Batteries and Item Charge Capacity

[Brew Bird]

Do items that have charges include detachable batteries? For example, does a personal comm unit contain a detachable super-capacity battery? Or does the "capacity" represent internal power storage that can be recharged with batteries bought separately (as weapons with charges work in the Pathfinder Technology Guide), but not a removable battery that's swapped out for a new one when recharged?

[dharkus]

there's also the question of what specific battery they get, as the biggest batteries are more expensive than the cheapest equipment that uses batteries - so if everyone that requires batteries comes with one that means you could buy the cheap items, remove the battery and sell it for more than the item costs. I think it was the comm unit or torch or something that was cheap enough for this to work (something like item being 10 creds and the battery able to be sold for 30 creds).

[Jimbles the Mediocre]

CRB > Equipment > Technological Items (pg. 218) wrote:

Items with a specified usage use a battery that comes fully charged when purchased. Such batteries can be recharged as normal using generators or recharging stations (see Professional Services on page 234), or they can be replaced (see Table 7–9: Ammunition for battery prices).

Since the CRB specifically calls out the ammunition batteries as being compatible with the technological items batteries, yes, it seems that a personal comm unit (7 cr.) contains a fully-charged super-capacity battery (390 cr.).

dharkus wrote:

so if everyone that requires batteries comes with one that means you could buy the cheap items, remove the battery and sell it for more than the item costs

I see no reason (RAW) why you cannot do this, but I would love to hear one. Some may argue (somewhat arbitrarily) that you can't pull a battery out of something without discharging it or that batteries for different devices may not be compatible, but that makes scrounging ammo off defeated enemies seriously unfun for anyone with a battery-powered weapon.

[Rysky the Dark Solarion]

I believe that line may be in error as it contradicts the Capacity entry that states that items' charges can be recharged with batteries, and that there are two items with capacities that don't correspond to any size battery and so can't be replaced.

[whew]

The rules say that some items have removable batteries and some have internal batteries. So it's up to the GM which is the case for any given item. To avoid silliness, any device that's cheaper than its battery should NOT have a removable battery.

[dharkus]

FAQ button now existent!

[Rysky the Dark Solarion]

Woohoo!