Pricing a magic item made with a more powerful spell?

[Uthak]

I have a player that is looking to have a Hat of Disguise made using Alter Self in place of disguise self. Would that work & if so how do i price it?

[LazarX]

Such an item is no longer a Hat of Disguise but something that has to be redesigned from the ground up.

I'm not sure that I'd allow such an item at all.

[therealthom]

LazarX wrote:

Such an item is no longer a Hat of Disguise but something that has to be redesigned from the ground up.

I'm not sure that I'd allow such an item at all.

Just out of curiousity, if they pay the tariff which would be set by you as DM, why not?

[Uthak]

As a side note i found a Greater Hat of Disguise that uses Alter Self...now my question is would it still give the +10 bonus to the PC's disguise check as well as the bonuses from Alter Self....as the item description is a little vague.

[darkwarriorkarg]

Yes, as the +10 to Disguise is a property of the polymorph subschool and has nothing to do with the item itself.

[LazarX]

therealthom wrote:

LazarX wrote:

Such an item is no longer a Hat of Disguise but something that has to be redesigned from the ground up.

I'm not sure that I'd allow such an item at all.

Just out of curiousity, if they pay the tariff which would be set by you as DM, why not?

The real issue is the constant availability of what is effectively a minor shapechange spell has a major impact compared to it's usual limited duration of minutes. Whether I'd allow such an item would also depend heavily on the flavor of campaign I run. I don't use the same set of rules and restrictions for every campaign I'd run, many depend highly on te particular flavors I'd set. I might allow such an item for a campaign where magic is plentiful and powerful in a setting that's more advanced than say Greyhawk or Golarion. An Eberron style setting I could see this more easily than either of them.

There is not only the major difference of duration, there's also the fact that Alter Self doesn't have the major limitation of being the illusion that Disguise Self is. So it's far more than the difference of an item being powered by a 2nd level spell as opposed to a 1st. Alter Self has a far lesser duration.

What I'd be far more likely to allow would be a Hat that casts Alter Self maybe 3xday as a 6th level caster.

[therealthom]

Thanks, LazarX. I realize the constant duration of the hat is a major "force multiplier", but was interested to hear your views on the matter.