So my grieving character is trying to hit two birds with one stone with an item working as follows:
Soul Mirror
From afar thi seems to be just a normal mirror, however on closer inspection the image it display is twisted by the onlookers feelings - his desires, worries, his love and hate, his happiness and his sadness. The mirror also produces a feedback of the same thoughts and pushes them back into the viewers mind as if by a wordless suggestion spell.
In a way this could be viewed as a curse as the amplified feelings could lead a depressed mind to suicide or captivate a vain person for as long as his body manages to keep his obsessed mind watching.
The feedback effect doe not work on felines, as if it was supposed to only draw negative feelings out of the mirrors creator and his kind, but fails to disperse them for others.
So my initial thoughts were of course - create wondrous item, silent image, detect thoughts and suggestion. But what about the base price and thus the cost to make it? Would it actually require me to go low, maybe even into negatives if possible, on the skill check to create the thing, since it could in some context be viewed as an effectively cursed item?
P.S.: the genesis for the need for such an item is two motives:
- my catty character just lost a friend he had a sort of constant telepathic connection with, now he's very sad and depressed and wants to throw these feelings out of his mind somehow..but the party is evil to boot so no psychologist nor tap on the shoulder is comming up. The character likes tinkering with all sorts of stuff so maybe that would help get things off his mind
- the party obtained an artifact swelling with soul power and is supposed to use it somehow to implant evil feelings into the local populace - ambitions, greed that sort of stuff - so that people are easier swayed into the worship of Asmodeus. When the artifact is open it makes quite a noise, spiritually speaking. Thus I thought of channeling the stream of souls through the mirror and back, with one of the evil party members feeding the mirror with his own evil thus infecting the flow and sending out a malicious soul-echo to everyone in the area of effect.
I think Sow Thought would be more appropriate than Suggestion. Also add Bestow Curse. It would not be a failed magic item that is cursed, but rather a normal magic item that curses any who are not catty. The curse would be to be susceptible to its effects [i.e. increased DC to save against] and to be unrestrained emotionally to the sown thoughts.
The spells for a CL5 item would be:
Bestow Curse (3rd) perm -> at will -> 3*5*1800*150% = 40,500
Detect Thoughts (2nd) 1m/l -> Cost*2 -> 2*5*2000*2 = 40,000
Silent Image (1st) con -> at will -> 1*5*1800*150% = 13,500
Sow Thought (1st) perm -> at will -> 1*5*1800*150% = 13,500
Total = 107,500 gp
Note Suggestion lasts 1 hour per level, but Bestow Curse and Sow Thought are permanent.
I chose a continuous duration on Detect Thoughts, since I felt it needed something to start the other effects. Essentially, Detect Thoughts triggers Silent Image and Bestow Curse, which is then followed by Sow Thoughts.
While in the range of Detect Thoughts (60'), a DC 11 Will must be made each round until failed. At this point, the mirror's primary power comes online. Bestow Curse is DC 14 will to negate, and Silent Image is DC 11 to disbelieve. I would give the disbelief a -2 penalty because it is so expected. [I.e. DC 11 -> 13.] Or I would require a stated interaction to get the regular save. You might also increase the save vs. the Sow Thoughts by 2 [to DC 13] because of how close they are to what is already there. The curse, if the save is failed increases the Sow Thoughts save DC by 6, making it much harder to resist. Yet if they make the curse save they might still fail the Sow Thoughts save anyway.
If 60' is too much, go with the range of Close from the Sow Thoughts spell. I.e. 5th level -> 35'. While the Bestow Curse is touch, I think we can hand-wave that to Close or 60' since the spell only affects a single save, so its gain of power from the range if offset by the limited effect.
/cevah