magic item mega-mergers


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


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Many/most home games allow magic items in the same slot to be merged into one for a tax of 50% of the price of the cheaper one (or of the newer one, I don't care right now). This can lead to, for instance, the Ultimate Paladin Wrist Item, the merger of


  • bracers of celestial intervention (16,000)
  • silver smite bracelet (16,000)
  • bracers of the merciful knight (15,600)
  • bracelet of mercy (15,000)
  • bracers of the avenging knight (11,500)
  • merciful vambraces (8,000)
which is worth 115,150 gp (or more depending on how you do it).

What are the best/worst/biggest item mergers you've made or seen?


dip in 1 level in scaled fist unchained monk and then add bracers of armor


I was about to post something in the Rules forum when I found this thread. Which might have answered a question I was about to ask; namely, there is no official rule on merging 2 or more existing magic items, right?

In your example: adventure A gave you Bracers of Celestial Intervention; adventure B gave you a Silver Smite Bracelet. It would require a house rule to merge those 2 items into 1, correct (and I like your house rule quoted btw)?

I know in the alternative the crafting rules allow you to add secondary abilities in 1 of 2 ways; depending on whether it's a slotted item or not. So in this scenario, if you only had the Bracers of Celestial Intervention and wanted to add the powers of the Silver Smite Bracelet, it would cost you 24k (150% b/c slotted item)? Though if you can Craft Wondrous Item, I suppose the real cost is about 50% of that.

So it would be a huge cost savings if you already had both magic items and simply wanted to merge them.


My favorite (was from a 3rd edition game) was merging all 4 rings of wizardry into a single ring.

Silver Crusade

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The Ring of Ultimate Survival

Ring of Prot +5 50,000
Greater Ring of Inner Fortitude 66,000
Ring of Regeneration 90,000
Ring of Energy Resistance (fire) 44,000
Ring of Energy Resistance (cold) 44,000
Ring of Blinking 27,000
Decoy Ring 12,000
Mind Shielding 8,000
Force Shield 8,500
Ring of Sustenance 2,500
Ring of Feath Falling 2,200
Ring of Ferocious Action 3,000

Yours now for the low, low price of 490,800 gold. (Tack on an additional 66k per resistance if you feel you REALLY need acid, sonic, or electricity resistance)

Never seen anyone go quite that far, but I've seen close.

Not exactly the same, but I had a Paladin make a single use wondrous item that popped greater angelic aspect, banishing blade, fire of vengeance, eaglesoul, sacred nimbus, greater stunning barrier, deadly juggernaut, and a delayed blaze of glory (I think, I don't have the list at hand) after which the user is reduced to dust as per the disintegrate spell. I called it her "last stand in a can." She hasn't had occasion to use it, yet.


BenS wrote:

I was about to post something in the Rules forum when I found this thread. Which might have answered a question I was about to ask; namely, there is no official rule on merging 2 or more existing magic items, right?

In your example: adventure A gave you Bracers of Celestial Intervention; adventure B gave you a Silver Smite Bracelet. It would require a house rule to merge those 2 items into 1, correct (and I like your house rule quoted btw)?

I know in the alternative the crafting rules allow you to add secondary abilities in 1 of 2 ways; depending on whether it's a slotted item or not. So in this scenario, if you only had the Bracers of Celestial Intervention and wanted to add the powers of the Silver Smite Bracelet, it would cost you 24k (150% b/c slotted item)? Though if you can Craft Wondrous Item, I suppose the real cost is about 50% of that.

So it would be a huge cost savings if you already had both magic items and simply wanted to merge them.

Okay, that's a reasonable reading of my post that I should have foreseen and worded differently to block, probably avoiding the word "merger." You can combine the functionality of two (or more) items. I don't know of any rules or even house rules for literally merging two existing items the character has.

That said, I don't see any balance or mechanical reason the GM shouldn't extend the house rule to allow literal mergers for a surcharge of 50% the lower price. The image is a little weird, with the lesser item being absorbed into the greater, but that happens between adventures so we don't have to look closely at it.


Isonaroc wrote:
Not exactly the same, but I had a Paladin make a single use wondrous item that popped greater angelic aspect, banishing blade, fire of vengeance, eaglesoul, sacred nimbus, greater stunning barrier, deadly juggernaut, and a delayed blaze of glory (I think, I don't have the list at hand) after which the user is reduced to dust as per the disintegrate spell. I called it her "last stand in a can." She hasn't had occasion to use it, yet.

