Are there any magic items that will let you Detect Magic at-will?

Trying to figure out a relatively inexpensive way to let my Alchemist Detect Magic at-will so that his Spellcraft can actually be useful. Thanks.

There aren't any published in any books, but using the magic item creation rules an item that lets you cast a CL 1 detect magic at-will should cost 900 gp. You're out of luck for PFS, but in a home game you could talk to your GM about it.

EDIT: Actually, I'm wrong. There are a few, but they're pretty expensive and two of them take up body slots.
Rod of Alertness
Lenses of Situational Sight
Cloak of the Hedge Wizard

Or don't waste any slots and cast Permanency on yourself at 9th level.

A spell hit with permanency can get dispelled later, and as a result of a single caster level check 2,500 gp is totally wasted.

If he's doing affects on himself that enemies want to dispel. Items can always be lost or broken.

I'm not so sure about the 900gp. The guidelines aren't always accurate, and I can't see any reason that a slotless item should cost less than a dispelable, permanent spell.

A slotless item of Detect Magic, it would seem, should cost at least 2,500gp and 1,250gp for a slotted one.

Now that I think about it, there's almost no difference between a command word item and a continuous item. The standard action to active is functionally the same as the standard action to concentrate. I wonder if that should affect the price.

A command word item would require you to retrieve the item and activate it, while a constant item would simply allow you to concentrate on the effect whenever you wanted information.

Honestly, the permanency cost is dramatically higher than detect magic should be valued at, in addition to being extremely vulnerable to loss (for example, collateral damage from a greater dispel magic). Take the Cloak of the Hedge Wizard up there, the Divination version costs 2,500 gp like you'd suggest for a slotted item but also gives you 1/day detect secret doors, 1/day true strike, and at-will prestidigitation as well.

Remember that since you want it at-will, it becomes Use-Activated (which also falls under Continuous). When crafting a magic item, a spell's duration multiplies the cost. Since it's a minute/level duration, the total cost is doubled.

So we take 2(2(2,000*0.5*1)) as our equation.

Without that outer 2, the cost would be 2,000 for a slotted item, With the outer 2, the cost would be 4,000 for a slotless version.

Seems balanced enough to me.

It looks like there's a way to Detect Magic using prestige points to add Discerning to a Wayfinder from the Pathfinder Society Primer. Thanks all.

It's also a cantrip, a zero level spell which makes any spell level costs half that of a 1st level spell where magic item creation is concerned. If I was going to make anything permanent (with the attendant risk of getting dispelled) I'd go with Arcane Sight (I did in fact do just that on my Loremaster). Note that the permanent version of either Detect Magic or Arcane Sight may only be Dispelled by a caster of higher level. While BBEG boss types tend to be just that (higher level) it does mean that his Lts and the minions etc. most likely can not get lucky and do so with a 'lucky roll'. I'd also say, in general, the BBEG is likely not targeting Detect Magic specifically. You've presumably got several much more 'irritating' buffs running of higher level he might target or he's got several higher level spells to check/dispel prior to getting to your Detect Magic reducing the risk of it getting randomly dispelled (And that would be one advantage of Detect Magic vs the higher level Arcane Sight).

It looks like there's a way to Detect Magic using prestige points to add Discerning to a Wayfinder from the Pathfinder Society Primer. Thanks all.

Is there a GP cost given? Doesn't seem to be on any of the SRDs.

No, it's just a Prestige Point cost for use in Pathfinder Society, but I need this for my PFS Alchemist, anyway.

Wow, that cloak of the hedge wizard is amazing. True strike once per day, usable by anybody? The rest is icing. I may have to get one for my gunslinger for those rare occasions when he doesn't auto-hit (like a combat maneuver).

I see that nobody has mentioned the staff of the magi, so far. Of course, it's an artifact, so most people ignore it, but it's there and doesn't have a gp cost...

shaxberd wrote:

It looks like there's a way to Detect Magic using prestige points to add Discerning to a Wayfinder from the Pathfinder Society Primer. Thanks all.

Is there a GP cost given? Doesn't seem to be on any of the SRDs.

You have to already have the Wayfinder, so there's the gp cost of buying that. Other than that, it's just the 5PP. It's found in the Pathfinder Society Primer.

There are also the Runeward Tattoos from the new Magical Marketplace book. They are 1000 gold a piece, each keyed to a different school. They allow you to detect at will for that school only, gaina +1 on saves for that school, and you automatically sense spells cast of that school within 60 ft. Sure, you take longer to cycle through each school detecting, but the auto sense spells is pretty awesome.