Pricing an item

[anest1s]

I spoke to one of the other DMs and we agreed on what the item is, and what it costs:

Mantle of the Erlking
This mantle of mithral chain and sapphire grants the wearer of at least 6th level the Leadership feat, as well as granting a +2 Enhancement bonus to their Wisdom and Charisma. Uses Cloak slot.

Restrictions: This item works only for Fey (including Elves and Elf-blooded), and may only attract Fey/Elf cohort and followers.

Item price: 11,550 gp.
Cost to create: 5,775 gp, 462 Exp.

***
We came up with this price using the following formula:

Leadership Feat cost 10,000
+2 Wisdom 4,000 +50% for wrong slot, x 75% for second related power.
+2 Charisma 4,000, x 50% for tertiary related power

That totals 16,500 gp.

The racial restriction, per the SRD, cuts the price/cost by 30%. We had some discussion on whether these were "related powers" or not, but concluded that they were because they are mental stat boosts tied to being a good leader.

Tying Charisma to Leadership was easy.
Tying Wisdom to Charisma isn't hard either.

Tying them all together was the part we questioned, but since there are few if any guidelines in the books on that point, and we were reasonably able to "theme" them, we went for it.

Anyway, I just wanted to share what we concluded in the end. (I'm sure someone will disagree with this.)

Multiple Similar Abilities

For items with multiple similar abilities that don’t take up space on a character’s body use the following formula: Calculate the price of the single most costly ability, then add 75% of the value of the next most costly ability, plus one-half the value of any other abilities.
Multiple Different Abilities

Abilities such as an attack roll bonus or saving throw bonus and a spell-like function are not similar, and their values are simply added together to determine the cost. For items that do take up a space on a character’s body each additional power not only has no discount but instead has a 50% increase in price.

So it should be leadership 10k
Wis 6k
Cha 6k

total 22k

the 30% makes no sense, the players always get a free discount (and a way to prevent theft) if they use it, and the DM kills the loot if he uses it.

If you want to give the item cheaper, just give it cheaper.

 

[Greenfield]

If the item fills the Cloak slot, then the Charisma aspect is in the right slot, so it wouldn't get the 50% boost. Periapt of Wisdom, on the other hand, is normally in the Amulet/Neck slot, so 6000 is about right for that.

The problem with the rules you quoted is that they define related powers in a slotless item, and unrelated powers in a slotted item. Related powers in a slotted item fall through the cracks.

The other DM and I looked at it to try and decide which takes precedence: The "Related powers" part, or the "slotted item" part?

For better or worse, we agreed that "related" trumped "slotted". You are, of course, free to disagree.

But the thing is, if the bill comes to 22k, it's almost better to make it as three slotless items: 8k for +2 Wisdom, 8K for +2 Charisma, and 10k for the Feat (Feat items are normally rods or weapons, which are slotless to begin with, so no bump on that one.)

It's only 4K more, and leaves him a place for a Resistance cloak.

While I'm ambivalent about the discount for the limitation (which is why I started the other thread on that topic), we are currently agreed to go by what the rules say, and they say that use limitations affect market price, and market price is the driving number.

You see, while my character is crafting the thing, the other guy is paying for it, and the difference in EXP isn't killer. So I really don't have a dog in the fight as far as that's concerned. It's almost no difference to me to pay 11,550, 16,500, 22,000 or 26,000. It's a few hundred Exp and a few more days of downtime.

On the other hand, while Leadership is valuable to the PC for story reasons, he won't get any real in-game benefits worth mentioning. So in that sense, he hardly has a dog in the fight either. (Him being a "leader" lets his NPC father claim a higher title. It's a nobility/plot thing.) So pricing the thing out of his reach will simply cause him to forgo the thing. He's running a Barbarian/Wizard, so even the stat bumps don't do much for him.

Now we're going to have to get this approved by everyone else, since everyone is a DM at our table, so what we're doing may change, or even be thrown out altogether. We'll find out this weekend.

 

[anest1s]

If you craft it, don't you need the feat yourself?

Anyway.
Leadership will take a slot. It can't be a rod. You can't just grab it and "pop" followers appear, put it down and "pop" followers go away.

It doesn't matter whats in the right slot, the thing that costs most is the one that doesn't take +50%. Otherwise the leadership would cost 15000gp

He can get a cloak of protection effect as a slotless item for double the cost too.

The problem with the rules you quoted is that they define related powers in a slotless item, and unrelated powers in a slotted item. Related powers in a slotted item fall through the cracks.

The other DM and I looked at it to try and decide which takes precedence: The "Related powers" part, or the "slotted item" part?

Multiple powers, that should take multiple slots, when in the same slot follow the +50% price.
Multiple powers, that wouldn't take a slot anyway (thats how staffs work) take the discount.

Related powers in a slotted item are solved here anyway

For items that do take up a space on a character’s body each additional power not only has no discount* but instead has a 50% increase in price.

*as the discount they would get if they were related
______

Anyway, the easiest way to have it approved is to go on with your reasoning about slotted related items (even though its not RAW) and not use the 30% thing (which is RAW but will make ppl disagree)

Edit:
Uh...on second thought it will still be hard.
You take 3 items that would cost 18000 if they took 3 slots, and you turn them into one slot item, and you end up with paying 16500. Maybe if you make the price of the leadership lower? Maybe some lesser leadership variety?

 

[Greenfield]

After discussion with the other DM's, we agreed that race/class/alignment limitations may affect resale price, but you shouldn't get a discount in crafting items that have them.

So the higher price will be paid.