I love it! How much did the GM charge you for it?


Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:
BenS wrote:

I was about to post something in the Rules forum when I found this thread. Which might have answered a question I was about to ask; namely, there is no official rule on merging 2 or more existing magic items, right?

In your example: adventure A gave you Bracers of Celestial Intervention; adventure B gave you a Silver Smite Bracelet. It would require a house rule to merge those 2 items into 1, correct (and I like your house rule quoted btw)?

I know in the alternative the crafting rules allow you to add secondary abilities in 1 of 2 ways; depending on whether it's a slotted item or not. So in this scenario, if you only had the Bracers of Celestial Intervention and wanted to add the powers of the Silver Smite Bracelet, it would cost you 24k (150% b/c slotted item)? Though if you can Craft Wondrous Item, I suppose the real cost is about 50% of that.

So it would be a huge cost savings if you already had both magic items and simply wanted to merge them.

Okay, that's a reasonable reading of my post that I should have foreseen and worded differently to block, probably avoiding the word "merger." You can combine the functionality of two (or more) items. I don't know of any rules or even house rules for literally merging two existing items the character has.

That said, I don't see any balance or mechanical reason the GM shouldn't extend the house rule to allow literal mergers for a surcharge of 50% the lower price. The image is a little weird, with the lesser item being absorbed into the greater, but that happens between adventures so we don't have to look closely at it.

Ok, thanks for the clarification. Now another question. Since the rules already allow you to add abilities of other items to an existing item (as mentioned, at a 50% markup if it's a slotted item), is your house rule quoted in the OP meant as a way to defray that cost? A cheaper alternative to the official rule? If not, then I'm missing something (probably obvious).


And to answer the original question, I believe in a 3.5 game I played in, a PC eventually had a Ring of Universal Elemental Resistance (acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic) at the end of the campaign. Though pre-PF, they only added the base costs (66k off the top of my head) for the 4 extra resistances. Now, it would cost 50% more (unless the PC was the crafter w/ the right feat of course rather than an NPC) per augmentation.


It's not so much that games "allow" it as the fact that merged items are part of the Core rules. They just don't get much attention. XD Personally, though, I'm really hoping for an officially-published Amulet of Mighty Fists + Amulet of Natural Armor for monk-type characters.

My favorite merged item is a heck of a staff. It's enchanted as a magical staff with charges for spells, as a magical weapon (a la quarterstaff), and as a staff from Spheres of Power (because the character is a complicated tristalt and actually wants all three types of enchantments). I also received permission to craft additional effects, albeit at the cost of not being able to wear magic items of that type anymore. So, the staff also has effects like Swarmbane Clasp, Golembane Scarab, Necklace of Adaptation, and then an Amulet of Hidden Light just for fun. XD The basic idea is for "a staff that does everything", largely replacing the mismatched selection of equipment a character would normally wear.

It is pretty strong, but even with the character's cost-saving bonuses, the fact that I'm spreading upgrades into so many areas helps it stay at a reasonable level of power.


BenS wrote:
Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:
BenS wrote:

I was about to post something in the Rules forum when I found this thread. Which might have answered a question I was about to ask; namely, there is no official rule on merging 2 or more existing magic items, right?

In your example: adventure A gave you Bracers of Celestial Intervention; adventure B gave you a Silver Smite Bracelet. It would require a house rule to merge those 2 items into 1, correct (and I like your house rule quoted btw)?

I know in the alternative the crafting rules allow you to add secondary abilities in 1 of 2 ways; depending on whether it's a slotted item or not. So in this scenario, if you only had the Bracers of Celestial Intervention and wanted to add the powers of the Silver Smite Bracelet, it would cost you 24k (150% b/c slotted item)? Though if you can Craft Wondrous Item, I suppose the real cost is about 50% of that.

So it would be a huge cost savings if you already had both magic items and simply wanted to merge them.

Okay, that's a reasonable reading of my post that I should have foreseen and worded differently to block, probably avoiding the word "merger." You can combine the functionality of two (or more) items. I don't know of any rules or even house rules for literally merging two existing items the character has.

