Greetings,
I'm designing a custom magic weapon for my home brew game with some special qualities. It's a basic +1 rapier weapon but I would like for it to also mimic the ability granted by the Anatomist Trait. i.e. +1 trait bonus to confirm critical hits, but not stack if the wielder already has this trait. Pricing out the +1 rapier is straightforward, but how much would the +1 crit confirmation cost? 5k, more, less?
There was some discussion in another thread about the price of magic items that grant feats, such as the Scarlet and Green Cabochon Ioun Stone. If traits are considered 1/2 a feat then 4k might be a reasonable price. But considering the utility of a low crit range weapon with this feature I'm thinking 5k would be a better price point to add Anatomist as a weapon quality.
Thoughts?
5k seems reasonable, maybe a bit too much even. Normally, a +1 enhancement weapon bonus would cost 2k. This is a trait bonus instead of the usual enhancement bonus, so increase that x2.5 to 5k. However, it's just a 'to hit' bonus (no damage bonus), so reduce it to 3k. Now, it only processes, at best, 30% of the time (expanded crit range on an 18-20 weapon), and usually much less than that, ~10%. But let's stick with the maximum benefit, which would reduce the cost to ~1k.
I would set 1k as the lowest price, and 5k as the highest price. Whatever you feel comfortable with within that range.
Hmm... you don't want to go too far on making the effects of feats and traits available through magic items, but that's probably in the right range. It's always best to compare to existing items for prices, and The Lymirin Discourses from Wrath of the Righteous offers an option for a +4 sacred bonus to confirm at 15,000 GP (admittedly just with longswords, but still) - with a bunch of other options the player can select, too. There aren't actually very many items that deal with confirming criticals, so with that as the precedent, 5k seems reasonable to me for pricing. Might be a bit high, but then, you're putting it on a crit-focused weapon to begin with (which makes it more useful, and thus more valuable).
Well, if you go by normal scaling, +1 to +4 is a scaling of x16, so 15k/16 ~ 1k.
Crit confirmation is devalued from normal bonuses by the crit chance, which maxes out at 30%, so ~1/3.
5k seems a bit high, since 8k all told gets you a +1 rapier with the "Training" enhancement granting the Critical Focus feat, which is +4 to confirm.
Now this isn't a 1:1 comparison since you'd need BAB +9 to use Critical Focus, and this occupies an enhancement slot.
Maybe since a 6k difference gets you a feat, and a trait is half a feat price it at 3k?
Thanks for the feedback. I agree with GM Rednal on not going too far with feat/trait effects. Glad to know that I'm in the ballpark in terms of consensus. After reading all the comments thus far, I am leaning toward the 3-4k range, and will likely split the difference at 3.5k.
I would price it a little too high to start with until you get a better feel. It is easier to reduce a price than increase it.
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