This may not be AoW specific, but we're finishing up the Wispering Cairn and I've placed a Magic rod with the Red Lantern ad hoc last week. There hasn't been time to even detect magic.... so I've got a lot of lee way. I've got 8 players, so I've been having to 'level- up' all the encounter levels and treasure... I'm afraid I might have overextended the worth. I 've checked the DM guide and most rods are pretty expensive.
At any rate, since most of the players are new to 3E / 3.5 E D&D, my party wizards have been wowed with the new possibilities of spell/metamagic feats. My initial impulse was to create a rod that was a (lesser)'metamagic sampler' ( giving them a taste of the possibilities that they could explore as thier characters progress)- maybe allowing the rod holder to use silent spell, extend spell, enlarge spell, and empower spell each once per day; and maybe even one or two 'greater' feats like widen spell, and/or quicken spell once every three days. I know those greater feats especially will encrease the value of the rod ( a rod that can do the 'smaller' feats alone would be just a little over the DMG listing as a rod of any one feat ( useable 3 times a day) is worth 3000 gp. But the Rules for determining Rod (especially with the feat abilities as opposed to spell/spell-like abilities) worth are a little vague. I'm not too worried about one item exceeding the recomended wealth level by to much as with such a big party... it may be a few levels before I throw another really cool item at my arcane types to keep them intrigued.( BTW- all players are 2nd Level- and will be well past 3rd after the next game)
So, does anybody have any suggestions about the function of the Rod and what it's cost would be- or how to determin the cost of the above listed rod?
Thanks in advance for any help. I've been so impressed, comming back into the D&D fold and the community here has been a fantastic DM aid as far as jumping back into the deep end of DMing.
Also BTW- I'm thinking of calling the rod a 'Rod Of Spell Wierding' and tieing its creation /backstory into a priest of /or (arcane) follower of Wee Jas. I'm anticipating a few more weeks of time, though, to nail down the story as next week, the party will have its hands full with the Kullen and Filge encounters....