I am interested in a custom magic item that allows me to treat my Caster Level and Manifester Level as 4 levels higher than it is, ideally using the Bracers slot.
What should that cost?
[RPG] Custom magical item
magic-itemspathfinder-1e
Related Solutions
With base price being defined as how much the item is priced in the store, and not the discounted cost for crafting the item.
Correct.
Items you can buy from the store usually have a CL listed.
For example, the Ring of Invisibility has a CL 3rd, so a player would need to take a DC 8 spellcaster check to successfully craft the item.
No, oddly enough. The crafter of the item sets its caster level, from a minimum of whatever it takes to cast the requisite spells (or other requirement listed for the item), to a maximum of the crafter’s own caster level. Since caster level typically costs money, increases DCs, and so on, most crafters use the lowest caster level possible for the item.
The caster level listed with items is the “typical” caster level for that item, where “typical” is more-or-less just something the authors made up. For most items, it is the minimum (e.g. that ring of invisibility, requiring as it does the 2nd-level invisibility spell, which has a minimum caster level of 3rd), but there are exceptions (e.g. sovereign glue, which has an absurd listed CL of 20th, despite only really requiring 3rd for make whole).
From what I can gather, the cost to craft a magical item with multiple abilities costs the full price for the most expensive bonus, then 1.5 times the price of each additional bonus.
Correct.
It is worth noting that D&D 3.5, upon which Pathfinder is based, added a rule in Magic Item Compendium that certain, basic sorts of bonuses do not incur this premium. For instance, making your ring of invisibility also include a deflection bonus to AC (à la ring of protection) would not cost extra (just the cost of ring of invisibility plus the cost of ring of protection), because deflection bonuses to AC were one of the “generic” bonuses you could have on rings. Other examples included enhancement bonuses to ability scores, resistance bonuses to saving throws, etc.
This change allowed for characters to get their critical math fixes, while still allowing them to get “fun” and interesting items. It led to a much smoother game that penalized characters less for being responsible and buying the critical, but boring, +number items.
I will admit that Paizo not only has not ported this rule, but adamantly opposes it with its recommendations. Paizo considers it important that characters pay extra for combining such items. I will state flat-out that they are quite simply wrong. This attitude massively, and unnecessarily, shafts the classes that were already weakest. I cannot more strongly recommend that you ignore them on this issue.
Lets say I want to craft a Ring of Invisibility and also enchant it with Magic Aura so that it registers as a non-magical ring.
Your example is done correctly.
- Does adding the Magic Aura effect to the Ring of Invisibility increase the final Caster Level of the ring, and thus the DC spellcaster check? If so, by how much? Just 1 since I used Caster Level 1 to add the effect, making the ring a CL 4th with a DC 9 spellcaster check?
Caster level requirements are minimums, so use the highest minimum as the overall minimum of the item. In this case, magic aura requires CL 1st and invisibility requires CL 3rd, so the ring requires CL 3rd. You could craft with a higher CL (requiring a higher DC), which would make the ring more resistant to dispel magic et al.
When you upgrade a magical item or add additional abilities to an existing magical item, do you take a DC spellcaster check at the end of the crafting time? The rules do not state this outright and I've not been able to find an answer.
- If you do, do you use the CL of the new ability for the check? With the example for adding Invisibility to a ring of protection, would the DC of the spellcaster check be that of the CL of the ring of Invisibility (3rd), or something else?
The DC would be based on the item’s CL, whatever it is. At a minimum for this ring, 3rd.
Does the CL of the item increase when upgrading an item? Bracers of Armor has a CL 7th regardless of the strength of the enchantment bonus. Would upgrading the bonus from +1 to +3, or +1 to +5, still use a DC 12 spellcaster check?
If you were correct about bracers of armor requiring CL 7th regardless of enhancement bonus, you would be correct. I believe there may be some examples where this would be the case.
However, the bracers of armor do not require CL 7th. Rather, they require that
creator’s caster level must be at least two times that of the bonus placed in the bracers, plus any requirements of the armor special abilities
Your pricing of the small masterwork light repeating crossbow is correct.
Your pricing of the continuous master’s touch is correct per the guidelines. As a DM, I might not be so sure I like that price, however.
Your pricing of the at-will use-activated magic missile is correct. However, it would not fire missiles that deal 3d4+1 damage, as you seem to imply. It would instead fire three separate missiles that deal 1d4+1 damage each.
You have a mistake when you add them together: firstly, you dropped the \$\times2\$ multiplier from the duration note on master’s touch: it should be \$10,000\text{ gp}+4000\text{ gp}\$, not \$+2000\text{ gp}\$. Moreover, you missed this note:
Multiple Different Abilities
Abilities such as an attack roll bonus or saving throw bonus and a spell-like function are not similar, and their values are simply added together to determine the cost. For items that do take up a space on a character’s body each additional power not only has no discount but instead has a 50% increase in price.
For one weapon with two different effects, you need to pay half-again the cost of the continuous master’s touch. So the cost should be \$10,000\text{ gp} + \left(4000\text{ gp} \times 1.5\right) = 16,000\text{ gp}\$.
Finally, Eberron Campaign Setting has a page (268, to be precise) on warforged components. It includes statements like
A warforged component usually occupies the same space on the body that a magic item of the same kind normally would.
Likewise, armbow specifies that it
attaches to the arm of a warforged, completely covering the hand.
So assuming that this item uses up your character’s hand like the armbow does, it should cost \$16,000\text{ gp}\$. If it does not,
Components that do not occupy any space on the body cost twice what they would cost as ordinary magic items.
Thus that would be \$16,000\text{ gp} \times 2 = 32,000\text{ gp}\$.
Either way, the fact that the base cost is less than the price of the armbow, despite having significant extra features, suggests to me that your DM may very well dispute these prices. I would.
