Making a weaker Goz Mask

[gallifreyangoblin]

I have a player who wants to make an item similar to a Goz Mask, but stripped of most utility in exchange for a cheaper crafting cost. He wants to get rid of everything except the ability to see through smoke, and only be able to use that feature for 2 hours per day in 5 minute increments. If you were going to allow this, what cost would you give?

https://www.aonprd.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Goz%20Mask

[voideternal]

If you wanted to put it in-line with other equipment from the core rulebook, I'd say maybe a level 7 item costing 350 gp that gives a +1 item bonus on survival and a once-per-day (or hour, if you're feeling more generous) cat's eye elixir effect for either 1 or 2 actions for 1 minute.

A dividable 2 hour duration is more-or-less a permanent effect for most intents and purposes. It's somewhat uncommon for items to provide a non-skill based permanent benefit.

An example of an item that provides a permanent passive benefit is greater goggles of night. That's an 11th level item costing 1,250 gp. The effect being recreated, darkvision, has a few different consumable options:
Scroll of level 2 darkvision - item level 3, 12 gp, 1 hour
Scroll of level 5 darkvision - item level 9, 150 gp, 24 hours
lesser darkvision elixir - item level 2, 6 gp, 10 minutes
darkvision elixir - item level 4, 11 gp, 1 hour
greater darkvision elixir - item level 8, 90 gp, 24 hours
All of the consumable options are already long-duration (minimum 10 minutes, most are 1 hour+). In contrast, the only consumable method for bypassing mist/fog is cat's eye only lasting 1 minute. One could potentially argue that such an effect shouldn't be granted as a permanent item bonus.

Part of the reason why though, is because cat's eye elixir defeats all forms of concealment, not just fog or darkness. If there was a restriction of only bypassing concealment from fog / mist / smoke, maybe it could be argued that an item providing a permanent benefit is reasonable.

On the other hand, if an item providing a permanent bypass to fog / mist / smoke existed, it would likely be combo-d with spells / items / effects that create fog / mist / smoke, which there are a lot of.

Ultimately, how available, at which level, you place this hypothetical item is up to you. Hopefully the above gives you some insight on where to place it.

[gallifreyangoblin]

Thank you! That helps me a lot. I don't often allow modifications like this, so I didn't even know where to start.

[Ravingdork]

Are you playing 1st Edition or 2nd Edition Pathfinder?

[Zapp]

One important piece of advice:

You simply cannot rationalize "so let's get rid of four of the five abilities of this thing here, and I can create it at a substantially reduced cost".

Not saying this was what your player was going for here, but it is very common.

You need to realize that many items have one powerful ability and then a couple of "ribbon abilities" that doesn't meaningfully impact the price.

You should always keep the option of saying "okay so you remove this and that, but the price stays the same!" In other words, if the central ability is still there, you should not feel compelled to give a discount. This would then also explain why you always see this particular item with those other extra abilities - it is because it required no extra effort so why not?

At most you could observe in the Treasure chapter (table 11-1 to be specific, pages 536-) how items of a certain level have a range of prices. By removing abilities the player thinks he can do without to get a lower price, you can change the price very slightly towards the lower end of that range, but still keep the price at the same level.