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It's possible this belongs somewhere else, but is there a way to create a magic item that creates snow? I am not talking about a snowstorm, just a fistful of snow. I would like to do this without a houserule to create a new spell. I would like to know what spell to base it off of. I would also like to find a price estimate, and how one would arrive at said price. Any ideas?
It's possible this belongs somewhere else, but is there a way to create a magic item that creates snow? I am not talking about a snowstorm, just a fistful of snow. I would like to do this without a houserule to create a new spell. I would like to know what spell to base it off of. I would also like to find a price estimate, and how one would arrive at said price. Any ideas?
Ray of Frost + Create Water.
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Could such a combo be made into swift action with said item? How would I determine the cost of a two spell combo such as that? Magic item creation rules always seemed a bit hazy to me. This seems like a relatively weak item, so I expect the cost to be low, but what magic item would I compare it to judge it's power and cost?
Creating a handful of snow that lasts for a few minutes to an hour would fall under Prestidigitation in my opinion. So making a magic item would be based on the 0 lvl spell dependant on number of uses per day.
I'd say Prestidigitation would cover that neatly. It lets you chill your beer or conjure a tissue paper rose so conjuring a snowball isn't a hard stretch. I'd make the magic item a pair of mittens knit with a snowflake pattern, probably made as a gift for some rich person's child. Comparing the usefulness to similar items, I'd price them at 500 GP and leave it at that.
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That seems very reasonable, I just would like to know how I would come to that conclusion. My DM has OK'd the item in concept, he just wants details on spells used, price, and how I came to determine these using the magic item creation rules within the core. This is where I seem to come up a bit short.
You don't necessarily need an exact spell to duplicate. The most important thing is to have an equivelant spell level effect. In this case it is a level 0 spell effect. Prestidigitation, create water, ray of frost are all easily comparable. I would actually argue that with the exception of Prestidigitation, "Create Snowball" is less useful than other 0 level spells. I would have no problem with creating magically creating an otherwise mundane (melts in heat etc) snowball as a swift action.
If the swift action part is an issue just make something, a mug or shoulders come to mind, that continually makes snow with no action on your part.
Its a very basic thing. I wouldnt sweat it.
Important question, what is snowcasting?
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The area of concern, is that the snow is intended to be a spell component. This is why said DM is asking for such details. I could not base it off of prestidigitation, for the spell itself notes that it cannot be used as a spell component. This relatively mundane magic item seems to much to be so detail focused, but is vital to the entire character concept I have in mind. My DM is at times a real stickler for rules, so to avoid a complete loss, I must be rather detailed. I have thought of using the create ice spell as a base (0-level cantrip) but am not sure where to go from there.
As a way to permanently get around restrictions of an ability, not so much, since Prestidigitation objects don't count for spell components.
So, instead, a localized control weather based spell would start at 7x12x2000x.5 = 84000gp, restricted to snow only in a greatly restricted area could discount it, so anywhere from 8400-42000 per DM fiat, and that's assuming it takes up an item slot, double it otherwise.
If it is a spell component, you could use eschew materials, couldn't you?
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That is very expensive, but if I can compare it to a existing item of similar power, than I guess it must be as so. This would indeed kill the concept, but if that is the relative level of power for said item, then I must accept it. I would like to find a way to make a less expensive item, but if no way within rules exist then I fear must wait for it to exist. I still believe it can be done cheaper though.
Snowcasting is a feat from Frostburn that allows one to add a fistful of snow as a spell component to a spell to add the cold descriptor.
Instead of this circuitous snowball generation magic... why not just carry a thermos full of snow?
You still drink water right? Take water, cast that cantrip ray of frost, freeze the water into ice, hit with a hammer a few times, use promptly in preparing spells. Keep unused snow in thermos while working.
Other cheapness: just get eschew materials. Unless you're from a desert I'm pretty certain snow is cheap. Bada bing.
The wizard must make a ranged touch attack to do 1 subdual damage to their target of choice.
+1 for making a new spell. I mean, it even says specifically that a wizard can create new spells (which is awesome)
But I have to say, I'm pretty sure your armor would help against a snowball.
All better ideas. I have a knee-jerk hostile reaction towards attempts to sneak around restrictions, especially by use of leading chains of questions starting from innocent to game-breaking. Blame it on displaced frustration.
You know, I had a character in another game who did snowcasting. He got around the need to find snow by getting a Handy Haversack (1000 GP) and having it additionally enchanted with Gentle Repose so that items stored in it stayed fresh and didn't decay and moreover maintained their original temperature when they were taken out. Hot meals placed inside came out hot and fresh when taken out again. Cold drinks came out cold, and one of the side pockets was loaded up with fresh snow for use in snow casting.
Going by the rules, putting an extra enchantment on a storage bag to make it a stay-fresh thermos is no biggie and would calculate out to it being 1500 GP instead of the regular 1000. Heck, if you threw in a Prestidigitation on top of it, you could get something like 1750 GP for a backpack that would let you chill beer and warm pizza.
Alternately, you could say that extradimensional spaces are perfectly insulated anyway. There's nowhere for heat to dissipate from or to, so if you packed any bag of holding, portable hole or handy haversack with snow, it shouldn't melt since there's no source of heat to melt it.
Or you could take Improved Familiar and get an ice mephit and have it make snow for you when you wanted.
I have wondered if a frost, icy burst, or cold energy wpn will meet the requirements for snow casting?