Romancing some true dragons

[Samloyal23]

As theorized, it would only be able to turn you into a single other creature type, in this case Humanoids. Within those parameters, you could be any kind of humanoid, be it elf, dwarf, gnome, etc.

Some types are broader groups than others I think, would a Hat of Aberrations or a Hat of Animals allow too many forms to be balanced at the same price? Hmmm...

 

[Shin Okada]

Maybe I can restrict the item so that the user can turn into one exact race, say, circlet of human form? It may lower the price, depending on how physically strong the race is.

 

[Alzrius]

Some types are broader groups than others I think, would a Hat of Aberrations or a Hat of Animals allow too many forms to be balanced at the same price? Hmmm...

It's true that some creature types have more specific creatures than others. However, I would advise against trying to adjust the price of a single-type polymorph magic item based on that. The reasons for this are 1) it's not worth the bookkeeping, 2) this would need to be constantly revised based on the ever-expanding lists of monsters that are published (to say nothing of needing to be recalculated based on what monsters are allowed in the GM's campaign world), and 3) the price differences would be comparatively small enough not to make that much of a difference, particularly when measured against how much functionality a canny PC would be able to get out of them.

Maybe I can restrict the item so that the user can turn into one exact race, say, circlet of human form? It may lower the price, depending on how physically strong the race is.

That's an interesting point to consider. Since this allows for changing into a different creature type, it should be at least 3rd level. However, it doesn't allow for different creatures, so it's weaker than the "standard" version.

My reaction here - in terms of calculating the price for a magic item - be to apply a modifier to the base price to account for the lesser functionality of this particular item. My gut instinct here is to make this a 0.7 multiplier, though it may be lower upon reflection.

So in other words, this would use a formula of 3 (spell level ) x 5 (caster level) x 2,000 (unlimited-use, use-activated) x 2 (1 min./level duration) x 0.7 (human-only effect) = 42,000 gp for a hat of humankind.