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Concise: One of my players wants to acquire a Ring of Forcefangs (8000 gp) which casts Empowered Maximised Magic Missiles with individual missile damage of constant 7.
I am alright with this - but how do I calculate a price for this thing?

Looking at the base item, it is already obvious that I cannot use Table: Estimating Magic Item Gold Piece Values to reproduce its whole price - because the ability to absorb force damage for charges is neither a spell (as far as I know) nor a non-spell ability listed in that table.
However, just as obviously, the cost for the spell part of the item has to be less than the total.

Spell level 1 times caster level 9 times command word activation 1800 makes 16200 - more than twice the full price.
Assuming charges were non-replaceable, multiply with 0,09 to arrive at 1458, which is ~18% of the full price.
Assuming Multiple different abilities, multiply with 1,5 to arrive at 2187 or ~27% of the full price.

Does that appear reasonable? If so, the modified item would have a price of:

- 5813 * 1,5 = 8719,5 gp price of absorptive ability
- (1 + 3 + 2) spell level * 11 caster level (assuming Wizard) * 1800 (command word) * 0,09 = 10692 gp price of magic missile
In total 19411,5 gp.

I am not sure whether this is still reasonable. It might be. Or mayhap not. Input appreciated.

I am also not sure how to use the table properly, assume e.g. an item with 6 charges per day - it is more expensive than one usable at will!? Yet nothing about that in the FAQ and nothing in the errata.
- This is relevant insofar, as that I tried to apply any seemingly cost-reducing effect to the magic missile, including this one (as rechargable charges - even though present in EVERY SINGLE staff - are unmentioned for reasons unknown) - but with 9 charges, the price would RISE: dividing by 5/9 is equal to multiplying with 9/5, which is larger than 1.
Again, input much appreciated.

It would seem to me that the effect of Deeper Darkness cannot be replicated by anyone including Word Caster Clerics.

The Gloom word has no Boost and the number of light levels reduced is not a variable. Even if it were, Empowering the spell would yield a reduction by 1.5 light levels - so effectively still 1.

Is this the case or did I miss something?
Are there other means (not limited to wordspells) to provide light level darkness - without obscuring sight in other ways such as by fog - in a reliable (ideally non-consumable) way?

This in part also belongs into the Rules Questions subforum, but I did not want to split the issue into parts (before acquiring some third-party thoughts on the whole thing), so please bear with me.

Sort of a follow-up on this old thread; did not earn much participation, but since then the tools have been upgraded and here I am again.

Race Building a Minotaur and failing abysmally.

After much tinkering with the Ability Scores I eventually faltered and decided to keep those for last.

Now, I have the following setup:

• 7 RP Large Size: +2 STR -2 DEX -1 AC -1 AB +1 CMB -4 Stealth
  
• 3 RP Monstrous Humanoid: Darkvision 12 sq.
  
• 4 RP All-Around Vision: +4 Perception, immune to flanking
  
• 0 RP Xenophobic: Language Giant
  
• 2 RP Natural Armor: +1 (natural) AC
  
• 3 RP Improved Natural Armor: +3 (natural, stacking) AC
  
• 1 RP Natural Attack: Gore (Horns) 1d6
  
• 1 RP Reach 10 sq.
  
• 2 RP Powerful Charge: Horns 2d6+1.5xSTR-Mod

Still missing:

• Immunity to being flat-footed
  
• +4 Survival
  
• Immunity vs. Maze spell

For the attributes, I still need

• +7 STR
  
• +2 DEX
  
• +5 CON

• -3 INT
  
• -2 CHA
  
• +1 Attribute Point from Hit Dice

I have drafted two methods to reproduce the Ability Scores from the Beastiary:

• +2 RP Flexible Racial Ability Mods +2 STR +2 CON
  +1 CON for 4 HD beyond the first
  15 10 12 7 10 8 point buy for Minotaur NPC
  
• -1 RP Weakness Racial Ability Mods +2 DEX +2 WIS -4 CHA
  +1 CHA for 4 HD beyond the first
  17 10 15 7 8 11 point buy for heroic Minotaur NPC

Skill points and number of feats seem to add up trivially at least.

