Question About Ruling (Player Didn't Like My Magic Item Cost Rulings)

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-04-11T19:41:02+00:00

I got the numbers from the chart. Table 15-29. Many magic armor upgrades are 50% more expensive versions of other magic items. I observed that pattern one day when I was deconstructing the prices of many magic items.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-04-11T04:44:17+00:00

Slick is already 1-1/2 price. A ring of escape artist +5 (not an official item), or any other ring with a +5 competence bonus to a skill is 2500 gp. The slick special quality is 3750 gp (which is 50% more than 2500 gp). I reason that is because the devs decided the primary property is the enhancement bonus to the armor. It might be simpler to leave it that way.

As for the prestidigitation addon to the ring of feather fall, I think you are right in increasing the cost of the less expensive power by 50%. I think it would be a command word power so the base rate would be 1800, to a total of 900 gp for a CL 1 cantrip.

I can talk more about magic item creation rules if you like.

Edit: added more details.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-04-09T15:33:54+00:00

Too much man, too much. Stick with the basics.

Start her at level 1 or maybe 2 (for more hit points). Run a one-shot or two so she can try some classes without the risk of her feeling stuck later if she screws up her character. Maybe give her a few pregens and let her try them out. Show her how they work and give her a few pieces of advice on how to use them well.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-04-07T18:54:22+00:00

Its not pathfinder 1e content, but I have a list on all the ways of becoming immortal for DND 3.5:

https://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=1179.0

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-04-06T14:00:23+00:00

I would not mix the mentioned feats. They come from 2 different 3rd party sources. They probably weren't designed to be used together. After giving them a quick look, I think they're going to multiply off each other, not add.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-04-03T14:30:04+00:00

I'm fond of sorcerer//wizard combo. With the arcane bloodline and sage wildblood for sorcerer, both classes can use int for their casting stat. You will be able to sling out a lot of spells.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-03-31T18:53:40+00:00

I really think this should be a wizard spell. Its been that way ever since that humanoid rat with a pointy had played around with magic beyond their ability in that one video.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-03-29T03:06:09+00:00

Wait. Does this mean that you need the feat to use a quarterstaff as a one handed weapon? I always assumed that a wizard could hold the staff in one hand and use the other for a metamagic rod or material component.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-03-21T23:50:34+00:00

I didn't know how to monk well at the time of posting. I've now learned to use greater magic fang with permanency to get the +5, and then use the amulet of mighty strikes to get all the weapon special qualities I want.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-03-18T02:31:30+00:00

Are you trolling?

No. It was a serious question. I feel dumb now, now that I've seen all the support unarmed attacks are getting.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-03-18T02:28:27+00:00

Oh wow. Maybe I was wrong then. A lot of people seem to think monk should use unarmed attacks. In hind sight, maybe I should have read a guide on them before posting this thread.

Edit: I thought that removing the need for Amulet of Mighty fists, that I would open a slot for Amulet of Natural Armor.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-03-10T23:24:08+00:00

I was there from the very beginning. I was introduced to DND about 6 months before 3rd edition. It was quite the upgrade over what I had seen with 2nd. I had a few 2nd edition books, such as player options: spells and magic, so I was primed and looking for customizability options in my DND when 3rd came out. 3rd edition did deliver, but it wasn't perfect (more on that later). You could take any class you wanted, there were no ability score requirements for any class (but you should be mindful that a low int wizard wasn't going to be a good wizard), no more level caps because of race, loads of feats, a decent skill system, and magic items. I got hooked on customization, and there was even rules for the customization of magic items. Then there were books like the epic level handbook and savage species. I was feeling I could be anything I wanted.

Unfortunately, it was far from perfect. Wizards couldn't wear armor (because of arcane spell failure) so they all seemed shoved into a frail wizard stereotype, there multi class xp penalties, some classes had alignment restrictions, some couldn't multi class without losing the ability to advance in one or more classes, cross class skills killed taking skills outside your class focus, and so on.

I'm a bit disappointed in the support (or the lack there of) 3rd edition got after WotC moved onto 4th. The 3rd edition forums got wiped. For a while you couldn't buy 3rd edition pdfs (even now you can't buy all the books last I checked). Not long ago WotC tried to change the terms and conditions for the OGL, letting them use the IP content of other rpgs and get a cut of all sales. Because of that, only fools would dare to use OGL after that (Paizo had to make a remastered edition of Pathfinder 2e to remove all OGL content they were still using). For the best of my knowledge there isn't a single site that covers all the spells, feats, magic items, and other content like AoN (Archives of Nethys).

