As I understand it from reading the chapter about crafting staffs (p. 552 Core) you are able to put any spells you want in a staff, the cost just goes up.
But at the end of the section on Staffs, there is a paragraph about there being additional cost for specific staffs.
My quistion is this then, are you able to craft a staff with spells of your choosing or are you limited to the specific ones listed in the magic items chapter?
You can indeed craft your own staves based on the math. Those are there simply for example.
+1
What about adding a spell to be used at will?
I have not been able to find how to calculate the cost for this. Any help?
What about adding a spell to be used at will?
I have not been able to find how to calculate the cost for this. Any help?
Generally, you look for something that does the thing you want (or similar) and base the pricing on that. Failing that, you look at the magic item creation rules and generate a price for the item you want. Then, adding that power to a staff is generally 150% the cost of the item you just priced.
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What about adding a spell to be used at will?
I have not been able to find how to calculate the cost for this. Any help?
Did you really need to disturb this thread? It had been peacefully resting for just over a decade...
As for your question:
- First off, you are talking about a custom magic item, so only your GM's opinions really matter.
- Due to their unique mechanics, there are no official rules for 'at will' staves.
- There are rules/guidelines for magic items that cast spells 'at will' (as noted by Omnimage above) but such a spell would use the normal magic item rules (minimum DC for the spell, caster level fixed at time of creation, no bonuses from anything the user has) rather than the staff rules.
- All custom magic item 'rules' are really just guidelines for your GM to use when determining the appropriate price: Some spells 'break' this system and need to be priced based on the actual effect.
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What about adding a spell to be used at will?
I have not been able to find how to calculate the cost for this. Any help?
Understanding that we are talking about a custom item with no explicit guidelines and there is a lot of art rather than science involved:
I would break it into two pieces. First the regular 10-charge staff. Price it as normal. Second, add an at-will command-word activated spell to an existing magic item (the staff). The price for the second part is
Spell level x caster level (staff CL or minimum for spell, whichever is higher) x 1,800 (command word) x 1.5 (adding multiple abilities to a magic item)
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I found my notes. One of the few examples of a staff at will uses of a spell is the staff of the woodlands.
These staff spells cost at total of 58066.67 gp:
Charm animal (1 charge)
Speak with animals (1 charge)
Barkskin (2 charges)
Summon nature’s ally VI (3 charges)
Wall of thorns (3 charges)
Animate plants (4 charges)Since it functions like a +2 quarterstaff, I'm assuming its a double weapon. 2 * 8000 gp (enhancment) + 2 * 300 gp (masterwork weapons). Total: 16600 gp.
The at will spell, pass without trace, is worth 26000 gp. 1 (spell level) * 13 (caster level) * 2000 gp. Like the other staff spells, it uses the same caster level as the other spell.
When you add it all together, it comes to 100666.67 gp, which is about 266.67 over the market price. Maybe someone forgot 1 masterwork weapon head and rounded.
It should be noted that Pass Without Trace is fairly pointless spell by the time you can afford a 100k staff, so they probably didn't worry about the specific pricing formula: Scaling Magic Missile or Fireball at will on a low level staff would presumably be an entirely different situation...