I wanted to include some homebrew items in my campaign that worked like a one-shot version of a pearl of power - you get one of your spells back but then the item is destroyed.
Any tips on how much this should be worth?
Peet
My gut reaction is to take the price of an equivalent-level scroll and double it, which comes out to almost exactly 1/10th of the cost of a permanent pearl of power. As a ballpark number, that seems about right.
Keep in mind that most already consider pearls of power rather underpriced. Getting a spell back is a really good deal.
My gut reaction is to take the price of an equivalent-level scroll and double it, which comes out to almost exactly 1/10th of the cost of a permanent pearl of power. As a ballpark number, that seems about right.
Actually, that comes to 1/20th of the cost of a pearl at 1st level, which I think is a little low. Also, it needs to be based only on the spell level and not on the caster level, like a pearl of power.
But maybe 1/10th is the right number.
I might do 1/20th if the item had to be used like a potion or scroll. So you would have to waste a separate action to get the spell back, and then another action to cast it.
Keep in mind that most already consider pearls of power rather underpriced. Getting a spell back is a really good deal.
I'm not sure that I buy that, since a 1st level pearl is 1000 gp while a wand of a 1st level spell is 750 gp.
There is also the formula for staves, which might make sense on the grounds that a staff uses the caster's own save DC and CL.
Any other thoughts?
Keep in mind that most already consider pearls of power rather underpriced. Getting a spell back is a really good deal.
I agree with Cyrad.
I might do 1/20th if the item had to be used like a potion or scroll. So you would have to waste a separate action to get the spell back, and then another action to cast it.
But that is exactly how pearls of power work. They require a command word to active, which is a standard action.
For a one time use pearl, I'd say 10-15% of the cost of a normal pearl would be fine.
Developer
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Well, let's assume that it's a use-activated item for the purposes of Table 15–29 on page 550 of the Core Rulebook. The x2000 gp multiplier gets divided by 5 for having only one "charge" per day, so that's x400. That means that the 1st-level version of a pearl of power has a [spell level x caster level] value of 2.5 If we plug that into the "single use, use-activated" line, we multiply by 50 to get…125 gp. That's 12.5% the cost of a normal pearl of power, and perhaps that would work fine for other pearls of higher spell levels.
From sniff-test perspective, that's not a bad price. It's certainly in the right range to test in your game and see if it works. Let us know how it goes.
Well, let's assume that it's a use-activated item for the purposes of Table 15–29 on page 550 of the Core Rulebook. The x2000 gp multiplier gets divided by 5 for having only one "charge" per day, so that's x400. That means that the 1st-level version of a pearl of power has a [spell level x caster level] value of 2.5 If we plug that into the "single use, use-activated" line, we multiply by 50 to get…125 gp. That's 12.5% the cost of a normal pearl of power, and perhaps that would work fine for other pearls of higher spell levels.
From sniff-test perspective, that's not a bad price. It's certainly in the right range to test in your game and see if it works. Let us know how it goes.
I actually think I came to this figure on my own at one point (though I think I arrived at it in a different way) but I wasn't sure if that was too high or low.
However, counting it as an item that uses a command word to activate (the above is use-activated which wouldn't require an action to use), then we use 1800 as the base cost.
1800 / 5 = 360
1000 / 360 = 2.7777
2.7777 x 50 = 139
Maybe I'll go with 140 gp, not sure. I think I would probably still buy it at this price, were I the wizard. 125 gp is good too.
I would make version of the Page of Spell Knowledge and Runestone of Power using this formula too, I suspect.
OK, here's one more question:
Thematically, what would you make such an item look like? Would it be an elixir? A stone that crumbles to dust? A scroll that burns away when read?
I like the idea of this.
I think a good way of representing it would be a quartz crystal with some sort of inclusions (like veins of gold) in it. When used the inclusions disappear leaving you with a hunk of worthless quartz.
Look at the google images for this search:
Quartz with gold rutile inclusions
If the item had a couple of charges, the stuff inside would shrink with every use.