OK, so I am attempting to create an intelligent item set based on an old warforged druid character of mine. Basic concept is that when he was destroyed several of his components were made into magic items (a headband, shirt, boots, and gloves) which each maintained a portion of his consciousness.
I am designing the individual items to be intelligent (empathic only), each functioning as an individual magic item with one intelligent power. However, as the items are collected the intelligent powers and properties of the set are enhanced.
For example, each item starts out with one charge/day of a spell that is part of a spell tree specific to that item (beast shape for the shirt, plant shape for the boots, etc). When a new item is acquired both items advance that effect by one spell level (BSI becomes BSII, PSI becomes PSII, etc), and the set gains 2 charges/day that can be used for either effect (instead of the static 1/day of each).
The set itself gains greater awareness as more pieces are collected as well, increasing it's ability scores, perception and communication, and gaining special purpose powers.
The problem I'm having is that, before collection benefits the individual items only cost 75k, but once the value of the collection benefits is added in this multiplies to a staggering 433k.
75k feels too low when divided between the items, given their scaling benefits, but 433k seems too high as when divided out that makes the individual items (before collection benefits) to expensive to be worth gathering in the first place.
So, does anyone have an idea on what could be done to alleviate this conundrum?
I was considering requiring the leadership feat or something similar to "unlock" all the collection benefits of this item set.
The way I figured it at 20 the level (assuming no leadership modifiers) you can have a 14th level cohort with their own equipment (14 class levels and 185k of equipment). The equipment value could be subtracted from the final cost of the item set.
Another possibility is that, since you don't actually get another character to use you might even be able to decrease the final cost by up to double this amount to make up for "lost" cohort class levels/HD, and followers.
Would either of these be reasonable?