Body Slot Affinities for Magic Item Body Slots

[Azothath]

As I can't find this on AoN, my CRB or GMG - so going back to OGL (From 3.5)

Body Slot Affinities
Each location on the body, or body slot, has one or more affinities: a word or phrase that describes the general function or nature of magic items designed for that body slot. Body slot affinities are deliberately broad, abstract categorizations, because a hard-and-fast rule can’t cover the great variety among wondrous items.
You can use the affinities in the list below to guide your decisions on which magic items should be allowed in which body slots. And when you design your own magic items, the affinities give you some guidance for what form a particular item should take.
Some body slots have different affinities for different specific items.
Wondrous items that don’t match the affinity for a particular body slot should cost 50% more than wondrous items that match the affinity.

Body Slot | Affinity
Headband, helmet | Mental improvement, ranged attacks
Hat | Interaction
Phylactery | Morale, alignment
Eye lenses, goggles | Vision
Cloak, cape, mantle | Transformation, protection
Amulet, brooch, medallion, necklace, periapt, scarab | Protection, discernment
Robe | Multiple effects
Shirt | Physical improvement
Vest, vestment | Class ability improvement
Bracers | Combat
Bracelets | Allies
Gloves | Quickness
Gauntlets | Destructive power
Belt | Physical improvement
Boots | Movement

[Azothath]

I don't know that this holds in PF1 as development over the years put deflection bonuses all over [ring], [head], [wrist], [feet] without a cost increase that I can tell... Are they saying boots that give you Haste should cost more? and these are OGL items...as we all know players buy them for the extra movement ;^) ROFL
Boots of Speed [feet] $10000
Haste 3@5 → 3*10*1800*1/5= 10800 & activate as std actn... hmmm....

notice Rings are not on the list.
Ring of Invisibility
Ring of Freedom of Movement
they just don't conform to the Magic Item Crafting Table.

[OmniMage]

Ring of invisibility
listed price 20000 gp
2 (sl) * 3 (cl) * 2000 gp (base) * 2 (1 min/lv) = 24000 gp.

Ring of freedom of movement
listed price 40000 gp
4 (sl) * 7 (cl) * 2000 gp (base) * 1.5 (10 min/lv) = 84000 gp.

So the ring of invisibility is cheaper than what the math would suggest, and the ring of freedom of movement is less than half what the math would suggest.

Anyways. I like pointing out that the handy haversack should be priced as 90000 gp magic item, but is instead priced as 2000 gp. This means that it can be a common low level gear for adventurers, despite having a mid caster level and spell level.

If we are going back to 3.5 to quote rules, lets go back even further to the 3.0 book Tome and Blood. On p. 73, it covers designing new magic items. For the belt of many pockets, the designer decided that the math for it made the item too expensive. The designer then choose another method to calculate the math that was closer to something they found acceptable.

I think that choosing a price for new kinds of magic gear is like creating new rules for the game, or at least creating new splat content. Magic items can do things that you would otherwise need a feat, class feature, or even a spell to do. Making a magic item more cheap or expensive that the base math suggests can affect the balance of the game.

[Azothath]

it simply shows that body slot affinities was a nice idea but managing & implementing rules and constraints is inconsistent at best. Likely why the rule got dumped leaving only cryptic guideline advice.

The Magic Item Crafting Table is a well known guide but not comprehensive or accurate given the breadth of spell effects. No point reviewing well known issues.

D&D & similars historically have been arranged by relative 'power' within the playable game system. That means playtesting stuff with a mix of experienced players to get the abilties and price reasonable/acceptable.
It shows there are multiple factors & strategies that are not modeled/captured in the table or system.
The Superstar forums have a host of creative but poorly priced items and designer commentary.

Paizo consistently demonstrated that overpriced magic items carried less risk than underpriced.

[Oli Ironbar]

It is a great guideline to experiment with now that players and GM's that use that OGL have lots of system mastery and are expecting 'interesting choices' beyond the big 6.

I'd bet a lot of tables looking for variety in mechanics could come up with a few fun sub-systems to try out and cool ways to stylize it into the setting.

Off the cuff, I'm thinking of trying sessions between lvl 6-8 where the party has access to magical properties like a wizard has access to spells and they can trick out select parts of their gear, either each morning or maybe at certain plot points. Finding new items or blueprints can add to their list and plot allows them to anticipate which ones might be needed in the immediate or intermediate future.

Maybe everyone has access to the same items all of the time or maybe there is a limit to how many items the party can have particular items active at once. Or maybe it will fail horribly or maybe just expect table variation.

[Azothath]

I really have to thank my experience with high level games and 'more magic' games to test the system.

Your group, your GM, system expertise, game style, taste, and goals are going to set the play ground you are in.

If you want to model Reality there's always Physics/Science and engineering. Most common experiences are well modeled it's just a bit case specific and math intense.