+? to Skill magic items. Does a method exist?
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Arkhandus
First Post
You can use the retraining rules in Player's Handbook II to replace some old skill ranks. You cannot gain "free" skill ranks short of Wishes with DM judgment on how to handle it. The standard rules for Wish do not include granting skill bonuses or skill ranks, so it would be up to the DM's judgment as one of the "greater" uses of the Wish spell. Also, Inherant bonuses are only for ability scores, not skills (at least so far as the DMG and SRD are concerned).
If you want to Wish for great skill in, say, disarming traps and other devices (the Disable Device skill), it would be up to the DM to determine how many ranks you gained or how much of a bonus you gained (of course, if you didn't already have the skill, then the wording of the Wish ought to give you actual ranks in the skill).
And yes, there's an increase in cost when adding multiple effects to a magic item. If the item takes up a normal magic item slot, such as an amulet or the like, then +10 to 10 specific skills would cost 100,000 GP, while a slotless item (like an Ioun Stone) performing the same function would cost 115,000 GP. Not much difference. The magic item cost guidelines are only guidelines, anyway, and the DM always has final say on what custom magic items can be created.
If you want to Wish for great skill in, say, disarming traps and other devices (the Disable Device skill), it would be up to the DM to determine how many ranks you gained or how much of a bonus you gained (of course, if you didn't already have the skill, then the wording of the Wish ought to give you actual ranks in the skill).
And yes, there's an increase in cost when adding multiple effects to a magic item. If the item takes up a normal magic item slot, such as an amulet or the like, then +10 to 10 specific skills would cost 100,000 GP, while a slotless item (like an Ioun Stone) performing the same function would cost 115,000 GP. Not much difference. The magic item cost guidelines are only guidelines, anyway, and the DM always has final say on what custom magic items can be created.
Note that all pricing guidelines are only, well, guidelines. There are no 100% reliable formulas for any item creation. This is especially true for skills, because some skills are much more valuable than others. For example, a bonus to Use Magic Device should be priced much higher than a bonus to Use Rope.
That being said, bonus^2 * 100 is probably a good starting point.
Granting a permanent bonus to anything other than an ability score is outside of the standard capability of Wish, and falls into the "dangerous" category. Personally, I'm just not comfortable with idea of Wish granting permanent bonuses. If I was DMing and someone wished for this, I would try one of the following options:
-Have Wish result in a Permanent version of a buff spell that grants the requested bonus
-Give the player a magic item with the skill boost they want
-Allow the player a one-time rearrangement of their skill ranks to raise the skill they want
Note that the first two options are explicitly allowed by Wish, the third is a house rule.
kitcik
Adventurer
Trading the XP cost of a wish spell to get ranks in untrained skills and become "trained" seems like a fair, even potentially underpowered use of a wish, depending on ho far the DM lets them go. I would have no problem with it.
If you had a Planar Shepherd with unlimited wishes in Efreeti form or something, the problem would be in the unbalanced supply of wishes, not in their use for skill ranks.
Besides, once you're casting 9th level spells, how unbalanced could any skill be?
If you had a Planar Shepherd with unlimited wishes in Efreeti form or something, the problem would be in the unbalanced supply of wishes, not in their use for skill ranks.
Besides, once you're casting 9th level spells, how unbalanced could any skill be?
Pergentile
Explorer
Using a Luck Blade (+3) to get a boost to skill points? It would take an especially arbitrarily cruel DM to penalize such a decision. I wouldn't want to be a Player in such a DM's campaign. Two wishes that grant +2 to an ability score should be able to be used to gain +1 rank in all of that ability scores relevant skills instead without penalization, if not more.
My reasoning that the Wish spell would give ranks in a skill is based upon it's effects upon the ability "Inteligence."
I'm not certain about this next bit, but here's what I've been going by so far.
If you use Wish to add a +5 to Strength then it's as if you gained a permanent buff of +5 that can't be dispelled or taken away and you are able to use normal buff spells or equipment with buffs on them to raise the ability by another +5. These buffs however, can be taken away.
Ditto for Dexterity.
Ditto for Constitution.
Charisma.
All of these gain their bonuses and those bonuses don't have any affect on what you did in the past. Even Constitution when raised backtracks over your past as a reference to raise your hp.
