Do Intelligent Magic Items Get Skills?

[Marc Radle]

The rules seem silent on this. When creating an intelligent magic item, does it get skills (only those based on the three mental stats of course)? It would seem like it would, but I can't find anything in the rules that actually says that.

If they DO get mental stat based skills, how do you know how many skill ranks? Are any comsidered class skills?

Thanks in advance if anyone can point me toward a rule on this!

[tonyz]

It doesn't, you would have to purchase skill ranks for it.

[SterlingEdge]

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/intelligentItems.html

Intelligent item powers. They CAN have skills/ranks, but they cost. See the 4th table down on the link.

[Marc Radle]

tonyz wrote:

It doesn't, you would have to purchase skill ranks for it.

Possibly, but can you point to where in the rules it actually SAYS that?

Assuming this is true, how would you purchase the skill ranks? How many skill ranks does an intelligent item get?

[Marc Radle]

SterlingEdge wrote:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/intelligentItems.html

Intelligent item powers. They CAN have skills/ranks, but they cost. See the 4th table down on the link.

Thanks - I've actually studied that entire section quite a bit prior to posting, though.

The only thing that table allows for is one skill with either 5 or ten ranks in a skill. So, does that mean that the item ONLY can use a skill if it has this 5 or 10 skill ranks? Can it still use the other mental based skills but only with the ability bonus granted for the item's INT, WIS and CHA score? It seems odd that an intelligent magic item (one that, according to the rules is treated like an NPC) with a personality and actual INT, WIS and CHA scores would not have scores in all mental based skills.

Also, regarding that table, why only 5 or 10 ranks? Why not 1 rank, or 3 etc.

Again, I think any decent DM and/or player can come up with a perfectly good ruling or rules opinion on their own. That's a given. What I'm looking for is where it spells this out in the actual rules, assuming it even IS spelled out.

Thanks for the replies, by the way!

[wraithstrike]

RAW it is 5 or 10. Magic item creation more guideline than rules though. If you are the GM then you can give more or less skills. The mental scores do add to the total modifier.

[SterlingEdge]

wraithstrike wrote:

RAW it is 5 or 10. Magic item creation more guideline than rules though. If you are the GM then you can give more or less skills. The mental scores do add to the total modifier.

500g per skill point seems good. I would just worry about someone taking 5 different skills. 1 point in 5 skills seems more powerful than 1 skill at +5. With 5 skills at +1 you can aid another and take a 10 on more things.

I would probably do 500 per skill point, + 250 per skill past the first (Not skill point, full skill). Maybe 100g per skill past the first. (Up to 5 points, more than that would need a new calculation to amount to 10k)

[Faeron]

Pretty much everything in that table is based off the base costs for crafting non-intelligent magic items.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magicItems/magicItemCreation.html

The entries for skill points are the same cost as a dedicated magic item with only that functionality would be (5 skill points = 5^2*100 = +2500gp, 10 skill points = 10^2*100 = +10,000gp).

Thus, even though there's not an entry for an item having 4 or 7 skill points, you could easily calculate what it "should be" (1600gp/4900gp).