Hi,
I want to do a crafter for my next game and there are some rules that I would like to use but can't find.
Two items that were used in a game that I GMed were using free action and swift actions. When I saw them in play, I thought they were totally overpowered and of course I want to make some of them now. :p
Boots of speed:
As a free action, the wearer of boots of speed can click her heels together, letting her act as though affected by a haste spell for up to 10 rounds each day. The haste effect’s duration need not be consecutive rounds.
The Forbidden Name:
Each of the yellow ribbons that spill from the joints of this jaundiced suit of +3 studded leather armor bears one or more haunting runes. Three times per day, a cleric (or other class with cleric domains) with the Rune domain can use her blast rune domain power to mark one of the ribbons rather than a square. Such blast runes last until the next time the cleric prepares spells and cannot benefit from other domain abilities such as spell rune. As a swift action while wearing this armor, the cleric can cause one of the ribbons to lash out and touch an adjacent creature, triggering the blast rune as if the target had entered the warded square. When marking a ribbon with a blast rune, the cleric can instead expend two daily uses of The Forbidden Name’s ability to also apply the benefits of another Rune domain (or subdomain) power such as spell rune or warding rune to the blast rune.
The prices seem very cheap for granting a spell for a free action or swift action. I couldn't find rules that allows to craft this kind of items. Are there like very few items that do that, are "unique" and that we can't craft anything similar? Of course I could just craft them as they are, but the joy of crafting is making something new. I would love a free action whatever spell for 10 rounds.
This is one of the areas where there are no rules, because the effects can vary wildly from spell to spell, and a GM has to adjust for that. Action economy, as you are aware, is one of the most powerful things you can mess with and any magic item that adjusts that needs to be looked at carefully by a GM to ensure that it is balanced.
So there is, and should not be, a 'standard' adjustment for this.
That said, I have seen some people use swift action activation of a spell as being equivalent to a quickened spell, hence 4 levels higher and with a commensurately higher caster level needed (so a swift action haste would be a 7th level spell with a caster level at least 13) and that isn't a horrible starting place.
Cost wise that is casting a 3rd level spell (haste), as a 10th level caster with continuous activation (x2000), but 1 charge per day (1/5th). So 3x10x2000/5=12,000. Boots of Speed happen to cost 12k,and be CL 10. So the though process seems to match with the designers.
It kind of makes sense. But there's a note for continuous activation for spells that lasts in rounds to multiply the cost by 4. Which would change the cost to 48,000. But this might actually be the correct recipe. I will talk about it to my GM. I think 48,000 gp for a free action spell is much more appropriate than 12,000 anyway.
I was also thinking about checking the rod of quicken to get an idea of what to do. Maybe adding limitations to cut the price.
Cost wise that is casting a 3rd level spell (haste), as a 10th level caster with continuous activation (x2000), but 1 charge per day (1/5th). So 3x10x2000/5=12,000. Boots of Speed happen to cost 12k,and be CL 10. So the though process seems to match with the designers.
It kind of makes sense. But there's a note for continuous activation for spells that lasts in rounds to multiply the cost by 4. Which would change the cost to 48,000. But this might actually be the correct recipe. I will talk about it to my GM. I think 48,000 gp for a free action spell is much more appropriate than 12,000 anyway.
I was also thinking about checking the rod of quicken to get an idea of what to do. Maybe adding limitations to cut the price.
It's badly worded, but IIUC that's intended to be applied to continuous items that don't have a limit--i.e., that are always on or can be repeatedly activated at will. It accounts for the fact that continuously applying a spell effect normally measured in rounds is much more valuable than continuously applying a same-level spell effect normally measured in hours. One is like having tens of thousands of daily uses, while the other is like having a few daily uses that happen to cover the entire day. The multiplier isn't really necessary if you're already explicitly restricted in daily uses.
A new crafting question:
"Item Requires Skill to Use: Some items require a specific skill to get them to function. This factor should reduce the cost about 10%.
Item Requires Specific Class or Alignment to Use: Even more restrictive than requiring a skill, this limitation cuts the price by 30%."
I can't think of magic items that follow these rules. Can I just stick a "Lawful only" or "you need to be trained in survival" to my magic sword and save 10%-30% on the price? Seems a bit too good to be true.
We are generally discouraged from putting restrictions on usage of magic items, as the obvious thing to do is to limit the item's usefulness to either the crafter or whoever he is making the item for. Restrictions that a particular character happens to meet are not very meaningful.
As others have said, if you want to have your character craft items that aren't in the books, the best way by far to go about it is to talk to your Game Master to have the item in itself as well as the cost and requirement of its crafting be a collaborative work between the two of you.
I've seen quite a few tables break or come close to it because of not enough forethought put into it.
Unless you are completely clear with your game master and are fine with changing things in retrospect as they don't work well within the parameters of the game - I am talking about overpowered magic items -, I advise to steer clear of crafting feats.