Help to create a magic item

[Adamarh]

Hi as the title said i need help to create a magic item or to know if it is possible.

The magic item will be a wondrous item, it will be a decanter that will create 2 dose of Elixir of repression per day (if they are not consumme after 24h they will lose they property).

Is it possible? If it is how much would it cost to make, what spell do i need and should i put restriction on it to maybe lower the price?

If you want to know why its because in a campaign a player have some tendancy (sadly murderous one :/) but another player want to craft a magic item that produce 2 Elixir of repression per day (cause it last for 12 hour) to calm those tendancy but neither of them or me know enough about magic item crafting to know if it is possible.

[OmniMage]

You mean this thing?
Elixir of Repression

Its priced half that of a potion of a 2nd level spell. 2 * 3 * 50 gp / 2 = 150 gp.

An unlimited use version of it would be 2 (spell level) * 3 (caster level) * 2000 gp (use activated) * 4 (for a duration measured in rounds) * (2/5) (2 uses per day) = 19,200 gp. Thats an estimate.

The next step is to figure out if its worth that much. Compare it to other magic items to see if its overpriced, underpriced, or just right. A thing to note is that this magic item doesn't copy a spell, its copying an elixir that somehow gives 12 hour duration per dose. So discard the * 4 part of the equation and now its 4800 gp. I think that is a reasonable number.

Anyways, the numbers given are just estimates. An efficient quiver and a handy haversack would cost 90,000 gp (for a 5th level spell) if you solely relied upon the estimating magic items prices table. In practice, they were priced as approximately 2000 gp magic items, which is what you would expect if you were trying to make magic items using level 1 spells. Basically what I'm saying is sometimes you have to throw out the number the equations provides as it may be way off from where it should be.

Edit: I realized later that this elixir is really half the price of an equivalent potion, so maybe reduce the price of the magic item by half (to 2400 gp). Also, I think this decanter should be a wondrous item.

[Toshy]

I am inclined to use a quick and dirty method, referring to the magic item creation cost and the original elixir to scale the normal elixirs price up to an item with 2 charges per day instead of creating it from scratch.

"Scaled up Elixir"
Spell Effect

Single Use, Use Activated:
Spell Level × Caster Level × 50gp

Use Activated or contionous:
Spell Level × Caster Level × 2.000gp

Spell Level and Caster Level are the same, so the only difference is the gp-factor (×50gp vs ×2.000gp)

Elixir Price 150gp
150gp : 50gp × 2.000gp = 6.000gp
That would equal a unlimited, Use Activated item.

Now we modify it to 2 uses per day
6.000gp / (5/2) = 2.400gp

If your PCs want to craft it themselves, it would cost 1.200gp to make, and require the craft wondrous item feat, as well as the Spell calm emotions (as the normal elixir would).

Building a new item

Building it without referencing the original elixirs price and just it's requirements would result in the following:

Calm emotions
2nd Level Spell, lowest Caster Level 3

Use Activated
Spell Level × Caster Level × 2.000gp
2 × 3 × 2000gp = 12.000gp

Modified with 2 uses per day
12.000gp : (5/2) = 4.800gp

Which would result in a creation cost of 2.400, using the same feat- and spellrequirements as above.

As a DM you would have to consider the items actual worth.

Using the original elixir as reference and "scale it up", you could come up with an item costing 2.400gp (1.200gp creation cost).

However the fact, that your PCs won't need to buy a ton of normal elixirs or using up spellslots everyday could be a benefit that would be "worth more" than a simple scale up and would end up at the cost of 4.800gp using the creation rules from scratch.

Edit
I forgot to factor in the duration, but since the original item is an elixir with 12h duration I would drop the duration factor as OmniMage already said.

Ps: Normally I'd reference AoN-Links, though somehow the page doesn't seem to load for me right now

[Ju-Mo.]

The plan is to craft a magic item that crafts infinite magic items by itself?

There is no good or any rule for that.
Just say he can craft an item that can be filled once a day with a nice wine which works like a elixir of repression but with an duration of 24 hours.

And price it with 100 times the price of the elixir, so 15.000 to buy and 7.500 to craft.
Thats like x50 for infinty uses and x2 because you double the duration.

The item would be positive in terms of economy if you use it for nearly 2 months every day, that sound reasonable.

[Toshy]

Ju-Mo. wrote:

The plan is to craft a magic item that crafts infinite magic items by itself?

