My party is in need of a slick ride, and I thought of the Golden Carriage. Our travels aren't taking us near Galt though, so I reckon we'd make a knock-off. However I was double checking the price and I don't understand how they came up with the market value of 114,000 GP.
The construction requirements are listed as Craft Wondrous Item, phantom steed, and secure shelter. This is listed as coming in at 57000 GP. From the description of item's abilities it seems to have both phantom steed (at caster level 12) and secure shelter on a continuous basis.
Continuous spell effects are priced in Core at Spell Level x Caster Level x 2000. For a CL 12 Phantom Steed that's 96000 GP and for the CL 7 Secure Shelter 56000. That'd be 152000 GP right there, but there's more!
When an item has multiple effects, you're supposed to multiply the lower effect's cost by 1.5. That'd make the Secure Shelter 84000. Now we're at 180000 GP. But maybe there's even more than that?
Table 15-29 says if the item has no space limitation, you're to double the whole cost. Now I would imagine that's meant for items carried by a character that don't take up a slot, such as an Ioun Stone or Stone of Good Luck. But maybe it just applies to any wondrous item that doesn't take up a slot. In that case, we're now looking at 360000 GP!
Then there's the part where you're getting 4 horses even though the spell used is Phantom Steed and not the communal version. That's really generous for a non-artifact! Am I reading the item's description incorrectly? Are these seemingly continuous effects actually some other category of effect? Please help me figure this out!
Many factors must be considered when determining the price of new magic items. The easiest way to come up with a price is to compare the new item to an item that is already priced, using that price as a guide.
...
Not all items adhere to these formulas. First and foremost, these few formulas aren't enough to truly gauge the exact differences between items. The price of a magic item may be modified based on its actual worth. The formulas only provide a starting point.
Pricing magic items is as much art as science. The tables give you a starting point, a guideline - if there isn't already a similar item. You then have to judge it on it's own merits and increase or decrease the price accordingly.
Exactly. For example, compare the following items:
Ring of Invisibility
Book Price: 20,000 gp
Guidelines Price (Command Word): 2 x 3 x 1,800 = 10,800 gp
Ring of Freedom of Movement
Book Price: 40,000 gp
Guidelines Price (Continuous): 4 x 7 x 2,000 x 1.5 = 84,000 gp
The DM is the final arbiter of how much a custom magic item should cost. Honestly, it's best to just find a close match in an existing publication rather than develop your own custom item in 99% of cases.
Not the responses I was hoping for, but thanks to everyone all the same.
