Rules of the Game: Making Magic Items

[Scharlata]

Hi, all!

I've been reading the Rules of the Game: Making Magic Items Part 3 (Wands and Staffs) and I (probably) discovered 2 errors...

Fist: In the online downloadable version from yesterday (Tuesday, Dec 20) Skip told us to normally round fractions up [A Note on Rounding]. The online version of today (Wednesday, Dec 21) has corrected this error. Now we can round down, as usual.

Second: The example Staff of Remeditation's calculations have mixed up the number of charges. It must be Greater Restoration (3 charges) and Atonement (2 charges), and not vice versa.

Just for the record.

And if someone with good connections to Skip W. could tell him to correct the latter error it would be nice. Or someone please tell me that I'm very wrong


I'm a little disappointed that Skip circumvents the need to consolidate the various information fragments in the PHB and the DMG about making magic items, especially potions. The readers get 3 places of varying information on how to brew potions and oils: PHB p. 89, DMG p. 229, and DMG p. 286.

And I really would have liked it to see something about caster level(s) for scrolls that have more than one spell scribed on them. Precisely: What about scrolls with i.e. Sleep (CL 1) and Fireball (CL 5)? Are they possible or do you have to scribe them with the highest caster level, in this case CL5?

Kind regards

 

[Thanee]

Why shouldn't that be possible? Weapons can have several enchantments with different caster levels, too.

With a Detect Magic you will notice a faint enchantment and moderate evocation aura, if for example you study a scroll with Sleep (CL 1st) and Fireball (CL 6th).

Bye
Thanee

 

[dcollins]

Why shouldn't that be possible? Weapons can have several enchantments with different caster levels, too.

Can you give an example that? Because I don't anything in the core rules like that, in fact it says this:

Caster Level for Weapons: The caster level of a weapon with a special ability is given in the item description. For an item with only an enhancement bonus and no other abilities, the caster level is three times the enhancement bonus. If an item has both an enhancement bonus and a special ability, the higher of the two caster level requirements must be met.

 

[Abraxas]

Well, a weapon could be given a +2 enhancement by a sixth level caster and later a special ability (with a caster level requirement of 7) could be added - the weapon would then have an enhancement bonus and a special ability with different caster levels.

Nothing in the rules suggest that the caster level for the enhancement would change in this case.

 

[Thanee]

dcollins, of course one must meet the higher requirement, when forging the weapon, but, for example, it is very well possible, that a wizard 5th crafts a +1 sword and a wizard 9th adds the ghost touch property.

The weapon would then have a faint evocation and a moderate conjuration aura.

If the item's caster level is needed for something (i.e. item saves), you would have to take the maximum caster level (9th in this case), obviously.

At least that's how I understand it.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

The other possibility would be, that the item always has only one caster level (the highest, 9th in the example).

For the scroll, if only a single caster level was given for a single item, then you had to scribe all spells at the same level, obviously, since otherwise the information about their caster level would be lost.

Of course, you could extrapolate from the rules to create staffs, which state, that all spells in a staff must have the same caster level.

Bye
Thanee

 

[dcollins]

Yes, I've always assumed it to be the second case, looking at staffs as an example, like you say.

 

[drnuncheon]

Interesting fact: according to that article, a scroll of fireball at caster level 5 would cost 375 gp. A wand of fireball at CL5 with a single charge remaining would cost 225 gp.

In fact, you could get a single-charge fireball wand with CL8 for only 360 gp.

If you wanted to get into more complex math, the price of a partially charged wand probably ought to bottom out at the scroll price, or possibly higher - a wand is slightly more useful than a scroll in that there's no caster level/spellcasting stat issues. Then again, one can't copy a wand into a spellbook.

J

 

[Hypersmurf]

Then again, one can't copy a wand into a spellbook.

Although as long as the price of the scroll is under a thousand gp, you can use the charge from the wand to scribe a scroll, which you can then copy into the spellbook.

If it's more than a thousand, the number of charges needed starts to go up...

-Hyp.

 

[Thanee]

And don't forget, that a newly created wand always has 50 charges. You cannot make a wand with just 1 charge.

The price for wand charges was always CLxSLx15 gp, which is only 60% of the cost of a scroll.

Bye
Thanee