For myself, I don't like to advertise to any inquisitive NPC or PC exactly which items one my characters carries are magical in nature. And the magic aura spell is a fairly effective means of hiding their magic. The problem arises in that you have to keep getting the spell renewed over and over and over again, and that it never lasts more than thirty days (20th level caster with the Extend Spell feat).
So, I got to wondering: how much do you think it should cost to craft a magic item with an inherent magic aura effect built in? I am not talking about being able to cast the actual spell, I mean making that one item appear as mundane when examined under detect magic.
What do you think? How much is that worth? And does anyone else out there, player or DM, want to conceal their items like most of the characters (PC and NPC) that I run do?
MA
This does not really answer your question as much as posing an alternative: In anothe thread I saw a description of a magic item (a polishing cloth) that could cast magic aura unlimited on use activation. Basically you polish all your gear with it every so often and problem solved. I'd put it at at least CL4 so you get to conceal 20 pounds. That would put the price at 4000 GP (SL1*CL4*2000/2[duration 24 hours or greater]), which seems pretty ok in my eyes.
Alternatively, you could go with a houseruled option to combine magic aura with permanency. Other Level 1 Spells (example: alarm) cost 2500 GP. The way I read permanency, that is only the material cost of the spell, spellcasting for permanency and magic aura would have to be paid for seperately, if you can't cast them yourself.
That is one of way of doing, and fairly inexpensively. Any other ideas?
MA
Oil of Magic Aura = 50 gold pieces (CL 1) or 200 gold pieces (CL 4)
Oil of Extended Magic Aura = 300gp (CL 3) or 400 gold pieces (CL
I am not sure if you can make spells under the effects of metamgic feats into magical items, though I want to say it is possible. The Core Rulebook for pathfinder mentions it specifically for scrolls (I think so anyways).
In the old system of D&D 3.0 and 3.x, there were epic level feats that granted you that ability.
Back on track
Items would be:
Staffs
Wands
Services would be:
Cohorts
Clerics
Wizards
Sorcerers