In discussing magic rings in another thread, I mentioned the ring of Solomon, specifically citing its description in the old Estonian fairytale "The Dragon of the North."
Admittedly, the ring is an artifact so shouldn't be up for PC creation, but some of the related features would be interesting for creation of other magic rings. To explain:
The Dragon of the North wrote: She answered, 'No mortal is able entirely to understand the power of this ring, because no one thoroughly understands the secret signs engraved upon it. But even with my half-knowledge I can work great wonders. If I put the ring upon the little finger of my left hand, then I can fly like a bird through the air wherever I wish to go. If I put it on the third finger of my left hand I am invisible, and I can see everything that passes around me, though no one can see me. If I put the ring upon the middle finger of my left hand, then neither fire nor water nor any sharp weapon can hurt me. If I put it on the forefinger of my left hand, then I can with its help produce whatever I wish. I can in a single moment build houses or anything I desire. Finally, as long as I wear the ring on the thumb of my left hand, that hand is so strong that it can break down rocks and walls. Besides these, the ring has other secret signs which, as I said, no one can understand. No doubt it contains secrets of great importance. The ring formerly belonged to King Solomon, the wisest of kings, during whose reign the wisest men lived. But it is not known whether this ring was ever made by mortal hands: it is supposed that an angel gave it to the wise King.' So, basically, what we're looking at is a ring that can be switched from Invisibility to Flight to Endure Elements mixed with invulnerability to edged weapons to True Creation to some variety of insane Strength bonus, but not all at the same time.
The "but not all at the same time" is the interesting part. I've seen it done with another magic ring in Grania Davis's "The Blessed/Damned Thornston Emerald" and obviously a similar thing is done with the old standby the Rod of Lordly Might.
Question for the fellow DM/GM's out there: What sort of discount would there be for a ring that changed its functionality depending on what finger you wore it on? Obviously it's not as useful as a ring that can have all of its powers active at once, but it's also an elegant solution to the trouble of high level wizards taking out a jewelry box in the middle of combat and swapping rings. Just taking a ring and swapping it from finger to finger to go from Flight to Invisibility is cool, and not as abusive as getting to do both.
Pay for the most expensive item normally, then do the others as additional item, but don't include the 1.5 modifier, then apply a 10% discount, maybe?
Just a suggestion, and seems reasonable way to price it to me.
They should be reduced in cost for that, from most expensive to cheapest probably 100%, 80%, 60%, 50%, not dropping lower than 50%.
Some powers might fall outside of this since being part of another item is not a big deal, if True Creation takes a minute to activate it should not be of much use in much of the same situations (combat) and should not get a free discount.
So function 1: Flight, pretty basic
function 2: Invisibility + perception bonus? true seeing? depends on how you read it.
function 3: stoneskin + endure elements would likely cover that.
function 4: true creation sounds right. Maybe Major creation similar to the lyre of building? (significant cost increase for no use limit and no skill requirement)
function 5: One of several things could cover this. Beefed up ring of the ram, touch-based disintegrate, or function as belt of strength +4 and provide smasher ability, per the rage power.
If I were going to implement this I'd treat it as a staff with multiple powers, and probably do some sort of use/day or charge limit on it.
Kevin Andrew Murphy wrote: In discussing magic rings in another thread, I mentioned the ring of Solomon, specifically citing its description in the old Estonian fairytale "The Dragon of the North."
Admittedly, the ring is an artifact so shouldn't be up for PC creation, but some of the related features would be interesting for creation of other magic rings. To explain:
The Dragon of the North wrote: She answered, 'No mortal is able entirely to understand the power of this ring, because no one thoroughly understands the secret signs engraved upon it. But even with my half-knowledge I can work great wonders. If I put the ring upon the little finger of my left hand, then I can fly like a bird through the air wherever I wish to go. If I put it on the third finger of my left hand I am invisible, and I can see everything that passes around me, though no one can see me. If I put the ring upon the middle finger of my left hand, then neither fire nor water nor any sharp weapon can hurt me. If I put it on the forefinger of my left hand, then I can with its help produce whatever I wish. I can in a single moment build houses or anything I desire. Finally, as long as I wear the ring on the thumb of my left hand, that hand is so strong that it can break down rocks and walls. Besides these, the ring has other secret signs which, as I said, no one can understand. No doubt it contains secrets of great importance. The ring formerly belonged to King Solomon, the wisest of kings, during whose reign the wisest men lived. But it is not known whether this ring was ever made by mortal hands: it is supposed that an angel gave it to the wise King.' So, basically, what we're looking at is a ring that can be switched from Invisibility to Flight to Endure Elements mixed with invulnerability to edged weapons to True Creation to some variety of insane Strength bonus, but not all at the same time.
The "but not all at the same time" is the interesting part. I've seen it done with another magic...
I agree that this item should have all or mostly high-powered enchantments but discounted, and considered an artifact (due to power and its uniqueness of function).
The spells replicated, however, I think should be different than what you suggest.
Regular Invisibility is fine, but perhaps consider Improved Invisibility (due to its artifact status) instead.
The ring also seemed to provide flight as a bird, so it would probably be a Beast Shape I (or maybe II) restricted to bird forms instead of any fly spell or such.
The invulnerability would seem to me to be Fire Resistance 30 and Cold Resistance 30 (as an approximation), and DR 15/Bludgeoning.
The creation ability seems like it would fit Major Creation + Fabricate except that you should factor in some sensible limit on the Major Creation, and the items produced have a permanent duration except for the valuable items, which have an expanded duration (maybe 1 hour). Maybe modify the chart on Major Creation so that instead of duration you have volume limits as well as value limits.
Lastly, I think the Stone Fist spell (just for the relevant effect, not that the ring actually makes it stone, but to replicate the hardness given to your hand) combined with Bull's Strength (just as the spell component - obviously the strength effect is much higher), and determine what your STR score should be set to. Maybe a 25 or so (and if you're already at 25, a +6 bonus). That, or as someone said, a boosted ring of the ram effect.
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