That said, I don't see any balance or mechanical reason the GM shouldn't extend the house rule to allow literal mergers for a surcharge of 50% the lower price. The image is a little weird, with the lesser item being absorbed into the greater, but that happens between adventures so we don't have to look closely at it.

Ok, thanks for the clarification. Now another question. Since the rules already allow you to add abilities of other items to an existing item (as mentioned, at a 50% markup if it's a slotted item), is your house rule quoted in the OP meant as a way to defray that cost? A cheaper alternative to the official rule? If not, then I'm missing something (probably obvious).

It's not so much that there's a house rule required to do it as that PFS doesn't allow it (at all), so I had to specify home games in particular.

And I specified only "many/most" home games because a fair number of GMs house rule that only items in the books can be created, not combos or other custom items.

The official rule is that you can do it for +50% of the newer item's value. The usual home rule defrays the cost by letting you do it for +50% of the cheaper item's value, or rather the value of the second most expensive base item involved. That is, if you combine items A (1,000 gp) and B (2,000 gp) into AB (3,500 gp), and then add in item C (5,000 gp) you pay not +2500 nor +1750 but +1000---half item B, not half item AB. Sorry if you already understood that. The extra verbiage in stating it and extra bookkeeping in implementing it are probably why they just went with +50% newest.

With rules letting you physically merge items you have to worry about more complex cases. If after combining A with B you combine C with D (4000) so that you have AB (3500) and CD (11000), and want to combine AB with CD, base items A and D have had their values multiplied by 1.5 already, so we take the second most expensive item that isn't already multiplied by 1.5, D, and do that, for 3500+11000+2000=16500 gp. So that complicates things slightly but IMHO bearably. If we get lost among the numbers we can always break it back down into the base costs of A B C D separately and multiply all but the biggest by 1.5.


This is all very interesting. I have no xp w/ PFS, nor the general state of others' home games. I think to keep things simple (albeit more expensive), I will stick w/ the existing official rule about adding abilities to existing items, which is very straightforward.

As far as literally merging 2 existing magic items, I'm still pondering a house rule. I should say, I only got on that track of thinking b/c of the CRB language about creating one's own magic items referenced being able to cast the underlying spells in question--"although access through another magic item or spellcaster is allowed".

Maybe I'm reading more into that than I should, but it just seems to make intuitive sense that it should be cheaper to augment item A w/ the abilities of item B if you already have item B in your possession.

So, maybe my house rule for merging 2 existing items would be along the lines of "it costs the base value of the newer item". Thus, no 50% surcharge b/c you no longer are creating something out of thin air. So if you get a Ring of Jumping in 1 adventure, and then a Ring of Feather Falling in a later adventure, the right PC or NPC could merge those 2 for the cost of the latter (2200 gp for the NPC; 1100 gp for your PC w/ the right crafting feat).

I'll think on it some more. Thanks for taking the time to explain things.


Personally, I have no particular objection to treating an existing item as the "crafting materials" needed to craft it into something else. ^^ It seems reasonable enough.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I've had people do something of the reverse: take an unslotted item, such as an ioun stone, and make it into a slotted item for half the price (or quarter price if they made it themselves).

Silver Crusade

Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:
Isonaroc wrote:
Not exactly the same, but I had a Paladin make a single use wondrous item that popped greater angelic aspect, banishing blade, fire of vengeance, eaglesoul, sacred nimbus, greater stunning barrier, deadly juggernaut, and a delayed blaze of glory (I think, I don't have the list at hand) after which the user is reduced to dust as per the disintegrate spell. I called it her "last stand in a can." She hasn't had occasion to use it, yet.
I love it! How much did the GM charge you for it?

I honestly can't remember, the game has been on hiatus for a while. I've got the info for it on my computer somewhere, but not readily to hand. I do know it was less expensive than it should be because of the finality of it, as it was clearly intended to be the character's last hurrah should things get really bad


i allow it, either have them trade it to a merchant and give them gold equal to 50% of the cheaper item or have them throw them into a pile in a ritual circle along with 25% of the cheaper items gold value and have them craft it themselves


I should clarify one tiny thing. When I said "merging 2 existing items", I didn't quite mean that literally. I intended that to mean take the magic out of a newer item (e.g., item B) and transfer it into an existing older item (item A).

So in my example, when complete, you'd have a magical Ring of Jumping & Feather Falling...and a non-magical ring that used to be a Ring of Feather Falling.

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