. If they're blind and you're not, a rogue gets sneak attack damage with every attack, as well as the benefits of total concealment against everybody who tries to attack him.

Upon consideration, I don't think a wizard could Mage Hand something in a (Deeper) Darkness. You need a line of sight, and can't really target the item the darkness is radiating from.

 

[kreynolds]

Use spell level x caster level x 2,000. Durations this long are simple to price. This would give it a price of roughly 30,000gp, which I think is perfectly fair for one simple reason...blindsight items are cheap (also in Savage Species).

The formula above doesn't start to break down until you use it for spells that have short durations, like 1 round/level, 1 minute/level, and in some cases, even 10 minutes/level (depending on the spell).

 

[SteelDraco]

See, 30,000 gp sounds quite overpriced to me. IMO, a spell that lasts 1 day/level (at a minimum of five days) seems to be the sort of thing that the caster is assumed to be able to walk around with all the time without it using up much, if any, of his resources. 30,000 gp is most of a 10th level character's resources, which I don't think is quite right for something a 5th level cleric can do by using one of his spell slots every five days.

I see where you're coming from about Blindsight, though. Darkness and blindsight is a nasty combination. Personally, I think the blindsight item in the A&EG (Blindfold of True Darkness? Something like that.) is underpriced at 9,000 gp. Depending on how you explain it, blindsight can defeat all kinds of things - invisibility, darkness, illusions, a rogue's Hide skill, etc. Just the negation of invisibility within 60' is worth quite a bit more than 9,000 gp, IMO.