Making a new Magic Item, quick question.

[Virellius]

So I wanted to make a ring with the effect of Glibness. Would I use the Skill Bonus cost or the Spell Effect cost?

[Blakmane]

There are no hard and fast rules with item creation. It mostly comes down to a comparison to the other magic items and what the DM thinks is fair.

In this specific case, I would suggest if you are making a constant effect item, you should use the skill bonus. If you are making an unlimited charge, use-activated effect item (requiring a standard action to activate and having a duration), you should use the spell effect cost.

Basically, with magic items: if it is too good to be true, it is.

[Virellius]

Blakmane wrote:

There are no hard and fast rules with item creation. It mostly comes down to a comparison to the other magic items and what the DM thinks is fair.

In this specific case, I would suggest if you are making a constant effect item, you should use the skill bonus. If you are making an unlimited charge, use-activated effect item (requiring a standard action to activate and having a duration), you should use the spell effect cost.

Basically, with magic items: if it is too good to be true, it is.

I was actually thinking of the activated item. Since a ring like Mind Shielding is AMAZING and super cheap, I feel like the whole concept of pricing is skewed.

[Matthew Downie]

With Glibness, you don't usually need lots of uses per day and paying a Standard action to activate it isn't much of a cost, since it's not a combat spell. Glibness is also a bard-only personal spell, which means it's a lot harder to get the effect than most level 3 spells. It shouldn't be available as a cheap item.

[Bob Bob Bob]

Back in 3.5 I believe they specified you're supposed to go down the magic item creation table in order until you hit the thing you're attempting to gain. In this case, +20 Bluff. The restrictions on what Bluff it's for are probably worth trading for fooling zone of truth et al.

The problem with the spell-in-a-can item is that the difference between at-will glibness and continuous glibness is almost non-existent. It's not a combat spell, it lasts 70 minutes, there's no reason you won't always have it up.

So the three options are +20 skill item, at-will Glibness, and continuous Glibness.

The prices are 40,000, 37,800, and 63,000. The at-will one is far too cheap, since the difference between it and continuous is that you need to cast it 24 times a day. And with it casting the spell Glibness, you could then take off the ring and put on another ring to get that ring's benefit, then switch rings an hour later to recast. +20 skill item is solid, by the rules, and not much to argue. At-will Glibness is something I would hesitate to allow for a variety of reasons mentioned (personal spell, only one spell list, long duration, no combat use, untyped bonus). Continuous Glibness is probably still cheap, but definitely closer to the price. The reason it needs to be so expensive, in part, is the untyped bonus that would stack with a standard +20 skill item.

A better way to approach this, and probably more reasonable, is to give it charges per day. A 1/day Glibness item, while powerful, is much less problematic. In fact, it already exists (and is also underpriced). Bracers of the Glib Entertainer. It's probably cheap because the only class that cares about Perform gets Glibness naturally (and spontaneously).

[Matthew Downie]

I'm wouldn't say the at-will one is too cheap at 37,800.
It's barely cheaper than a 'standard' +20 skill item, and it's a lot less useful than a +20 Bluff item since it only applies to one application of the skill:
"You gain a +20 bonus on Bluff checks made to convince another of the truth of your words. This bonus doesn't apply to other uses of the Bluff skill, such as feinting in combat, creating a diversion to hide, or communicating a hidden message via innuendo."