Can someone help explain the pricing of lesser magical items? I know that in general they are half the cost of normal version, but I'm still confused on
a. How many charges they start with?
b. Is the price exactly half?
(I know this was a 3.5 mechanic, but it seems to have shown up in a couple of my pathfinder games.)
I'm not entirely sure what you are referring to... can you give examples?
The magic item creation guidelines can be found here.
There is the idea of minor, medium, and major magic item categories. These are just ways to group magic items by value for random treasure determination. For example, a city stat block says how many items from each category are for sale.
Ultimate Equipment further divides these categories into lesser and greater. So you can have a treasure with two lesser medium potions, a greater minor weapon, and a lesser major item. It is just a way to group treasure. Greater versions of scrolls/potions/wands tend to include the 'rare' spells (usually from the extra books like Ultimate Magic), but otherwise cost the same as an equal level spell scroll from the Lesser list.
Assuming that is what you mean, then it has no effect on the actual items. They are fully charged and priced per the item description or value look up table.
If that's not what you meant, can you give us an example of the wording you see?
I think I found what I was looking for. In Dungeon Magazine #119, there was a side bar with the following.
"Often built by item crafters working with a limited budget, lesser weapon qualities function exactly like their normal cousins, except thaeir superior magical benefits are linked to a certain number of charges like wands. Each time a lesser weapon quality is used, a charge is automatically expended. A lesser weapon quality only consumes one charge per round, so creatures with multiple weapon attacks can gain more use from the lesser magic weapon as a result. When all charges are depleted, the weapon becomes a nonmagical masterwork weapon.
Because their benefit is limited, lesser magic weapons cost half as much as regular magic weapons with the same abilities. A partially charged lesser magic weapon's cost is reduced in the same manner as a partially charged wand. The cost of the masterwork weapon's base price is not affected by this adjustment..."
Hm.. interesting mechanic. I've definitely not seen anything like that in Pathfinder, so anything you do with it is a houserule for sure. That quote mentions reducing the price based on # of charges remaining, similar to a wand, so I'd guess that they come with 50 charges?
So you could have a "Lesser +1 Flaming Longsword" for 4k (+315 for MW Longsword), and each time you hit with it it loses a charge?
This raises another question... is a charge only expended when you hit with the weapon, or every time you take a swing? For lesser magical armor, does it lose charges when struck, or when missed?
As a player, the only time that I could think of wanting a weapon like this would be for specific missions, for example, getting "Demon Bane", "Giant Bane", or something else along those lines. For a day-to-day use weapon, I'd definitely save up for the "non-lesser" version.
Edit: This feels like it would add a lot more book-keeping. If you wanted to go this route, maybe you'd be better off changing it into "Magical Oils" that add properties for a certain number of hits (for weapons) or time (for armor).