| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
So, with the release of the Armor Master's Handbook, the phalanx shield was introduced. Its powers are irrelevant, save that it's an adamantine tower shield. I would love if the dev who made it could drop by and tell us what the cost would be without the magic enhancements. Also maybe mention who approved a shield that technically shouldn't exist per the rules.
Did they maybe price it as a weapon? It doesn't seem unreasonable to do this as shields are weapons now.
Got the description from d20pfsrd.
Phalanx Shield
Price 14,080 gp; Slot shield; CL 7th; Weight 30 lbs.; Aura moderate evocation
DESCRIPTION
Once per day as a standard action, the wielder of this +2 adamantine tower shield can conjure two
spiritual allies (as per the spell). These conjured allies last for 1 minute and can neither attack
nor move beyond spaces that are adjacent to the wielder of the phalanx shield.
Both allies gain a +4 enhancement bonus to AC and have the Shield Wall teamwork feat.
CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Cost 9,580 gp; Feats Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Spells spiritual ally
Adamantine +3000
Shield, Tower +30
Master Work +300
+2 Bonus +4000
Sub-Total 7180
Spell
Spiritual Ally Clr 4 CL 7 1/day
Command Word (SL * CL * 1800) = 50400
Once Per Day [Divide by (5/1)] = 10,080
Differences from spell
Can't Move from next to wielder.
Can't Attack.
Extra Ally created
Duration 3 rounds too long for caster level.
Bonus AC +4
Bonus Feat Shield Wall
Total Price 17410
Cost 10205
These prices do not account for the Differences from Spell. I think this is a reasonable price.
However, the item, as written, does have some pricing issues. Like the cost minus 3000 should be equal to the half the price minus 3000.
There are many unique shields that are made of materials that are otherwise not possible. There is also a voidglass shield within the same book.
Even the mithral tower shield in core is a shield made of material that is normally not possible(without DM acceptance; base tower shields are wood only)
Unique items are just that, unique. And they can often do things or be made of things that are not normally possible.
You can not make a tower shield out of adamantium or voidglass unless you purchase these specific magic items
Technically, you can make a tower shield out of mithral. There is a price listing for mithral shields in the CRB, nowhere does it say that tower shields can only be ever made of wood/darkwood.
Technically, you can make a tower shield out of mithral. There is a price listing for mithral shields in the CRB, nowhere does it say that tower shields can only be ever made of wood/darkwood.
Well, tower shields are described as being made out of wood, do not have a metal variant like light and heavy shields and Mithral cannot be used to make items that are primarily non-metal.
And yet they made mithral tower shields anyway. :v
So this should be easy, we have the price (14,080) and the cost (9580). The magic part costs half as much but the material/base objects costs are not reduced so we end up with X+C=14,080 and 1/2*X+C=9580 (or X+2C=19160).
So C (the flat cost) is 5,080. I honestly couldn't tell you where that's all derived from, presumably it's 30 Tower Shield, 150 Masterwork, and... 4,900 gp adamantine? That makes no sense. Of course, adamantine is already masterwork but that just leaves us with 5,050 adamantine, which is even weirder. I'm guessing it was cribbed from an existing tower shield item and they didn't think about the masterwork cost not being needed.
But math isn't wrong and doesn't lie, just the people who use it. So a masterwork adamantine tower shield would be 5,080.
So... Basically the cost of a suit of light adamantine armor and then some?