Rod of Healing (Pricing Help?)

[Centaur]

I'm thinking of introducing a magical item into the game as something purchasable. However, I'm not sure exactly how to put a price on it.

I am calling it a Rod of Healing and it has the following effects:
Essentialy, it allows a Arcane caster to channel a prepared spell or spell slot through the rod and convert it into a healing spell. It will convert a 1-4 level Arcane Spell into an equal level Healing spell (CLW, CMW, CSL, and CCW). At a basic level, it allows an arcane caster to spontaneously cast healing spells much like a cleric.

What I want to know is how would other people value such an item?

Thoughts?

 

[CRGreathouse]

I would base its price on the metamagic rods; probably lesser maximize or lesser quicken.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

I would say something about about 66000GP, based on the spell Energy Transformationfield found in Magic Of Faerun.
11(caster level) x 6(spell level) x 2000(for a use activated item) x 1/2(base spell's duration is permanent) = 66000

Pretty expensive, but first of all it gives the Arcane Spellcasters an ability they normally could never posses and the rod is indeed very usefull, powerfull and therefore the price is ok I think.
There are spells that allow arcane spellcasters to heal damage but they are most of the time not straightforward and never as good as the Cure spells.
So hit that item with its 66000GP price, your players will like it anyway.

 

[Pax]

Instead of the suggestion offered by BKI, I suggest working based on the spell Convert Wand, from the Book of Exalted Deeds. It is a 5th level cleric spell, which does EXACTLY what Centaur describes - but ti does it to ANY spell, and it works only on Wands, rather than on actual, cast spells.

Still, it's a very close match.

I'd say an appropriate working premise would be to make the item "use-activated" - essentially, if you use the Rod as an "optional Focus", the spell you so cast is affected per convert wand. An item based on a 5th level use-activated effect starts out at [5x9x2000=] 90,000gp.

The advantage of using the convert wand spell as your start is that, other than affectign wands instead of spells someone actually casts, it does exactly what is wanted: converts the spell(s) in question into their equal-level curative equivalent (cure Light, cure Moderate, cure Serious, or cure Critical wounds for levels 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively).

 

[Black Knight Irios]

Pax, yours is even better than mine, hadn't had BoED at hand, but I think your prize will go up a little bit more because the duration of the spell you use is not permanent or 24h+, so it will at least turn out to be 1.5 times the gold amount already stated.
As I see it, this item is becoming more and more expensive.

 

[Centaur]

Thanks for the replies, turns out the item will be a little less expensive than I thought. I don't have either of the books mentioned so this has been a big help. I had assumed a cost of between 50,000-100,000 gp.

In the world that the players are in, Clerics of any kind, especialy of a good alignment are very rare, almost non existent due to a recent continent wide war against the forces of chaos. As a result, healing items of any kind are at a premium. I think I will set the cost at an even 100,000gp and let the players decide if they want to buy it or not.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

The price will go up based on the spell Pax used in his calculation, by an amount of 2 times 90.000, if you really want to make the price right. 180000 is the real price for that item, don't get me wrong that's how it's done and if healing items are that rare in your world, the price should even be 190000.
Maybe your players are pretty discouraged now, with that price.

 

[The Souljourner]

I think for a campaign where healing is so rare, 100k is a fine price. The fact that it's purchaseable at all is crazy.... the guy who owns it ought to be renting it out, or trading it for someone's kingdom... though I guess for 100k, he can just buy his own kingdom!

100k means the party can pitch in to get it at around 12th level, which seems fine to me.

Personally I never use the charts for pricing magic items, they're not even very good as guidelines, so I'd take that 190k and ignore it. It's not worth that much. At a point in time where you could actually afford to buy that, cure critical wounds isn't even going to be a bandaid.

So.... 100k seems fine. I might even reduce it some, to like 80, just 'cause it actually gets less useful the higher up you get.

-The Souljourner