Pricing Itimes with Initiative Bonus

[Baronovan]

Initiative isn't everything, and I wholly disagree with anyone that thinks the inish winner wins the fight. Bull-cakes. You're dealing with ignorant players if your experiences corroborate this claim, bar none, and no offense intended.

Frankly, I'd make it operate just like a Dex bonus item: bonus^2*1000 gp. Reason being: It's a straight bonus to initiative whereas a similar item to Dex would only increase the wearer's inish by 1/2 the item's bonus at best. (eg. a +10 Dex item increases the wearer's inish by +5 at best, right? Right.) while on the other hand it's only keyed to inish, not Reflex saves, AC, ranged attacks, et al. Once the bonus exceeds +6, it's an epic item and the price is multipled by the epic x10. Cut and dry.

 

[Snowy]

um, yes, thats what the discussion is about, what proportion of the cost of an increase to dexterity is down to the value of the increase in initiative. Its being discussed to make sure that its not too cheap or too expensive as its not a normal bonus to get.

If you want to blindly assign a price and run with it cos its just the same as everything else really isn't it, can I have a ring of use action true strike please? Its just a frst level spell after all....

Sorry but assuming that everyone else who has posted on this thread has no knowledge at all of how the game works or what happens in battles is just plain wrong, you could have said "IN MY CAMPAIGN, I WOULD PRICE IT AS, BLAH BLAH BLAH, AS I THINK THAT IT IS WORTH ABOUT HALF OF A DEXTERITY BONUS. You might even be right, it may be different for other people they may want to point out they use iajatsu (however its spelt) strike and winning initiative means killign the bad guy or they could have a high level wizard casting force cage as his first action and a quickened summon creature inside it (fine it doesn't end the fight but they may not want EVERY fight to start the same way).

 

[domino]

Well, with iajitsu, they also get to add a fair bit of damage, so they go first, AND raise their damage, which makes killing the bad guy easier.

 

[S'mon]

Bonus squared x 1000 is 1/4 the cost of getting the same Init boost via DEX, maybe a bit cheap but ok.

 

[wuyanei]

So to summerize:

(bonus squared) x 1000 gp or (bonus squared) x 2000 gp are both possible and generally acceptable prices.

If you run a game where initiative will play a large role in determining the victor (eg. if you run a game using stuff adapted from the Oriental Adventures setting, or if you run a high-level magic-heavy game), you might want to price it as (bonus squared) x 2000 gp. If you are running a lower-level campaign, and want to introduce a initiative-boosting item earlier in the game, you can go with (bonus squared) x 1000 gp, but you must keep in mind that this price will seem low at higher levels (ie. expect all rogues and wiz/sor types to get one eventually).

In any case, you should probably cap the bonus at +4 or +5 . Anything above that amount should be an Epic item.

 

[KingOfChaos]

I would just use the spell, Skittish Nerves, in the forgotten realms player's guide. It gives the caster a +5 bonus to initiative. Should be easy to enchant into an item and its only 1st level.

 

[Nifft]

I would just use the spell, Skittish Nerves, in the forgotten realms player's guide. It gives the caster a +5 bonus to initiative. Should be easy to enchant into an item and its only 1st level.

*yawn* Wake me when this record's done skipping, will ya?

-- N

 

[Cheiromancer]

I'm another vote for bonus squared times 2000. And I think it should be a ring. If both of these rules are followed, I'd let it go up to +10 without going epic.

If it doesn't have to be a ring (e.g. gets double priced and put on a scabbard or something) and is limited to +4 (like the feat), I'd let it be priced as bonus squared times 1000.

[edit] Settle down you two! No need for anyone to get snarky. [/edit]

 

[KingOfChaos]

*yawn* Wake me when this record's done skipping, will ya?

-- N

Excuse me for having something to do other than read a massive thread Besides, I was replying specifically to the creator of the thread, not you.

 

[wuyanei]

So... Cheiromancer, are you going to introduce the Scabbard of the Battousai into your games anytime soon?

As for myself, my games are at 6 ~ 9 level, with no iiajutsu master stuff, so (bonus squared) x 1000 gp is okay. Good for rogue types, but nothing overpowering.

Plus, the way I see it, foresight probably beats +10 bonus to initiative anyways.