Price of a 'Vest of Alter Self'

[Voodoo]

My character is looking to commission a wizard to craft me a 'Vest of Alter Self' that allows the wearer to Alter Self, at will, at caster level 5.

By the DMG this comes out at
(Spell level/Caster Level/Use Activated/Duration in 10 min lvl)

2 x 5 x 2,000 x 1.5 = 30,000gp

what do people think of this as a price? and of the item in general?

 

[Turanil]

Hat of Disguise is at 1800 gp. As such, I personally find 30,000 gp for an item of Alter Self excessive. I would say: no more than 18,000. But that's me, not a clever calculation based on precise rules.

 

[uzagi_akimbo]

Sounds ok, - given that I find the price of the "Hat of Disguise" rather too low (after all it basically allows you pretty much any roughly humanoid disguise, at the spur of a moment, with infinite duration - any spy's or infiltrator's dream ) at 1800 gp.

Given that "Alter Self" also gives you the extraordinary racial abilities of the chosen humanoid race (e.g. Darkvision etc. some other stuff depending on what races are common in your game world ), without much of a drawback, and is very hard (or at least much harder than "disguise self" ) to penetrate as a disguise, I find 30000 gp convincingly high.
Although the duration of 50 minutes at the chosen level may be a drawback in a few specific situations (e.g. where you cannot simply renew the spell in public with another activation of the item ). Such an item can/will complicate and even break entire plots for GMs.

 

[Tessarael]

Keep in mind that Alter Self can allow you to change to Humanoid forms with wings, Humanoid forms with gills, and so forth ... It can be very useful. 30,000gp sounds reasonable.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Keep in mind that Alter Self can allow you to change to Humanoid forms with wings, Humanoid forms with gills, and so forth ... It can be very useful. 30,000gp sounds reasonable.

It can also provide a +6 natural armor bonus.

30,000gp sounds about right.

 

[Perun]

I'd say it's too cheap at 30,000 gp, but that's a sort-of gut reaction; haven't had the opportunity to compare prices with the existing items.

The vest would allow you, as Lord Pendragon mentioned, a +6 natural armour bonus. If one should craft an item that gave just a +6 natural armour, it'd cost 36,000 gp and occupy an amulet slot. But, let's say, because of other limitations of alter self (for instance, it gives the character only extraordinary special attacks, and no special qualities), the ability is worth only half that price, so that's 18,000 gp.

The item also gives you a +10 unnamed bonus to Disguise checks. If it were a competence bonus (magic items usually grant competence bonuses to skill checks), the price would be 10,000 gp. Unnamed bonus would warrant a higher price. However, for simplicity's sake, considering the drawbacks of alter self, let's leave it at 10,000. Multiplied for secondary item ability, that's 15,000 gp. You also get the racial bonus feats and racial skill bonuses (if any).

So, we're already at 33,000 gp. Throw in the possibility to gain different types of movement (burrowing, swim, climb, etc.), and the possible special attack modes (troglodyte's stench, for example), and the price easily jumps to 40,000 gp.

Note that, according to the rules, you can't get any water breathing abilities (as that requires humanoid with the aquatic subtype, and your type and subtype remain unchanged).

 

[Voodoo]

Thanks for the input, though unless theres been an eratta i've missed people seem to have different ideas on what Alter Self does. As far as I can see...

- Only grants Ex special Attacks not Special Qualities (So no darkvision...)
- You retain your own ability scores

Now just to complicate things i'm playing a Warforged, so my type is Construct, so i would be looking at Animated Objects (an interesting variation on using Alter Self for a disguise) and potentially the Maug from Fiend Folio (if the DM has them in his Eberron game). Though this may make the item worth more or less to my specific character I still think that the pricing should mainly be based on use by Humanoids.

 

[der_kluge]

The cost according to the rules in the Artificer's Handbook, by Mystic Eye Games:

10gp(2 + 5 -1) * 13^2

60gp(169) = 10,140gp

That's creation cost. Market cost would be 20,280gp.

Keep in mind the the Artificer's costs tend to be lower than the DMG costs because the book assumes a bit more realistic costing structure, and tends to prevent "absurd" costs for certain items.

It also requires the artificer be able to cast 13 2nd level spells, which neither a sorcerer or wizard could do until around 7th/8th level.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

Just a couple of comments:

This seems to me like it would make more sense as a command word item, and I think the Hat of Disguise is also (since that's the default for items without any designation). Use activated items are things like magic swords, which are more or less always on, but only apply their magic in certain circumstances (such as an attack).

Also, you might be able to drop the 1.5 multiplier if you make this a cloak; cloaks allow for transformation, which is essentially what the spell does. Otherwise, the numbers look about right.