very confused about enchanting items


Advice


I've been looking for a while but cannot get an answer I fully understand.

How do you figure out costs to enchant/upgrade armor and weapons?

To upgrade a masterwork weapon to a +1 magic weapon is 2,000 gold right?
how much is it to add an enchantment to that weapon? I see things that say "+1 bonus", so does that mean another 2,000 gold on top (and requiring enough fame to pay for the entire 4,300+ cost)?

A more specific example is: how do I make my mwk light steel alchemical silver shield a bashing shield? 1,000 for a +1(for armor) and then another 1,000gp for the enchantment (bc it's +1 bonus cost)?

thank you for any help

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

When the cost of an enchantment is listed as a bonus equivalent (such as flaming having a price of "+1 bonus"), you price it according to how the weapon would end up.

For instance, if the final goal is a +2 flaming scimitar, then you look and see that flaming is a +1 equivalent, so for pricing purposes your sword is going to be a +3 weapon: +2 of actual enhancements, plus the +1-equivalent, for a total of +3.

Then you look at the price chart and see what the price of a +3 weapon is: 18,000gp (plus the cost of the masterwork weapon). If you were starting with a +1 weapon (priced at 2,000gp and change), you'd be paying the difference to upgrade: 16,000gp.

Hope that helps.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

The cost to upgrade a weapon is the difference between the cost of the item now, and the cost that it would be if you bought the item fully enchanted.

If dealing with just enhancement bonuses (or enchantments with '+X bonus' equivalents), the total cost of a weapon is (Bonus Squared * 2000) + <base cost> + 300 <Masterwork>. Armor is less expensive at (Bonus Squared * 1000) + <base cost> + 150 <Masterwork>.

For example, a +1 shortsword costs 2310 gold. (1 * 2000) + 300 + 10.
A +2 shortsword costs 8310. (4 [2 squared] * 2000) + 300 + 10.
A +3 shortsword costs 18310. (9 [3 squared] * 2000) + 300 + 10.

So if you have an enchantment with a +1 bonus and you add it while your sword is +1, it will cost 6000 gold to upgrade. If you add it while your shortswort is +2, then it will cose 10,000 gold to upgrade.

Armor/shields work similarly, with slightly lower cost.

So a +1 light steel shield (not including all the silver cost adjustments) is 1159. (1 * 1000) + 150 + 9
A +2 equivalent shield (like your bashing shield) would cost 4159. (4 [2 squared] * 1000) + 150 + 9.

Hopefully that helps.

Sczarni

Page 23 of the new Guide to Organized Play also describes costs of upgrading items in Society.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / very confused about enchanting items All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Advice