Please tell me what you think. Balanced? Broken? Cool? Lame?
.
.
.
EATH OMB
Aura strong necromancy; CL 20th
Slot n/a; Weight 5 lb.; Price 6,500gp
When tossed to the ground, this desecrated humanoid skull explodes in a blast of necromantic energy, consuming it and instantly snuffing out the lives of every living creature nearby. Every living creature of 8 HD or fewer within a 40 foot radius must make a Fortitude save (DC 20) or die instantly, up to a maximum of 80 HD worth of creatures. Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first; among creatures with equal HD, those who are closest to the burst's point of origin are affected first. HD that are not sufficient to affect a creature are wasted. This is a necromantic death effect.
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Maximize Spell, circle of death; Cost 3,500gp
Simple. Effective. Terrifying.
EDIT:
Aahhahahahahahhahaa
That is very very cool.
I like it!!!! I may steal it and have my BBEG catapult them at the players, maybe even give one or two of them to her Juju Zombie minion to toss around during combat, since she couldn't use them in close spaces since she's not undead
the cost seems a bit on the low side, or the effect is just too good for a 1 use item. I like the effect however and would introduce as a minor artifact in my campaign.
So the idea is that we take this 5 lb skull, and love it accurately over 40 feet away? :-)
Or are these like... Griffon dropped bombs.
Interesting.
I would suggest lowering the radius to 20 feet or even 10 feet. This would be sufficient to be throw able, and still kill many things.
My worry is about the death save. Aren't we supposed to get away from that? What about just doing lots of hit points damage instead. Say, 80 damage with a maximum of 8 creatures per blast?
Broken at that price. Very broken.
To compare:
A Scroll of Circle of Death made at 20th Caster level costs 3500 GP. That allows a caster of the appropriate level and class one use of the spell.
For less than twice that cost you allow anyone, of any level to use the spell, maximised, once.
If I were pricing this I would do it as a use activated item with one charge and base it on a ninth level spell (Maximised Circle of Death).
The cost would be 10000 GP (Adding in the gem requirement and then doubling it for sale cost) and the save would be 19 not 20 (as it is a 6th level spell which requires a minimum 16 stat to cast, ergo a +3 which is the proper default save value for magic items).
Even at 10K per use, that is extremely cheap to kill up to 10, 8 HD creatures, or even more lower level ones. I would probaly increase the cost to 15K to be safe.
I started with the standard magic item creation values for a single use, use activated item.
50 x 20 (caster level) x 9 (effective spell level) + 500 (material component) = 9,500gp market price, 5,000gp cost
...
Huh? Obviously, I screwed up my math somewhere, or perhaps I inverted the 9...
No more 3am magic items for me! :P
EATH OMB
Aura strong necromancy; CL 20th
Slot n/a; Weight 5 lb.; Price 9,500gp
When tossed to the ground (a standard action), this desecrated humanoid skull explodes in a blast of necromantic energy, consuming it and instantly snuffing out the lives of every living creature nearby. Every living creature of 8 HD or fewer within a 40 foot radius must make a Fortitude save (DC 20) or die instantly, up to a maximum of 80 HD worth of creatures. Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first; among creatures with equal HD, those who are closest to the burst's point of origin are affected first. HD that are not sufficient to affect a creature are wasted. This is a necromantic death effect.
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Maximize Spell, circle of death; Cost 5,000gp
That sound better to some of you guys?
EDIT: It's not really meant to be thrown. It's meant to be used up close and personal, generally by those who would unaffected by it (constructs, undead, 9+ HD creatures). It could also be used as an aerial bomb, as described by Cheapy. If I were to add a throwing range to it, I would probably base it off that of a necklace of fireballs (~70 ft.).