Scribe Tattoo, personal power doubles cost? Wth?

[Wolfix]

The user of the psionic tattoo is both the manifester and the target; therefore, powers that target another creature cannot be stored in psionic tattoo form. Powers with a range of personal[emphasis mine] can be made into psionic tattoos, but they cost double the price of standard psionic tattoos.

I don't get it. How do you scribe a tattoo of a power with a range of anything other than personal? Isn't the whole point of the tattoo to scribe personal powers? Why the doubling of the cost?

 

[ken-ichi]

Well, here is the requirements of Psionic Tattoos that I could find per the SRD. I did not find the source you quoted in the SRD, where exactly is it?

SCRIBE TATTOO [ITEM CREATION]
You can create psionic tattoos, which store powers within their designs.
Prerequisite: Manifester level 3rd.
Benefit: You can create a psionic tattoo of any power of 3rd level or lower that you know and that targets one or more creatures. Scribing a psionic tattoo takes one day.

The only requirement is that the power 3rd lvl or less target one or more creatures. My confusion is does the power actually have to have Target: one (or more) creatures, or does Traget: You count as targetting one or more creatures (you being a creature).
If Target: You is valid for a Tattoo, then Tattoos of Force Screen can replace the no longer available potions of Shield.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Because you can make a tattoo of a power with target "Creature Touched," you just can't have a tattoo that will affect another creature (thus, your buddy could not benefit from your tattoo unless he was wearing it).

The reason that Personal spells are more expensive is that, design-wise, they are supposed to be limited to the caster classes. Thus, giving a Wizard a fairly powerful combat buff as a 3rd-level spell with range Personal is more or less balanced, because it is unlikely to ever be able to be used by someone else.

EDIT: I can't seem to find the text regarding a cost increase in the 3.5 SRD at Wizards. Is the cost increase a 3.0 thing?

The base price of a tattoo is otherwise equal to a potion, which makes sense.

 

[Wolfix]

ken-ichi: I found it on p24 of the "Psionic Items" textfile from the srd site.
Patryn of Elvenshae: The balance issue does sound like a good reason why the cost would double... nuts . Strange though that they wouldn't just double the cost by default, if I look at the powers that would be usefull for a tattoo they almost all have range personal.
But anyway, thanks for the replies!