SQUEE! The rust monster revealed!

[Fenes]

What about if you're planning to enchant items, wouldn't a smart wizard like to have a rust monster or three to act as a residium converter?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

What about if you're planning to enchant items, wouldn't a smart wizard like to have a rust monster or three to act as a residium converter?

I thought that was the primary point of this scheme? You need a lot of items and a lot of rust monsters to create a high level item. 11th level + items can't be eaten by the Rust Monster!

 

[Nymrohd]

But you still cannot create an item that is higher than your level anyway, and you will most likely have items that are higher than your level for the big 3 slots.

 

[Kraydak]

It's also interesting to see how people suddenly accept the 20 % rule for disenchanting stuff and seem to think that getting 100 % for an item means they earn money!

Huh? If the default sale price/disenchant ritual for magic items was 80%, rust monsters would still be a great deal.

You do not get more money out of it then you had. The only way to make more money of it is an epic item. And even then, you are still limited by RAW to create only items of up to your level while adventuring will always get you items that are your level or higher!

You have residuum at near 100% efficiency. Now all you need to do is find an appropriately leveled mage willing to make a higher level item relatively cheaply. This shouldn't pose any major difficulties, as the ritual takes but an hour to cast.

The real thing the rust monster does is make the whole 20% resale price far, far, far more absurd than it already was. In a world with rust monsters, magic item->magic item conversion efficiency approaches 100%.

As for profit making, the income with ring is circa 20k gp/day. That is 1 lower epic tier item/month, and about 2 lvl 30 items/year. Not bad for down time. This is assuming there are no paragon tier/epic tier versions of the rust monster, of course. If there are, the income explodes.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Huh? If the default sale price/disenchant ritual for magic items was 80%, rust monsters would still be a great deal.

You are still only recycling, not earning money. And you can only create items of your level or lower,while everything you usually find at your level will be of your level or higher. So you are still losing out the good items, which,if your DM follows the suggestsions of the DMG, will already be tailored for your party.

You have residuum at near 100% efficiency. Now all you need to do is find an appropriately leveled mage willing to make a higher level item relatively cheaply. This shouldn't pose any major difficulties, as the ritual takes but an hour to cast.

The real thing the rust monster does is make the whole 20% resale price far, far, far more absurd than it already was. In a world with rust monsters, magic item->magic item conversion efficiency approaches 100%.

As for profit making, the income with ring is circa 20k gp/day. That is 1 lower epic tier item/month, and about 2 lvl 30 items/year. Not bad for down time. This is assuming there are no paragon tier/epic tier versions of the rust monster, of course. If there are, the income explodes.

NOT downtime. YOu need to have two epic level fights each day to get your milestones to activate the ring.(Well, two skill challenges would work,too, or any combination of these.)
You will typically earn new treasure parcels at part of these encounters, and the money you earn will be considerably more than low level magical items will offer you.

 

[Fenes]

Obviously I am off the mark for even trying to extrapolate, but what I am interested is is not how efficient epic level heroes are at making items thanks to rust monsters, I am wondering if in a world where people use their brains, most wizards interested in making custom magic items out of unwanted ones will have a rust monster-supply so they can use a 100% conversion rate for residium.

That means not "wizards trying to make level appropriate items for epic heroes", that simply means "wizards who make those items the heroes used at heroic level".

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Obviously I am off the mark for even trying to extrapolate, but what I am interested is is not how efficient epic level heroes are at making items thanks to rust monsters, I am wondering if in a world where people use their brains, most wizards interested in making custom magic items out of unwanted ones will have a rust monster-supply so they can use a 100% conversion rate for residium.

That means not "wizards trying to make level appropriate items for epic heroes", that simply means "wizards who make those items the heroes used at heroic level".

1) They do, because Rust Monsters are easy to breed.
2) They don't because Rust Monsters are not easy to breed.
3) They don't, because creating items on commission is unusual.
4) They don't, because fate has it that most adventurers find items they do not want to disenchant.
5) Some Wizards do in hiding, making a fortune with nobody knowing how efficiently they can disenchant items.

 

[arscott]

But you still cannot create an item that is higher than your level anyway, and you will most likely have items that are higher than your level for the big 3 slots.

People seem to be missing this one. That rust monster that you face at 6th level eats your nifty level nine sword, you don't get your sword back. Instead, you just gain the option to make five level 4 swords.

And by RAW, you can't buy an item higher than your level--which presumably extends to commissioned items bought with residuum.

Edit: Excpet not. I misremembed. You can buy any item you can afford, with GM approval.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Obviously I am off the mark for even trying to extrapolate, but what I am interested is is not how efficient epic level heroes are at making items thanks to rust monsters, I am wondering if in a world where people use their brains, most wizards interested in making custom magic items out of unwanted ones will have a rust monster-supply so they can use a 100% conversion rate for residium".

There's other issues then just making the items for them to devour and convert. Like can Rust Monsters even be kept in captivity, a lot of animals dont fare well. How many GPs worth of metal must they eat in a day to remain healthy? How much is that metal free cage going to cost to design and maintain? What are you using to slaughter it? How much work is it going to be to secure a breeding pair or too? They digest it, so do they need residuum to stay healthy and if so, how much?

If the PC's REALLY want to go through all these hoops to figure it out instead of, you know, adventuring, I'm sure they'll make a little bit of profit. They'll probably get more from killing people and looting their stuff then playing rust monster rancher, though.

That said, I now have the idea of a couple dwarves who are going to try to train a rust monster to hunt out metal deposits, like some people do with pigs and truffles.

 

[Fenes]

If the PC's REALLY want to go through all these hoops to figure it out instead of, you know, adventuring, I'm sure they'll make a little bit of profit. They'll probably get more from killing people and looting their stuff then playing rust monster rancher, though.

It's not about how to make PCs adventure instead of farm monsters, it's about what NPCs might do in this world.

That said, I now have the idea of a couple dwarves who are going to try to train a rust monster to hunt out metal deposits, like some people do with pigs and truffles.

That's what I mean. I think too many reduce monsters to XP-dispensers these days, and stuff like ecologies, and how monsters may fit into the world, even society, are neglected.