A while back I asked what people wanted out of a magic item system, but that didn't get many responses.
This time, I want to ask something different. If you assume that the current system is fairly well balanced, but somewhat incomplete, what would you change or add to make it more usable?
I'll give a few examples:
- I think that a line stating that the first part of the table should be used when applicable. Then a sword of use-activated truestrike would be priced as a +20 to-hit sword (splitting to-hit and damage would be another useful addition).
- It mentions that the price can be adjusted up or down from the resulting value based on "usefulness". That's extremely vague and very campaign dependent. It'd be nice if some common variations were cataloged (changing a use-activated item to a swift action, or requiring a 24-hour attunement period, etc.).
- Adding a list of what classes are the most likely crafters, and thus the price setters, would help prevent price changes when new products were released. (Though that wouldn't be strictly an addition.)
The book already says they are only guidelines.
You can't really catalogue them because a campaign can be very different depending on the rules, and playstyle involved. It is better left to the GM. I know all GM's are not capable of such adjustments, but it is what it is.
There is a rule for which classes are price setters also.
I know that you can't catalog everything, but there are some very common effects/adjustments/enhancements/limitations applied to magic items. At least some of these are fairly campaign neutral. The two I mentioned for example.
Also, the current rule for price setters is whatever's cheapest, which changes whenever a new class or archetype gets a spell at an earlier level than the old price setter. I know that's not that often, but it's happened a couple times already.
Also, like I said, this whole thread is assuming that those guidelines are already pretty good. If you don't agree with that assumption, then this is probably the wrong thread for you. ;)
For pricing in my game I just use the cleric, wizard, or druid prices. Between those 3 you generally get access to any spell anyway, and even if a new class comes in the price stays constant.
As for adjusting the price up or down that depends on how specific you want to be. I will have to let others handle that one since I would require near perfection in order to feel right about it if using set numbers.
Perfection's not terribly important. Most systems would round to the nearest 5% or so, and a lot of items get rounded to a nice number in the end anyway. Modifiers that exist on items in the book can potentially be reverse engineered, but I don't really have time to hunt things down right now.
Ok. The only items I see with an attunement period are the attribute belts and headbands. For these items, it just uses the bonus squared * 1000 with no further adjustment. Not terribly helpful for reverse engineering it for more general use.
The Boots of Speed upgrade haste to a free action though. It costs 12,000. It looks like it's one casting of haste at CL 10 split into individual rounds. That'd be 3 * 10 * 2000 / 5 or exactly 12,000 gp, so no modifier there. I suppose it comes free with splitting the duration into rounds (which makes some sense).
So existing items aren't terribly helpful here. Maybe an example item would be better.
Let's take an amulet of CLW 1/day. That'd normally be 1 * 1 * 2000 / 5 or 400 gp, and it'd take a standard action to use. One that only took a swift action would obviously be more useful, but how much more. Would you charge 450 gp? 500 gp? For a 5/day swift CLW, would you charge more or less than 2500?
No suggestions of a swift CLW?
What would you charge for an amulet of CLW 5/day that required a 24 hour attunement period, assuming one without is 2000 gp?
What other fairly general modifiers can you think of, or have you noticed on existing items?
On the first part of the table, with the general pluses, how would you split an attack bonus or a damage bonus from the general enhancement bonus? What would a flaming +2 attack +4 damage sword cost?
That certainly sounds like a sensible houserule, but it's a little bit of a tangent.
Any suggestions for pricing any of the items I mentioned, or suggestions for common modifiers that need common prices?
Well, there's not really much discussion of the main topic here, so I suppose any suggestions are fine.