Is it safe to assume that magical instruments, such as the lyre of building or goblin fire drums, are masterwork as well, and thus grant a +2 bonus on their respective Perform checks made to activate them?
Is it safe to assume that magical instruments, such as the lyre of building or goblin fire drums, are masterwork as well, and thus grant a +2 bonus on their respective Perform checks made to activate them?
Not really. Only armor, weapons, and shields have to be masterwork to be enchanted. No other magic item type requires a masterwork component.
Did your GM also cause a ruckus in your character's mansion while you were skipping the session, and you're now wondering how to rebuild it using the lyre of building in such a way that you can just take 10 and breeze through it without spending skill ranks?
With the caveat that I totally wanted this to be the case so I probably ignored some good arguments against it, I reasoned that such an expensive item would be masterwork, even if the rules aren't explicit on that. I mean, when was the last time you found a shoddy magic item whose whole point wasn't that appearances can be deceiving?
Second caveat that I found out while researching this post: I wrote a magic item for one of the Player Companion books that explicitly called out the base object as masterwork. So, foiled myself again.
So, in the course of 5 minutes, I just defeated my prior reasoning and found out that I need to find a way to get +2 to perform (strings).
Strict RAW, they are not automatically masterwork. However I see no reason why you couldn't drop a few more gold pieces to make one masterwork. The price difference is practically irrelevant at that point.
Strict RAW, they are not automatically masterwork. However I see no reason why you couldn't drop a few more gold pieces to make one masterwork. The price difference is practically irrelevant at that point.
Without magic you can't make something masterwork after the fact. It has to be created that way.
um, why wouldn't your magic items be MW? i don't want no shady magic items... my dwarf has a masterwork holy symbol :D
That's one of the reasons why I listed the goblin fire drum as one of the examples. It is explicitly described as a small crude-looking drum. That on its own doesn't mean it isn't masterwork though, just that it "looks" like it isn't.
Yes, that's what I meant. Either craft it yourself or have it crafted and pay more gold to have it be masterwork.
Strict RAW, they are not automatically masterwork. However I see no reason why you couldn't drop a few more gold pieces to make one masterwork. The price difference is practically irrelevant at that point.Without magic you can't make something masterwork after the fact. It has to be created that way.
What about Masterwork Transformation?
SRD lists:Musical Instruments
Item Price Weight Source
Musical instrument, common .. 5 gp .. 3 lbs.1 .. PRG:CRB
Musical instrument, masterwork .. 100 gp .. 3 lbs.1 .. PRG:CRB
Musical Instrument
Source PRG:CRB
A masterwork instrument grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Perform checks involving its use.
So, the spell + 95 gp gives you +2 Circumstance bonus to playing it.
/cevah
That's magic though, so my statement remains true.
Looks like that would do the trick.