Hello! While voting for the wonderous items in RPG Superstar I was confused about three things. First, how do you decide on what type of aura strength a wonderous item has? Second how do you decide what the CL for the wonderous item is? Is there a formula? Third, what is the forumla for calculating the cost of a wonderous item?
Reference to the core rulebook or to other threads would be greatly appreciated! :)
|
First understand that the section on designing new magic items contains guidelines, not rules. The GM has responsibility to design items and balance them for her game just as the writers of the core books have.
1. The detect magic spell specifies what strength of aura the caster detects based on the item's caster level. The designer specifies its schools of magic based on its effects and prerequisite spells. Note that this means an item only has one aura strength, even if its spell prerequisites are of different levels.
2. Not less than the CL required to cast its prerequisite spells. The item's caster level determines the statistics of spell effects that vary by level. Some types of items (and also wondrous items that have similar effects to those types) have special CL requirements. Otherwise, the item's creator decides. A designer (that means the GM, see my first paragraph) can decide that an item found in game, rather than made by a PC, should have a higher than minimum caster level if it's more impressive or more suited to higher level characters.
3. Prices for potions, scrolls, wands, staves and for magic weapons and armour that only give numerical bonuses are listed with the relevant magic item section. For other items, your GM should look at the prices of items that have similar effects. If this doesn't make clear what the item should cost, she can consult the table of guidelines in the CRB. I would hesitate to call this a formula or a calculation, as that would imply it was a rule, rather than a ruling.