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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lonely Tylenol" data-source="post: 3087614" data-attributes="member: 18549">You're going to have to tell me why I should follow one entry on the table and ignore another entry on the same table.  Otherwise, you're not making any sense.A weapon is a slotless item.  Perhaps rather than assume that properties added to weapons don't pay for being slotless items, we should assume that they do, and that these extra costs are already figured into the magic weapon pricing scheme.Well, taking a single power as an example (Daylight 3/day) and pricing it without the slot premium or the "secondary power" premium, we find that it would cost about 18000 based on the recommendations.  The increase in base cost for an intelligent item is +16000, and the minimum price for this item is about 27000 (assuming a +1 weapon), which includes three other minor powers, as well as the item's own ability to sense its environment using darkvision, all of which may or may not be worth the extra 11000. Without getting into the Ego issue, the base costs aren't that far apart, so long as you don't apply the costs for secondary powers and slotless abilities.Now, what you seem to be suggesting is that we scrap these costs, and allow people to add powers usually reserved for wondrous items, rings, wands, etc. to weapons without having to pay any additional cost to do so.  This would, of course, make all item creation feats vastly inferior to Craft Magic Arms and Armour, since why make a ring of protection +1 when you can make a sword of protection +1 for the same price as the sword and the ring, and still have that ring slot free?Now, I don't know if this is just me, but it seems like a bad idea.  Especially because if you keep adding powers to an already-crafted magic sword, it just turns into a shopping list of powers that don't really have anything to do with one another.  A fighter could have a +3 sword that gives him +4 to Str, +4 to Dex, +4 to Con, throws fireballs 3/day, acts as a ring of sustenance, a ring of water breathing, and a hat of disguise, because there's no reason not to: it costs the same as the individual items.  Of course, normally he'd have to use up slots to get those powers, and in doing so limit the number of powers he can have running simultaneously.  Also, normally a fighter can't use the sorts of items that allow you to throw fireballs (generally spell trigger or spell completion).  Items that violate that boundary are usually quite expensive.  This fighter could slap on a magic belt, an amulet, a couple of rings, a magic helmet, and some magic gauntlets, using the money he saved by not having to pay for the price modifiers on his sword's abilities, and putting these items in the slots he didn't use by putting all his favourite buffs into his weapon.Now, I'll also take the chance here to point out that nowhere outside of the rules for intelligent items is there any indication that you can place any ability on a weapon that is not contained in the "Melee Weapon Special Abilities" table, or tables in supplements derived from this table.  Which means that without it being a WoL, you can't actually build the bow described in MerricB's post.  Incidentally, if it were written up as a standard item, it would qualify as a major artifact, and be uncraftable for that reason as well.Now, I suspect that most of the abilities available for intelligent items were placed there with the intention that they be not too powerful, and mostly for flavour.  The lesser abilities are fairly pedestrian, and the greater abilities, of which you may have a maximum of 3 (which costs 15,000 just to qualify for, before ability costs are added), are useful, but not too useful.  They are also drawn from a very brief list.  The dedicated powers are only useful when the item (read: DM) decides they are, and you have to trade in your greater powers to get them, so they aren't really worth mentioning.  It seems to me that this combination is why intelligent items aren't given the costs normally associated with extra powers on an item.  They're just not that great to have, and come with some drawbacks.  Item ego might also play a factor, since an item with 3 greater powers has a minimum ego of 21, which is the Will DC that you must make to change its mind about something it wants you to do.  If you're a fighter, that might become a problem if the item doesn't exactly share your goals.Obtuse?  I'm just reading these values off the table, and as I pointed out above, even that's being generous since weapons aren't normally capable of granting +6 to Dex.And besides all that, even if I don't apply the cost doubling for a slotless item, the thing still costs 254,000 gp when the powers you overlooked are taken into account.  With Craft Magic Arms and Everything Else, you can make it for the low, low price of 127,000 gp, which is still 73,300 more than the WoL will cost you.  That's more than the value of the entire equipment load for an 11th level character.</blockquote>

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