Pricing a ring of gravestrike

[tomBitonti]

Gravestrike, Cleric - 1 from complete Adventure, has a duration of 1 round.
I'm thinking of having it made into a ring. The pricing guideline yields a price
of 8,000 gp, although, since the duration is just "1" round, I'm thinking of
doubling that to 16,000 gp:

2,000 gp * caster level * spell level * 4 [duration is in rounds]

I'm looking for feedback as to whether I've followed the normal pricing
guidelines correctly, and if the price doubleing is reasonable or not (or
even not enough).

Gravestrike provides the ability to sneak-attack undead for one round.

Thx!

Tom Bitonti

 

[Crothian]

So basically this ring would always let the wearer sneak attack undead? I think this is one of those items that the guidelines just doesn';t work that well for. I'd increase it quite a bit.

 

[Seeten]

Agreed. The ability for a Rogue to be useful in fights with undead is incredibly overpowered. Just imagine all the players having fun in multiple situations. Unbelievable. Only a powergamer would come up with this.

Come on, Crothian, who does this hurt that we have to ratchet up the cost. Honestly.

 

[frankthedm]

the spell is personal so that should ramp the price up itself.

Unless Unholy toughness is very common on undead in the campaign, I'd recommend pricing the item at epic costs.

 

[Henry]

In a recent Eberron Campaign I priced it at 32,000 gp sale price. I was not 100% comfortable with 8,000 or even 16,000 as the price, because it is such a "D&D Physics" breaking ability. Personally, I'm not really comfortable with Gravestrike and its relatives existing in the first place, because of a convincing Sean Reynolds rant from 3 years back, but I allowed it due to the feel of that particular campaign (and the poor guy who bought it did so near the end of the campaign, and NEVER FOUGHT AN UNDEAD after he got it. I felt a little badly about it...)

 

[frankthedm]

a convincing Sean Reynolds rant from 3 years back

Link?

 

[Crothian]

Agreed. The ability for a Rogue to be useful in fights with undead is incredibly overpowered. Just imagine all the players having fun in multiple situations. Unbelievable. Only a powergamer would come up with this.

Come on, Crothian, who does this hurt that we have to ratchet up the cost. Honestly.

Price of magical items has nothing to do with fun. But if your rogue needs something like to have fun, then there is something wrong with your rogue.

It hurts undead. You basically negate one of their better strengths.

 

[tomBitonti]

Thanks, and a followup

Ok, that is tracking what I thought. I am uncomfortable with
the spell myself. What I am really looking for is a way to allow
one of my players, who plays a rogue, to be useful when fighting
undead. I have a couple of tough undead encounters to run,
and the player is already a couple of levels behind the other
players, so he is going to be terribly left out in those
encounters. What would be useful would be magic items or
equipment, to the tune of about 10K, that would be used to
temporarily boost this rogue player.

Thx!

Tom Bitonti

 

[Crothian]

What would be useful would be magic items or
equipment, to the tune of about 10K, that would be used to
temporarily boost this rogue player.

Do something that gives Gravestrike 3/day or something limited like that. This ability all the time is just awesome, but limited number of times it should be able to allow him to have his fun and keep the item balanced.

 

[KarinsDad]

An Undead Bane weapon costs an extra 6000 GP on a +1 weapon and does an extra 2D6+2 damage (8000 GP).

An extra 10000 GP on a +2 weapon (18000 GP).
An extra 14000 GP on a +3 weapon (32000 GP).
An extra 18000 GP on a +4 weapon (50000 GP).
An extra 22000 GP on a +5 weapon (72000 GP).

Assuming, of course, that the weapon has no other properties.

The proposed Ring would do an extra 1D6 damage at level 1, 2D6 at level 3, ... up to 10D6 at level 19. Plus, it would stack with any weapon.

That's extremely potent. A lot more potent than the Undead Bane weapon. Even the +5 Undead Bane weapon only does an extra 2D6+5 damage (plus a little more for hitting more often). Compared to an extra 10D6 damage, that's pretty light.

So, the 10D6 version of item should cost considerably more than 72000 GP.

I would also put a limit on the maximum Sneak Attack damage possible. That way, there could be different versions of the Ring, all of them at a different cost:

+1D6: 2000 GP
+2D6: 8000 GP
+3D6: 18000 GP
+4D6: 32000 GP
+5D6: 50000 GP
+6D6: 72000 GP
+7D6: 98000 GP
+8D6: 128000 GP
+9D6: 162000 GP
+10D6: 200000 GP

Even thought many Rogues might get a cheaper one, very few would pony up for the more expensive ones. This, I think, is balanced.