When crafting an Intelligent Item, you can give it a purpose, as well as a dedicated power. The item can have the ability to cast a spell at will, be of 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th-level.
Oddly enough, an item cannot have the ability to cast a spell from a level above or below the aforementioned levels.
Any reason why? It doesn't seem 1) to be complicated to make adjustable prices and Ego modifiers for such spells and 2) to be broken to make a really powerful or much weaker intelligent items.
8th or 9th is really just a power thing.
1-3... I thought this was under the purview of the basic intelligent item powers, but oddly at-will isn't an option there either.
At-will with a second action per round can be just as broken. So not so odd it isn't an option.
But the game is willing to let us have 4th-level spells at will with a second action per round. Are 3rd level spells inherently better than 4th now?
I mean, I understand your point as it reflects on the concept that you get a free shot with a spell each turn if it's at-will, and that's really, really good (and it is, especially when you get into the 5th level plus options). But the game allows us that. It just demands that we use Greater Dispel Magic and not Dispel Magic, because... reasons.
My thought exactly...
Maybe some clarifications here:
I can get an Intelligent Item to cast at will an empowered intensified shocking grasp (4th-level) or an empowered maximized intensified shocking grasp (7th-level)... but not a regular shocking grasp (1st-level).
Furthermore, an Intelligent Item can have a different purpose than the ones suggested, such as "obey your wielder without question", meaning that its wielder could utilize the dedicated power without any kind of restriction.
An example: I could make a female Android magus/techomancer who crafted 4 Intelligent arc pistols, which can fly at a speed of 30 feet... and could cast disintegrate at will... since the purpose could be either "defeat whoever challenges the wielder" or "obey your wielder".
So yeah... the omittion of lower and higher spell levels is weird, because 1) lower levels would be good for low-level characters and 2) higher levels would be good for artifacts and mythic items.
Any other opinion?