D&D 3.x Stacking Bonuses in 3.5

[Darkness]

I think you mean the Mystic Wanderer, the Mystic Theurge is the uber caster from the revised DMG.

D'oh! You're right, of course. Thanks!

 

[William Ronald]

So, any additional thoughts on this topic. Perhaps something like the Mutants and Mastermind rule could be used in helping to determine how much of a bonus a caster can put into a magic item. Thus, an epic level skill item, or armor, or miscellaneous magic item might have level based restrictions on the total bonuses.

 

[William Ronald]

Any additional thoughts on this topic?

Of course, one limit to bonuses is the cost involved in creating such items. I like to think that magic item creation is one way to part characters from their hard earned cash. (Of course, for some characters, being the best equipped adventurer is a status symbol as well as a practical matter.)

 

[Darkness]

You could require an item creator to have as many ranks in a skill as he wants the item's bonus to be.

In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd insist on it.

 

[Lela]

You could require an item creator to have as many ranks in a skill as he wants the item's bonus to be.

In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd insist on it.

So you'd have to have a Wizard who's really good at Jumping and very high level to make a Ring of Jumping? Isn't the Jump spell PreQ supposed to account for this?

The same concept would be applied to Boots and Cloaks of Elven Kind. The Wizard would have to be good at Hiding and Moving Quietly.

It's the PreQ spells that make the magic item. It's not the Wizard's proficiency in the skill.

Another question is if you'd apply the same thing to he who wants to make Gloves of Dex (must have a +6 natural bonus to Dex to create the Greater version) and other similar items?

 

[William Ronald]

Darkness, that is a good idea.

Of course, the problem would be getting players to accept some limitations. On the other hand, I like to think there are some practical limits, other than cash, on what people can create for skill bonus items.

In some campaigns, somewhat more generous DMs might want to at least insure that the item creator possesses the skill. Of course, the question of Epic Skill Bonus Items or Epic Items in general comes into play. (I have never created a skill bonus item with more pluses in a skill than a character possesses. However, it seems that the ELH implies the existence of such items to reach some of the DCs of the more powerful Epic Level Spells.)

A very generous DM might allow Epic Level spellcasters more leeway in creating bonus items. Of course, any item with a plus greater than 30 should be incredibly expensive as I indicated in previous posts. Even if a spellcaster of 30th level is allowed to create a +60 Knowledge, Spellcraft item, he might be hesitant to do so at a cost of 990,000 market value or 3.6 million market value. (The cost of creating it would be half if you have the appropriate feats, but still half of any of these sums is a lot of gold.)

 

[Lela]

[B
A very generous DM might allow Epic Level spellcasters more leeway in creating bonus items. Of course, any item with a plus greater than 30 should be incredibly expensive as I indicated in previous posts. Even if a spellcaster of 30th level is allowed to create a +60 Knowledge, Spellcraft item, he might be hesitant to do so at a cost of 990,000 market value or 3.6 million market value. (The cost of creating it would be half if you have the appropriate feats, but still half of any of these sums is a lot of gold.) [/B]

What would the XP cost be?

 

[William Ronald]

Lela,

Does this sound better as a rule:

The creator of a skill bonus item is limited to bonuses of no more than twice his spellcaster level. Thus a 10th level caster can create an item with a +20 bonus to a skill. Only Epic Level casters can create items with a bonus of greater than +30, as per the ELH.

This would give some flexibility, and set some limits. So, a 30th level wizard might be able to make that expensive +60 spellcraft bonus item, and could not just spend cash to try to create a +120 item.

 

[William Ronald]

Lela wrote:

What would the XP cost be?

The ELH has the formula of an XP cost for all items but scrolls, of the market price divided by 100 plus 10,000 x.p.

So, for a 990,000 item, the XP cost would be (990,000/100+10,000)=19,900 x.p. For a 3.6 million g.p. item, the X.P. cost would be 46,000 x.p. There is a variant rule for cooperative experience point costs to allow mutliple casters to work on an item. The XP can only come from other PCs and the creator must pay at least one quarter of the item's costs.

Of course, gods of magic may have a few epic skill bonus items to award worshippers. This should only require an epic quest or two. (See Sepulchrave II's story hour for a few ideas of what might be appropriate.)

 

[Lela]

Lela,

Does this sound better as a rule:

The creator of a skill bonus item is limited to bonuses of no more than twice his spellcaster level. Thus a 10th level caster can create an item with a +20 bonus to a skill. Only Epic Level casters can create items with a bonus of greater than +30, as per the ELH.

This would give some flexibility, and set some limits. So, a 30th level wizard might be able to make that expensive +60 spellcraft bonus item, and could not just spend cash to try to create a +120 item.

Yes, that works much better. The limit is there without forcing really Weird Wizards into the world. Yes, Multiclassing is possible. But it shouldn't be common enough to have as many skill enhancing items as there are in the world/multiverse/realm/plane.


I'm not sure how the ELH will mesh with 3.5 but I think 19,000 (maybe even 50,000) experience for a +60 item (especially one of Spellcraft) is a bit low at the levels you'd need it (21+). The cap is probubally a good idea.