Some custom Magical Items

[Sidran]

Belt of Scalps- This magic belt is made of the scalps of warriors. When worn by characters of Evil alignment the belt has the special ability to cause fear in the hearts of the wearers enemies. Those effected run 30’ or until out of the area of effect ( out of visual site of the belt). In addition the wearer of the belt can make himself appear to be a member of the race whose scalps were used to build the belt. Characters of a good alignment recieve a -2 to Will saves when wearing the belt, and suffer from nigtmares which effect the characters sleep. Characters who fail their Will saves against the nightmares do not memorize new spells, or gain hp the ill effects of the item stop as soon as it is withdrawn from use. Caster Level: 6th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, Fear, and Glamour; Market Price: 500 gp; Weight: 1 lb.

Jinjari’s Skull This amulet is comprised of a fiendish pixies skull set with twin star rubies. When worn on a necklace by characters of evil alignment the skull sheds off a sphere of impenetrable darkness. Characters caught within the sphere are blinded. Spells such as Light, Sunlight, and Divine Fire cancel the effects of the item until their duration is complete, spells such as Continual flame, dancing lights or Moonshine have no effect on the items ability. Characters who wear this item see as they normally would. Caster Level: 8th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, Darkness, Market Price: 1,750 gp

Wraithblade- This +2 thinblade has been imbued with the essence of the mistwraiths touch. Three times per day the Wraithblade allows the wielder to make a touch attack with the weapon that deals 1d6 points of temporary Constitution damage. Caster Level: 12th; Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, harm; Market Price: 50,320 gp; Cost to Create: 25,320 gp + 2,000 XP.

Stoutskin Cloak- Handcrafted by the Necromancer Hurrell of Lleth these nightmarish cloaks are made from the preserved skins of fallen dwarven warriors. Often they are decorated with the runic tattoos that adorned the warriors in life. Imbued with dark magics these cloaks grant their wearers a cold resistance of +5, in addition most of the cloaks were known to have secondary functions.

Example of secondary functions

1. Deflect Arrows feat
2. +2 to saves against cold creatures
3. + 10 Ft to speed [when worn]
4 Identify 3/ Day
5 Communicate with Cold Creatures
6 Undead Qualities [ When Worn]

Caster Level: 9th; Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Resist Elements (Cold) One addition requirement (DM's choice) ; Market Price: 8,165 gp; Cost to Create: 6,665 gp + 400 XP.

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

The belt of scalps has no save DC.

The skull is incredibly low priced. Anyone who had one would be unstoppable in combat, as their opponents would be blind. Although common spells cancel its effect, anyone unprepare specifically for this item is in trouble. It cost at leat 10x as much.

 

[Spatzimaus]

The belt and scalp are all horribly underpriced. Even making them useable only by Evil characters only multiplies your cost by 70% (DMG, p. 243)

Belt: You haven't specified the Save, Save DC, or number of uses per day for the effects. You haven't specified re-rolls on the Fear either (i.e., if I don't save, I can't go within 30' of him ever again?) The only range you've really given is Line-of-Sight, which is WAY too large. The Fear also doesn't seem to require any sort of action by the user. To top it all off it's also a "Change Self" at will with limited form. With all this, I'd put the price in the 20k range, even if the Fear was low DC and limited charges. It's just an insanely good item for a bad guy. If you make this be an aura effect (everyone who approaches saves vs. Fear) then you have an effect that's better than the 6th-level spell Repulsion, which costs a LOT (132k by the book).

Scalp: it's use-activated Darkness at will (which would cost 12,000) but with the ability to be unaffected. Easily a 20k item, but it's even stronger than that, for the reason the Sadist said: you're almost entirely immune to attack unless someone uses one of the spells that specifically counters the effect.

Cloak: Cold Resist 5 (I assume that's what you meant and not +5 to saves vs. cold effects) wouldn't be very expensive (Endure Elements at will is only 2000, and you're basically making it a permanent ability in exchange for limiting which element), but look at the other abilities you're letting them choose from:
1> A feat that normally requires DEX 13 and Improved Unarmed Strike. Items that bestow Feats aren't cheap; looking at the Intelligent weapons, I'd say 5k is fair for average Feats.
2> +2 to all saves against a general type should be roughly Feat-level.
3> As good as Speed of Thought (without the prerequisites) or twice as good as that General feat from a splatbook.
4> 3 uses per day of a level 1 spell would be 1080 gold, but it's an 8-hour casting time so there's no need for 3 uses. The arcane version has a material component you haven't accounted for, which would add 3000 (and for the Magic Domain it's a level 2 spell costing 6480 total, so you can't avoid the component that way)
5> No idea on cost, this'd be a cheap one though.
6> You can't do this one. It's WAY too strong. From the MM:
"Undead: Immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, and disease. Not subject to critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, energy drain, or death from massive damage"
That's like a dozen Feats in one shot. Most characters I know would give their left nut for half of these. Even if you give them the drawbacks of undead (no more class progression, can be turned, etc.) they still come out way ahead.

So, the cloak might be balanced at that cost if you have one of the weaker secondary abilities.

The big question is, normally items have a material cost equal to 1/2 their market price and an XP cost equal to market price / 25; why is this item different?

 

[Sidran]

Because to me it doesn't matter about the material cost. As for a character of mine getting any of the other abilities from the cloak it will never happen, and the item is for a High level Villain to use anyway

I do thank you for your exhaustive critique


For the Belt it should be a Save DC 16, no charges as it lets off a wave of irrational fear that only the wearer can chose to extinguish. And since it is an Aura I guess the true price would be up around 132K though because my Players have come into the posession of the items I am not going to give them that much for those Items.

Belt of Scalps- This magic belt is made of the scalps of warriors. When worn by characters of Evil alignment the belt has the special ability to cause fear in the hearts of the wearers enemies. Character who come within 20ft of the wearer must succeed at a will save (DC 16) or run 30’ or until out of the area of effect ( out of the visual sight of the wearer). The items owner can shut the fear aura off and on 3/ day. In addition the wearer of the belt can make himself appear to be a member of the race whose scalps were used to build the belt.
Caster Level: 6th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, Fear, and Glamour; Market Price: 16,000 gp; Weight: 1 lb

Jinjari’s Skull This amulet is comprised of a fiendish pixies skull set with twin star rubies. When worn on a necklace by characters of evil alignment the skull sheds off a sphere of impenetrable darkness. Characters caught within the sphere are blinded. Spells such as Light, Sunlight, and Divine Fire cancel the effects of the item until their duration is complete, spells such as Continual flame, dancing lights or Moonshine have no effect on the items ability. Characters who wear this item see as they normally would.
Caster Level: 8th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, Darkness, Market Price: 19, 500 gp

As for the items in the cloak only the Deflect Arrows version have been seen...

And as for the Identify Material Components and the time it takes to cast them via this item are nil and none

With the magic Item of this sort it could have needed the material component as part of the enchantment process but as for the eight hours of spell time Arcane or otherwise it becomes a three round action three times per day with this magical item.