I have a limited idea of item creation, but have a player that wanted to get some pretty specialized gear made for him. His first request was for an item that has a kind of dead man's switch. He wants something that he wears that when he is reduced below 0 hit points (or out right dies... Depending on how the item would have to work) that his body would be automatically teleported back to a predetermined location (he was thinking where he is paying a cleric to revive him). How would that work, and how much would it cost?
Another item is a ring of polymorph, useable once or twice per day?
Can you have an item doing multiple things? How much would one cost with telepathic bond in it?
What do you think of items that teleports a person withing a network of symbols, like if you activate x symbol, it takes you to place x, activating c takes you to c... Could you do that with people to, teleport to one person who is wearing the appropiate symbol? Would it be better for it to be a stationary location that you have to get to to teleport somewhere else, like an elevator takes you to any floor in the building? Or could it be an item you take with you?
Has anyone else made interesting items?
Before you start seeing answers to this pop up, just be forewarned that they're all likely to look a little different. Magic item creation is a pretty inexact art. I'll be interested to see what people come up with to meet your requirements though.
On the first one, the spell you'd need for the deadman switch is called contingency.
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We actually agree on something. I'd better check for that crack in the sky now.There is no exact science to custom magic item creation.
We actually agree on stuff all the time. Neither of us usually make a big deal about it, so nobody really remembers.
When we disagree, it's a big deal, and we remember it.
This is likely true of a ton of people we all know.
No exact formula is fine, how would I start trying to do the math on that though?
Rachel,
The first isn't too bad. Look at the contingency spell, also Word of Recall and refuge, see if something looks good.
The last might be accomplished with a few castings of the phase door spell.
And of course, costs for NPC spellcasting are in with equipment.
No exact formula is fine, how would I start trying to do the math on that though?
Here's an example of a single use deadman teleport, in ring form. I'll go through the steps (as I understand them) to figure out a price:
Spells Required:
Word of recall teleports you instantly back to your sanctuary when the word is uttered. You must designate the sanctuary when you prepare the spell, and it must be a very familiar place. The actual point of arrival is a designated area no larger than 10 feet by 10 feet. You can be transported any distance within a plane but cannot travel between planes. You can transport, in addition to yourself, any objects you carry, as long as their weight doesn't exceed your maximum load. You may also bring one additional willing Medium or smaller creature (carrying gear or objects up to its maximum load) or its equivalent per three caster levels. A Large creature counts as two Medium creatures, a Huge creature counts as two Large creatures, and so forth. All creatures to be transported must be in contact with one another, and at least one of those creatures must be in contact with you. Exceeding this limit causes the spell to fail.
An unwilling creature can't be teleported by word of recall. Likewise, a creature's Will save (or spell resistance) prevents items in its possession from being teleported. Unattended, nonmagical objects receive no saving throw.
Word of recall handles the process of teleporting the wearer to a specific location. It has important restrictions that the user needs to know about, which can be found by reading the spell description.
For our purposes, the important thing to note is that this is level 6 clerical spell, or a level 8 druidic spell.
You can place another spell upon your person so that it comes into effect under some condition you dictate when casting contingency. The contingency spell and the companion spell are cast at the same time. The 10-minute casting time is the minimum total for both castings; if the companion spell has a casting time longer than 10 minutes, use that instead. You must pay any costs associated with the companion spell when you cast contingency.
The spell to be brought into effect by the contingency must be one that affects your person and be of a spell level no higher than one-third your caster level (rounded down, maximum 6th level).
The conditions needed to bring the spell into effect must be clear, although they can be general. In all cases, the contingency immediately brings into effect the companion spell, the latter being “cast” instantaneously when the prescribed circumstances occur. If complicated or convoluted conditions are prescribed, the whole spell combination (contingency and the companion magic) may fail when triggered. The companion spell occurs based solely on the stated conditions, regardless of whether you want it to.
You can use only one contingency spell at a time; if a second is cast, the first one (if still active) is dispelled.
Contingency has important restrictions on what sort of spell it can trigger, as stated in the description. For our purposes, the important point is that it whoever casts it on the ring must cast it at three times the level of the word of recall spell which it will trigger.
We can rule out the Druid, because spells get more expensive per caster level when they go into items (see the "cost" link below) and a druid that casts at 24th level is probably not somebody you're very likely to run into making rings for adventurers. This means that to create this ring you need an arcane caster, and a clerical caster. Or somebody who can do both. The odds of the player themselves being able to craft this are pretty low.
So, the Contingecy spell is cast as a CL 18 sorcerer/wizard spell.
Word of recall is cast as a CL 6 cleric spell.
Why does that matter?
In a word: COST
So that table shows us what a spell costs, per caster level, to add to an item. Assuming we consider both of these spells to fall under "single-use, use activated" then we need to do some maths.
So, to add contingency with word of recall under it costs us (6 x 18 x 50 gp) = 5400 gp
Word of recall itself costs us (6 x 6 x 50 gp) = 1800 gp
Again, the cost of the ring itself is variable, somewhere between 10 cp and 100 gp, depending on how fancy you want it to look and what material it's made of. That's between you and your player to decide.
So, add 7,200 gp worth of spells to the cost of the ring.
Wait. Not finished. That's the cost to craft the ring.
If the player wants to walk into a shop and buy this, the price starts out at 2 x craft price from a vendor with a neutral disposition.
So, player walks into "Joes Magic Widgets" the price tag on the ring is 14,200 GP plus whatever you decide the quality of physical workmanship is (10 cp - 100gp)
TLDR; Mithril Ring of Contingency Recall, New-in-Box: 14,300 gp
Note to ye olde experienced crafters, if I got any of my math or level assumptions, wrong please correct me!
Thank you so much! That makes sense to me, and I really appreciate you showing me how to do the math behind it! It there anywhere where more of the item creation prices are written in detail, I'd love to see what else could be created!
Here are the rules, including formulas (for use *after* comparing to existing items) : LINK
Thank you so much! That makes sense to me, and I really appreciate you showing me how to do the math behind it! It there anywhere where more of the item creation prices are written in detail, I'd love to see what else could be created!
You're welcome. :)
I don't know of a really extensive compilation of crafting examples to point you to, but here are some examples from this messageboard, including discussions about the art of pricing.
You'll find, as you get deeper into this, that comparing to existing items is, as others have stated, crucial for reasonable pricing.
The reason for this, from my perspective, is that many existing items (especially wondrous items) have effects that don't precisely duplicate the spells that are required to create them, or they provide the benefits of those spells in a weird way, or only provide part of the benefit of the spell. Because there just isn't a spell for every possible use of magic you and your players can dream up.
There are no rules that I know of that will let you easily calculate the value of "part of a spell" or an effect "sort of like this spell but different". If you want to get really deeply specific about these situations, you can create a new spell first and then use that to calculate your item cost, but this approach adds yet another layer of imprecision and complexity.
Familiarizing yourself with the existing wondrous items, and the spells that are required to create them, is an excellent place to start if you or your players are going to be creating new magical items . Try reverse engineering some existing items to see if the cost listed in the book actually reflects the cost formulas. Quite often you'll find that the prices simply don't bear any relation to the formulas (in these instances, usually the formula would make the price far higher than what is listed in the source material.)
Just as a side note, new magical weapons and armor are usually way more straight forward to price, unless they do things that aren't covered in the existing weapon/armor enchants.