But not Intelligence.
If you raise Intelligence later in the game, you don't get skill points retroactively like you gain hp.
If you raise your intelligence using a buff spell or magic item before you level, you don't gain skill points for those points in Intelligence the buffing gives.
Granted, some DM's rule that if you've had a bonus to your Intelligence for more than a certain percent of the time it took you to level then you do gain those skill points, but by the rules as written (Hey, I just got that. (RAW.)) these method's don't give skill points when you level.
This means that Wish gives more than just a buff to stats that you can build on top of.
Now let's look at skills.
As far as I can tell, skills have three stages. Unusable, Untrained, and Trained.
If a skill is Unusable, then you can't use it. (Duh. But a single rank in the skill makes it Trained)
If a skill is Untrained, then you can only use it against DC checks of 10 or under. And a single rank in the skill makes it Trained.
If a skill is Trained, then the DC against which you roll is unlimited. Especially if it's on a project where your DM rules that you can have hundreds of hired workers using "Aid Another" to give you access to truly high DC rolls. (How many people can work on building a tank or battleship?)
Wish gives nothing more an irremovable bonus to a skill which you won't even be able to use until you put at least 1 skill rank in it?
Wish merely raises the skill into the Untrained category?
Or Wish gives an inherent bonus to the skill which is considered a rank or number of ranks and changes it to Trained.
I say that while skills can have a big impact on what you're capable of doing in-game, even more in a number of ways than an ability, it doesn't have the same level of wide spread application as ability scores.
And if you're worried about myself or others using this argument to claim you should also be able to Wish for Feats, remember that skills, like abilities are right there on the character sheet. Not separated from it like Feats are.
I'm not certain about this next bit, but here's what I've been going by so far.
If you use Wish to add a +5 to Strength then it's as if you gained a permanent buff of +5 that can't be dispelled or taken away and you are able to use normal buff spells or equipment with buffs on them to raise the ability by another +5. These buffs however, can be taken away.
Ditto for Dexterity.
Ditto for Constitution.
Charisma.
All of these gain their bonuses and those bonuses don't have any affect on what you did in the past. Even Constitution when raised backtracks over your past as a reference to raise your hp.
But not Intelligence.
If you raise Intelligence later in the game, you don't get skill points retroactively like you gain hp.
If you raise your intelligence using a buff spell or magic item before you level, you don't gain skill points for those points in Intelligence the buffing gives.
Granted, some DM's rule that if you've had a bonus to your Intelligence for more than a certain percent of the time it took you to level then you do gain those skill points, but by the rules as written (Hey, I just got that. (RAW.)) these method's don't give skill points when you level.
This means that Wish gives more than just a buff to stats that you can build on top of.
Now let's look at skills.
As far as I can tell, skills have three stages. Unusable, Untrained, and Trained.
If a skill is Unusable, then you can't use it. (Duh. But a single rank in the skill makes it Trained)
If a skill is Untrained, then you can only use it against DC checks of 10 or under. And a single rank in the skill makes it Trained.
If a skill is Trained, then the DC against which you roll is unlimited. Especially if it's on a project where your DM rules that you can have hundreds of hired workers using "Aid Another" to give you access to truly high DC rolls. (How many people can work on building a tank or battleship?)
Wish gives nothing more an irremovable bonus to a skill which you won't even be able to use until you put at least 1 skill rank in it?
Wish merely raises the skill into the Untrained category?
Or Wish gives an inherent bonus to the skill which is considered a rank or number of ranks and changes it to Trained.
I say that while skills can have a big impact on what you're capable of doing in-game, even more in a number of ways than an ability, it doesn't have the same level of wide spread application as ability scores.
And if you're worried about myself or others using this argument to claim you should also be able to Wish for Feats, remember that skills, like abilities are right there on the character sheet. Not separated from it like Feats are.
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Pergentile
Explorer
*Shrugs*
Wishes are powerful. For a DM to say giving you ranks is overboard would be slightly arbitrary of them, since it would be a mechanically sound and balanced use of the powerful spell.
Wishes are powerful. For a DM to say giving you ranks is overboard would be slightly arbitrary of them, since it would be a mechanically sound and balanced use of the powerful spell.
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