I'm designing a magic item for my home game and some advice on pricing and balancing would be appreciated.
Mask of the Maggot King
Aura moderate conjuration CL 9
Slot Head Price TBD
This pale leather cowl sprouts teeth when worn and makes it look as if the wearer's head is being devoured by a maggot. It allows the wearer to cast creeping doom once per day and speak with vermin three times per day. In addition, the wearer can summon 1d3+1 giant maggots three times per day.
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, creeping doom, speak with vermin, summon monster I Cost TBD
Flagged to move to the homebrew forum.
I'm not super familiar with the crafting rules, but it seems like pricing should be relatively easy for a few SLAs.
Command Word activation: Spell level x Caster level x 1800 gp.
Charges per Day: Divide by (5 divided by charged per day)
Each additional power has a 50% increase in price.
Taken from Magic Item Creation Rules
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Creeping Doom: Spell level 7, Caster level 13, once per day.
Price: 32,760 gp
Speak with Vermin: (Lowest) Spell level 3, Caster level 5, three times per day.
Price: 16200 gp
Summon Monster I: Spell level 1, Caster level 1, three times per day.
Price: 1080 gp
Remember that the duration is dependant on the caster level of the spell imbued. Creeping Doom would have a duration of 13 rounds, while each charge of Summon Monster would have a duration of 1 minute.
DC for Creeping Doom: 10 + 7x1.5= 20
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Total Cost: 32,760 + 16200x1.5 + 1080x1.5 = 58,680 gp
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Caster level of item should be equal to the highest caster level imbued. In this case it is the caster level of Creeping Doom, which is 13, that should be the caster level of the item.
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Item costs for higher level spells get out of hand rather quickly, so you'll do your best to avoid crafting such an item.
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Price: 58,680 gp
Cost: 29,340 gp
(I would probably go with 60k-30k since it looks better)
Edit: I'm getting some real heyyeyaaeyaaaeyaeyaa vibes from your profile picture!
If you want to reduce the price, lets say that the Creeping Doom can only be cast once per week, letting us drop the price by 6/7 (by RAI) of that ability. And then instead of Speak with Vermin thrice per day, make it once per day, useable in 1-minute increments (as Boots of Speed).
New description would be:
This pale leather cowl sprouts teeth when worn and makes it look as if the wearer's head is being devoured by a maggot. It allows the wearer to cast creeping doom once per week and speak with vermin for five minutes per day, useable in 1-minute increments. In addition, the wearer can summon 1d3+1 giant maggots three times per day which disappear after 1 minute.
New Price of Creeping Doom: (32,760/7=) 4680 gp
New Price of Speak with Vermin: (3x5x2000/5=) 6000 gp
New Price of Mask of the Maggot King: (6000 + 4680x1.5 + 1080x1.5=) 14,640 gp.
Edit: About balance issues. A level 7 spell is as expected quite strong. And since it is a wondrous item there is no limitations on who can use it, as there is to scrolls. If a low-level PC gets their hands on this you can expect them to insta-win one encounter once per week.
If you want to reduce the price, lets say that the Creeping Doom can only be cast once per week, letting us drop the price by 6/7 (by RAI) of that ability. And then instead of Speak with Vermin thrice per day, make it once per day, useable in 1-minute increments (as Boots of Speed).
New description would be:
This pale leather cowl sprouts teeth when worn and makes it look as if the wearer's head is being devoured by a maggot. It allows the wearer to cast creeping doom once per week and speak with vermin for five minutes per day, useable in 1-minute increments. In addition, the wearer can summon 1d3+1 giant maggots three times per day which disappear after 1 minute.
New Price of Creeping Doom: (32,760/7=) 4680 gp
New Price of Speak with Vermin: (3x5x2000/5=) 6000 gpNew Price of Mask of the Maggot King: (6000 + 4680x1.5 + 1080x1.5=) 14,640 gp.
Edit: About balance issues. A level 7 spell is as expected quite strong. And since it is a wondrous item there is no limitations on who can use it, as there is to scrolls. If a low-level PC gets their hands on this you can expect them to insta-win one encounter once per week.
Thanks for the advice, but they couldn't make it early on and the only other time the could get it would be from an NPC they would have to defeat.