I wouldn't describe it as Adamarh in that the item creates two doses per day, but rather then a magic flask which can produce the same effect as the elixir (which is a boosted version of calm emotions) two times per day.

The same like boots of speed create the effect of haste a number of rounds per day.

[Mysterious Stranger]

If the problem is the player has murderous tendencies, I suggest getting as far away from the player as you can.

If the problem is with a character, why make an item that can produce another item to fix the problem. Simply make a continuous use item that duplicates the elixir. Make it a Ring or an Amulet of Repression instead of an Elixir.

[Adamarh]

Thanks for your answers, i think i will go with Toshy and OmniMage ideas cause it seems close to what i was looking for.

@Mysterious Stranger
Yeah i tought about it but the players are 2 friend, one of them is playing a noble scion (the one with the murderous tendancy) and the other his childhood friend who is now the butler of his family, and they really want the concept of the butler brewing the potion with tea and serving it to his master instead of just an amulet/ring.

@Ju-Mo
I dont really want infinite thing or doubling the duration cause i like the fact that if something happen and the player miss the tea time it can start getting bad (he dont have a madness so he will not go berzerk but who know when there will be a chance to finish someone off).

I was wondering if there was a way to put some default in it like "each time it is use the elixir has 5% chance to have real magical property" to reduce the price or is the only way to reduce price is to make it useable only by certains class/alignement or with a skill?

[Ju-Mo.]

You could just make if fluff?
Without using magic. It seems more like a nice idea between to friends/players. Ofc you can settle it with magic (same with casting "Heal" to get rid of normal mental disorders), but if it is just fluff and there are no other rules you could just let them check for it.

Maybe a check on "Tea Brewer" or "Butler" to determine if the tea is good enough to calm the noble scion down/kepp him calmed down or not.

Spoiler:

You could then give them special herbs in dungeons or as a reward that give the butler a bonus on this check. And give it an situational DC to see it the noble one starts killing people. Or letting the butler buy special herbs in the local market if he searches for it.

If he is just sitting in his chair and reading a book, the DC can be low (like the tea has to be a "5" so that he doesnt start to stand up and killing a maid), but if his nemesis apperes and attempts to steal the noble ones girlfriend the tea should be much much stronger DC 35/40, depending on the level of the campaing.

You could even make it a growing DC, the stronger the noble one gets (his level) the better the tea has to be to calm him down like a DC of "level of the noble one" + a situation modifier

Than you also wouldnt have to worry so much about money or ecnomey/wealth per level balance or anything else. Herbs can range fom 1 GP to 1.000 GP and give a bonus from +1 to +10 on the check.

It would just be that the noble one needs his tea 2-4 times a day (whatever you find to you liking) and the better the tea the more stressful situations can be managed

So the players have to think forward what could expect them, and the more stressful the think their day will be, the better the herbs the butler uses.

To be honest, I rly like it if my players come to me with ideas like that and in most cases i dont like a magic solution and prefer a skill check/roleplay solution. I just find it much more fun.

A "I established that we will drink the elixir every day after waking up while the wizard is preparing his spells and 12 hours later when we make camp and prepare for the night we drink the second one"
is in my opinion not half the fun of a
"So what are we going to do today. We will be shopping, but in a really shady district... hm... we could get robbed, maybe by robers who have no sense of fashion. Mylord would hate that, better make a slightly stronger tea today so that he doesnt paint a picture with their innards after he killed them. I will use my XY leafs today to make the tea for the morning while we go shopping."

Adamarh wrote:

I was wondering if there was a way to put some default in it like "each time it is use the elixir has 5% chance to have real magical property" to reduce the price or is the only way to reduce price is to make it useable only by certains class/alignement or with a skill?

Its your item, you got a lot of variable prices, because there is no such item and no real formula for it.

OmniMage said it, if you use the formule to exact you will sometimes get totally over or underpriced items.
Thats why the GM has the last word what the price of a costum made magic item should be and if its even allowed/balanced.

This item is to special to follow the craft rules like they are rules. More like lose guidlines.

If you want the item to have a chance to fail for 5% just reduce the price by an amount you think is fair.
If you want the item to have a chance to work better with a 3% chance, like "you are mentally stable for the next week" than make it slightly more expensive.

[Mysterious Stranger]

If this is supposed to be brewing a tea then make it an alchemical item, not a magic item. That would allow you to use craft alchemy instead of using the magic item creation rules. In all honesty this sounds more like a character background issue than something that needs a magic item.