--

Now, I have a few problems with the results of this approach, which I am not too sure how to tackle:

• This is "just" a minotaur, yet with >20 points to be treated like an elder dragon (or god).
  
• There are no racial traits to close the gap between Beastiary Minotaur and this one (see "Still missing" above).

I wonder whether the immunity to being flat-footed (vs. weaker immunity against being flanked) is a mistake in the Beastiary.
... Granted, usually effects state explicitely that DEX-Bonus is lost, without mentioning being flat-footed, so the actual outcome may be more similar than is obvious ().

Why is the worse choice (Xenophobic vs. Standard; both 0 RP) not cheaper!? For PCs loss of Common language is a real downgrade.

Why is there no +Survival trait and neither a +<any skill> trait?

As Large Size does only what I listed up there, and all usual benefits (reach, physical attributes) have to be added separately, what makes it so expensive!? It adds downsides such as increased chance of Obstacles and Squeezing (added Difficult Terrain; -4 AC, possible loss of DEX bonus) or more expensive items; and all benefits (but added height, and thence "reach" upwards; but then height is not actually mentioned, so this could be considered house rule already) cost extra!?

The Minotaur (the Beastiary entry would correspond to a lvl 6 PC) does not seem strong enough to warrant this cost... I had hoped to stay Advanced with one point to spare for custom Weapon Familiarity (Fluff, all the fluff!), but it looks as if it would have to go a lot past Monstrous - and mainly due to its size: Dropping only that and Reach I gain !!8 points!! and therefore could boost the attributes beyond the Beastiary entry without becoming monstrous.
- No surprise then, that searching the internet has unearthed a plethora of medium sized custom Minotaur builds but not a single appropriately large sized one.

I guess at whole, I am not convinced that this Race Builder thingy is actually a functional tool. See:
"This is the race's creature type. A race's creature type is similar to the corresponding creature type, with a few important differences. The first difference is that each race type assumes members of the race are roughly humanoid in shape and have two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. This is important so that a race can take advantage of all the various magic item slots available to characters and can utilize the standard weapon and armor options."
So, quite obviously I should not even try to build a Sphinx, huh?
Because it has no arms and this should somehow correspond with reduced RP value (so that can be spent to somehow reach the godlike abiliy scores).

Any input is appreciated (well, apart from "you cannot do that", I guess; had that the last time and unsurprisingly it did not help).

Example with "Large":

Table:Size in Beastiary\Monster Creation lists base attribute values as
18 8 14
for a size modifier of +8 -2 +4.

Size Quality in Advanced Race Guide\Core Races lists the size modifiers as
+2 -2 0

Example with "Small":

6 12 8 -> -4 +2 -2
vs.
0 0 0

Now, if they would at least have the same sum, but there they differ too with +10 vs. 0 / -4 vs. 0.

I had planned to use the Race Builder as a means to transform a static monster into a leveled race (ex.: "Sphinx" monster -> "Sphinx" race + 12 levels of "Sphinx" class now calculable as difference), but if the not-race modifiers are context sensitive...

Furthermore, if this context sensitivity is accepted, how would one find out the proper modifiers for the other size categories? "Tiny" is listed as well, with -8 +4 -2 vs. -2 +2 0, but that was it.
So, from smallest to largest:
-09 +8 -02 vs. ST DE CO
-09 +6 -02 vs. ST DE CO
-08 +4 -02 vs. -2 +2 00
-04 +2 -02 vs. 00 00 00
<< Medium >>
+08 -2 +04 vs. +2 -2 00
+16 -4 +08 vs. ST DE CO
+24 -4 +12 vs. ST DE CO
+32 -4 +16 vs. ST DE CO

I see no simple solution.
Though I would very much prefer size modifiers to be simply context independent.

... Before the Advances Race Guide came up, I had not been aware of this schism, as all races were either "Medium" - modifier free; or "Small" and there they have
-2 0 +2
and
-2 +2 0
so I simply assumed the racial attribute modifiers would be
+2 0 +4
and
+2 +2 +2
for a total of +8 (with the regular +2 CH) versus the +2 of the other choices.
Mayhap I should just stay with this assumption?