True Strike balance?

[Herpes Cineplex]

In fact, how much would you say a true strike monocle would be worth, and how often would it be useable?

Well, my 3.0 wizard made a wondrous item that worked once per day, but made it a slotless item. This is what our GM agreed to:


Ribbon of True Strike: This item appears to be a simple red silk ribbon, and may be tied to clothing, to hair, or to a weapon. However, if the proper command word is spoken as the ribbon is touched, it grants its owner the powers of the spell True Strike. This item only functions once per day, and the strike must be made in the round immediately following the activation of the ribbon.
Caster level: 1st; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, True Strike; Market Price: 720gp.


...calculated according to the old Tome & Blood rules. I'm not as familiar with 3.5's rules: making it a monocle would halve the market price, I believe, but you may need to apply another multiplier if your GM rules that the eyes/goggles slot doesn't have an "affinity" for the spell.

This was one of a few really simple, once-per-day, 1000gp-or-less items designed as presents for other party members, and at this point in our game the two who'll be getting them really don't need a +20 on the roll...but would find it handy to be able to ignore concealment once per day.

And since activating a magic item is a standard action, the usual True Strike limitation (no attack on the round it's activated, and only the first attack next round gets the bonus) still applies.

--
i figure there will be many days when they simply don't bother using it at all
ryan

 

[Thanee]

A bow of true strike (at will) costs something between 2k and 3k IIRC and is in Magic of Faerûn.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Plane Sailing]

Ring of Minor spell storing (18,000) and a friendly wizard to recharge it for you is a core rules way of allowing anyone to get hold of Truestrike.

 

[the Jester]

I think true strike is okay.

It's prolly best in the hands on an eldritch knight or barb/sorc type (who melees but boosts himself with his spells).

 

[JimAde]

A bow of true strike (at will) costs something between 2k and 3k IIRC and is in Magic of Faerûn.

Bye
Thanee

Do I understand this correctly? What is effectively a +20 (to hit only) bow is only 2000 or 3000 gold pieces? So if I outfit a squad of archers with these things, they can all hit a single target (say an enemy commander) reliably out to the bow's max range once a round. GADS! Plus it ignores concealment. Is that right?

 

[Darklone]

Yes, Magic of Faerun is sick.

And that EK first cleaves through the mooks and then with the last hit into the BBEG who would laugh about the Cloudkill.

 

[drnuncheon]

What is effectively a +20 (to hit only) bow is only 2000 or 3000 gold pieces? So if I outfit a squad of archers with these things, they can all hit a single target (say an enemy commander) reliably out to the bow's max range once a round.

Every other round - one round to activate the true strike, one round to attack.

And they all need to be sorcerers or wizards to have the spell on their list, or have plenty of ranks in Use Magic Device, as it's a spell trigger item.

So not quite as bad as it seems at first.

J

 

[CrimsonTemplar]

True Strike + Many Shot is the closest I've been able to come to a broken combo with that spell...and even that's not very over the top.

 

[Sejs]

Do I understand this correctly?

Bow of True Arrows is a spell trigger item. Like a wand - you need to have true strike on your spell list to be able to use that quality of the bow. So it's not just handing the bow off to some militia man and having him shoot the pips out of playing cards. It's handing it to a hireling wizard who knows how to use a bow, etc etc.

For the same 2000-3000gp per bow you could hire 28-42 mercenaries on constant retainer for a full year. Again, per bow.

 

[JimAde]

OK. That makes a difference. I thought it was a use-activation item. Still darn handy, but not quite as scary. Something like that would be really nasty in the hands of a mounted archer. There's an archer character in my campaign who has one level of sorcerer and loves True Strike for overcoming the penalty from firing from horseback.