Back when I was learning about how to craft magic items in 3.5, I was told by the GM that in order to get around enhancement bonuses not stacking, you could make an item with a "misc" bonus, or an "unnamed" bonus, as these do stack.
He explained that you could make an item that normally has an enhancement bonus (say, Cloak of Charisma +2 enhancement) have a misc/unamed bonus instead by paying double the cost. So you could wear more than one stat increasing item for the same stat.
However, I have been unable to find this rule anywhere in the books. Was this a houserule and the GM gave me the wrong impression?
Can you pay double to craft an item that would normally give an enhancement bonus to instead give an unnamed bonus? And if so, where is this in the rules?
Best Answer
Yes, you can make such items. Items with these sorts of bonuses exist, so someone had to have made them, and when there are stats for a magic item, there are also rules for how to make that magic item.
For making a custom item with untyped bonuses, the pricing guidelines do not suggest a price. For bonuses to AC, “unusual” types cost 25% more than deflection bonuses (which, themselves, cost twice as much as enhancement bonuses to armor), while for saving throws, unusual bonus types cost twice as much as resistance bonuses. But in these cases, there is a specific list of unusual bonus types, rather than completely untyped. This matters if you were to make multiple of these items (though, with three to four different bonus types listed, you can still make several).
There are no pricing guidelines for truly untyped bonuses because those should be quite rare, seeing as they stack with everything. I probably wouldn’t allow untyped bonuses to ability scores outside of artifacts, myself.
TL;DR: They can be made, but pricing isn’t specified and “double cost” is probably getting off easy; it should most likely be more than that.