Oh great masters of custom magic item pricing, I beseech your wisdom.
I really like scaling magic items, that grow in power with the characters. I would like to create a scaling version of the boots of speed, but am a bit unsure with the pricing, so please help me out.
The basic boots of speed cost 12.000gp
I tried to recreate this per the magic item creation rules as follows:
3×10 (Haste, SL3, CL 10)
×2000gp (use-activated)
/5 (1 charge/day, though splittable)
= 12.000gp
I want to scale the item as follows:
Stage 1 - +30ft movement, 10 rounds/day
Stage 2 - +1 AC, 10 rounds/day
Stage 3 - +1 hit and +1 damage, 10 rounds/day
Stage 4 - boots of speed (haste), 10 rounds/day
Roughly following the above calculation, I would end up with something like this:
Stage 1
1×1×2000gp/5= 400gp (akin to expeditious retreat, with 10 rounds/day)
Stage 2
+1000gp/5= +200gp (+1 AC, for 10 rounds/day)
Total 600gp
Stage 3
+2000gp/5= +400gp (+1 Weapon bonus, for 10 rounds/day)
Total 1.000gp
Stage 4
The above calculation would result in 11.000gp for the extra attack for 10 rounds/day
Does this sound reasonable?
Looking at the price tables for scaling items, I would end up with something like this:
Bauble
Stage 1 = Item Level 5
Stage 2 = Item Level 6
Stage 3 = Item Level 7
Stage 4 = Item Level 15
Prize
Stage 1 = Item Level 3
Stage 2 = Item Level 4
Stage 3 = Item Level 5
Stage 4 = Item Level 11
I thought about adding the full price for armor and weapon bonus (ignoring the 10 rounds duration discount) to better spread the scaling more even and have a smaller gap befor the final stage:
Stage 1
400gp (+30ft, for 10 rounds)
Total 400gp (bauble-level=5 / prize-level=3)
Stage 2
+1.000gp (+1 AC, for 10 rounds)
Total 1.400gp (bauble-level=8 / prize-level=5)
Stage 3
+2.000gp (+1 hit and +1 dmg, for 10 rounds)
Total 3.400gp (bauble-level=11 / prize-level=8)
Stage 4
The new calculation would result in +8.600gp for the extra attack for 10 rounds, resulting in the completed boots of speed (haste 10 rounds/day).
Total 12.000gp (bauble-level=15 / prize-level=11)
Would you make such an item a bauble or rather a prize regarding normal player wealth and item progression?
Any suggestions, additions or corrections to my train of thought and math would be appreciated.
my first question, you have bonuses at stages 1-3, and then basically haste at stage 4, do they stack?
so 60' extra movement, +2 AC, +2 attack, and an extra attack? If so, then the total price for the item is too cheap. If not, and you wind up with basically haste with an added +1 to damage, then it's still too cheap.
No, the finale stage doesn't stack with the previous ones.
Stages 1 to 3 add up.
Stage 4 will replace/sum up a final effect, which is 10 rounds haste per day.
So in the final stage the item is the same as the already existing (and linked in my original post) Boots of Speed which I used as a reference point.
But after reading your post and rereading haste I realized I somehow messed up.
It should be +1 to hit in one stage and +1 AC, +1 Ref-Save in the other, I messed up reading the haste spell.
The final value of 12.000gp should be fine, as it equals an already existing identical item, just need to tune the steps to it.
The scaling items not beeing the best cost/benefit solution, won't be much of a problem.
My players are already going strong, without overly optimizing their gear.
The already have some scaling items, and every item has some story or personal relevance.
The goal is not to make the item the most optimized at every stage. The players like thise items for their plot and relationships to their characters.
I could say just wait till you can afford the boots of speed, but they like to discover the increasing powers of their scaling items (which they don't know befor reaching each stage). My goal is to just not make it feel like a dead item slot, till the full effect is reached.
Going along with this train of thought, at which level would normal boots of speed be a reasonable character investment/reward?
If I'd run it as a bauble, it would come online level 15. As a prize it would achieve its final stage at level 11.
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Not really my area of expertise, but I'd consider scaling the uses and speed boost by level as well: 30' bonus to speed 10/day with free action activation is a really strong item all by itself.
Maybe something along the lines of:
Stage 1: +10' Speed for one round (level/day [max 10])
Stage 2: +20' Speed, +1 AC & +1 Reflex Saves for one round (level/day [max 10])
Stage 3: +30' Speed, +1 AC, +1 Reflex Saves & +1 Attack for one round (level/day [max 10])
Stage 4: Haste (level/day [max 10])
Personally, I would go with something like:
Stage 1: Effect equal to feather step slippers (2,000 gp)
Stage 2: Add the effect (constant) from boots of striding and springing; guestimating 5,000 gp for the +10 ft enhancement bonus and 500 gp for the +5 competence bonus to Acrobatics checks when jumping; 5,000 + 3,000 gp (x1.5 feather step effect) + 500 gp (I'm assuming increase was already included in boots of striding and springing price) = 8,500 gp
Stage 3: Add effect (including free-action activation) from boots of speed (note, haste gives +30 ft enhancement bonus, +1 on attack rolls, and +1 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves; you can also just add rounds per day at +5 rounds per 6,000 gp); 12,000 gp + 7,500 gp (x1.5 on the constant +10 ft enhancement bonus) + 3,000 gp + 500 gp = 23,000 gp
Stage 4: Add the trample effect of boots of the mastodon; 12,000 gp + 15,750 gp (x1.5 of boots of the mastodon price) + 7,500 gp + 3,000 gp + 500 gp = 38,750 gp
This gives a nice mix of activated and constant or at will effects that align to the name momentum boots.
If you just want an inexpensive bonus to movement early, a wand of longstrider is only 750 gp for 1 hour at a time.
And a wand of haste can affect 5 characters for 5 rounds per activation for 11,250 gp.