A magic weapon must have a +1 bonus on it before receiving any other special weapon properties. But you aren’t enhancing this as a weapon, you are treating it like a wondrous item. The rules don’t really cover this possibility; I would probably require the +1. But a +1 is all you need; after that, you’re free to put as much other magic on there as you want without needing a higher enhancement bonus (with the exception of the more powerful weapon augment crystals).
Any enhancement bonus on the item would add to attack and damage, yes.
For costing these, the fact that you’re adding features to a magic weapon means that you need to consider that 50% premium again. You have a \$10,000\text{ gp}\$ component (the magic missiles), a \$4000\text{ gp}\$ component (the master’s touch), and a \$2000\text{ gp}\$ component (the enhancement bonus, assuming you go with the minimum +1). The second and third each cost 50% extra because you’re combining them on one item. Like so:
$$ 10,000\text{ gp} + \left(4000\text{ gp} \times 1.5\right) + \left(2000\text{ gp} \times 1.5\right) = 19,000\text{ gp} $$
This adds onto the \$550\text{ gp}\$ cost of the base item, so your total is \$19,550\text{ gp}\$. Again, twice that if it’s not taking up your hand.
Best Answer
Magic Item Creation Guidelines: +4 bonus to Caster Level
The Orange Prism Ioun Stone provides a +1 bonus to Caster Level, and requires no slot. Now, note that this does not specify that it is the Caster Level of one class; if you were a multiclass spellcaster with more than one spellcasting class (a mystic theurge, perhaps), the bonus would apply to all of your classes.
Moreover, an item that provides a bonus to Caster Level can be used by a Psionic character to get a bonus to Manifester level, by the rules of Psionics-Magic Transparency.
So a cerebremancer could use an Orange Prism to get +1 to both Caster Level and Manifester Level. That’s convenient.
Therefore, we want a +4 (or +6) version of the Orange Prism, but we’ll allow it to take a slot instead of having no space limitation.
The basic Orange Prism costs 30,000 gp.
Since Ioun Stones have no space limitation, they cost double what an item that does take up a slot costs, based on the Table: Estimating Magic Item Gold Piece Values. Thus a +1 bonus to Caster Level that isn’t an Ioun Stone should cost 15,000 gp.
Costs for bonuses are generally based on the bonus’s value squared, times some number of gold pieces. Since the Orange Prism is a +1 bonus, 12 = 1, so that number is 15,000 gp. So a +4 bonus would be
And a +6 version would be
Those are both enormous amounts of money; the latter takes almost all of the wealth of an 18th-level character (and most DMs do not allow you to put all your wealth in one item, and for good reason). Even at 20th level, the +6 bonus is more than half your expected wealth.
They are just guidelines after all, right?
The guidelines do not always provide a perfect value for all items; there are numerous cases where the formulas produce items that are much, much too expensive or much, much too inexpensive.
Here, though, it’s hard to argue with the forumulas. Bonuses to Caster Level are extremely valuable, and a +4 bonus is huge. They allow you to cast spells better than someone of your level usually could, which is just about the biggest deal, short of simply casting higher-level spells anyway. And with psionic augmentation, you basically are manifesting higher-level powers.
But wait, I’m a cerebremancer: I’m already behind
This is the big thing: to become a cerebremancer, you need at least three levels in each of the base classes, before taking levels of cerebremancer that advance both. Therefore, your Caster Level and Manifester Level are already three behind what a single-classed spellcaster or manifester would have. You aren’t really getting a bonus so much as catching up.
Thus, consider the effects of the 3.5 feats Practiced Spellcaster or Practiced Manifester: you gain a bonus to Caster Level or Manifester Level that may not exceed your total level. In other words, they let you “make up” missed levels, but don’t let you go ahead of where you would have been otherwise. This is a far, far less powerful effect, and more accurately describes what this item would do for you.
So let’s impose that limitation on the item:
Thus, as a Wizard 3/Psion 3/Cerebremancer 5
11th level, in total
Caster Level 11
If you got the full +4, you would go over your HD
Manifester Level 11 as well (same calculation but with Psion levels)
If you later level up several times so that you are a Wizard 3/Psion 3/Cerebremancer 10/Loremaster 4:
20th level, in total
Caster Level 20
Again, +4 would cause you to exceed your total level
Manifester Level 17
Here, we hit the +4 cap.
Now, what would this item be worth? Still quite a lot, but it’s drastically limited compared to the full +4 item. The bonus is akin to taking two quite-good feats, but it’s only really useful to a cerebremancer and for them it’s quite crucial, so I’d favor pretty lenient pricing. Personally, bonus squared times 3,000 gp would be sufficient, though that’s largely because I would want to make it relatively easy to catch up; depending on your campaign and DM, I could see that number go as high as 6,000 gp. Anyway, with my own number:
+4 bonus (capped at HD):
+6 bonus (capped at HD):
For the sake of completion, a +3 version is the highest you need until 17th level, so:
Obviously, still extremely expensive items, but they are extremely valuable to you.
Make sure you remember exactly what this bonus does!
A bonus to Caster/Manifester Level improves the spells/powers you can already cast/manifest: greater range, larger area, longer duration, more damage, anything that references “level” in the spell or power’s description. For psionics only, an increase in Manifester Level also increases bonus Power Points for having a high ability score and increases the limit on how many power points may be spent when Augmenting a power.
The bonus does not, however, increase your general spellcasting/manifesting ability. It does not give you more base spells per day or base power points, it does not allow you to cast/manifest higher level spells/powers, and it does not let you gain additional spells/powers known. An item that did that, even for a single level, even limited by your total HD, would be worth more than even a 20th-level character could afford. An item that did that should never be allowed into the game.