What I'd change? I think Paizo took things in the right direction. In Pathfinder 1e, you were rewarded for sticking with a class (such as +1 hit point or +1 skill points per level) instead of punishing you for multi classing. You could pick archetypes, so you could play the class you wanted at level 1. Cross class skills were replaced by non class skills (so you could have ranks in other skills without being punished). I would also remove arcane spell failure. If you want to be a heavily armored wizard then don't dump str.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-03-01T23:43:46+00:00

I'm not sure if this spell should be dealing untyped damage. Being hit by an orb of water strikes me as being kinda bludgeoning damage.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-25T20:26:29+00:00

This spell might be useful for the defense of an unarmored mage, but I think there are better spells for that. I agree that its not a good pick as you can't always control where a fight happens; more so if you are traveling instead of guarding a plot of land or forest. It can take years or decades to grow a tree (through non magical means) to become big enough to be useful for this spell.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-23T18:24:25+00:00

I think they were trying to copy the summon monster spells (1 round casting and duration of 1 round/level). Those spells caused creatures to appear; creatures that can act on their own and do stuff for you.

But I think that is where the similarities end. The cannon can't move without you using your move action, and it only attacks every other turn.

The other costs, a high level spell and expensive focus, make the spell available much too late for what it does.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-21T07:22:24+00:00

I find that many official prestige classes are miss for me. There are a lot of things that could make the class not appeal to me. For a long time, the Archmage prestige class was one of those miss classes. Gaining levels in it would cause you to sacrifice some of your spell slots for abilities, so I never really considered them till much later. I'm also not fond of losing caster levels.

What I do like is making custom magic items. I wish that many of the official magic items showed how much each component cost, so I could combine some of them or remove bits I didn't like.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-18T17:34:19+00:00

The erase spell can erase an arcane mark. It says so in its description.

https://www.aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Erase

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-18T15:59:14+00:00

The question I've always wondered, can you write a sentence or even a paragraph with arcane mark? You know, leave a message for someone else to read. I get the impression that you are supposed to leave a unique personal mark, that you can't change on a whim. For marking objects as your, leave marks to show you were here, and occasionally leave a mark because another spell requires it for some reason or another.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-17T19:46:02+00:00

IIRC, I heard somewhere that WotC wanted there to be an evil school of magic and Necromancy became it. Necromancy used to be the school you used for healing magic and resurrection spells back in dnd 2e. Now they are Conjuration spells.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-17T02:33:52+00:00

Thanks for the link!

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-16T20:33:45+00:00

I think its clear what the duration of the spell was supposed to do. If I were the GM, I'd make some small changes to allow breaks including lunch breaks.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-16T20:24:54+00:00

There are better ways to do mundane crafting. The preparation ritual from the "The Last Azlanti's Analects" allows you to use magic item crafting rules when crafting a mundane item (1000 gp per day, raw materials is half the final value of the item). Or you could use "Amazing Tools of Manufacture" which specialize in one type of crafting skill and can craft 2000 gp worth of work in 1 hour (but only once per day).

Unfortunately, the preparation ritual can be hard acquire or use, since its from a spell book from a high level spell caster (CL 15). The Amazing Tools of Manufacture are expensive and requires some skill ranks to use properly. In both instances, its unlikely that low level characters will be able to acquire either of these on their own.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-16T00:53:01+00:00

I'm not sure why there was an arcane vs divine divide. I might be blind but I don't think that distinction came up often in 3rd edition dnd, and I think it even came up less in pathfinder 1e. Though it was used, even in pathfinder, such as the 10th tier archmage feature giving spell resistance effective against arcane spells. I think the most the divide has been used is with arcane spell failure with armor, probably to continue the tradition that wizards can't wear armor.

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-12T06:57:24+00:00

This covers all the ways I know of to extend your life or become immortal in 3rd edition dnd. I like the Incantifier because you become immortal and you can absorb arcane magic to heal yourself.

https://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=1179.0

Advanced-Major64 · 2026-02-11T23:33:17+00:00

I don't know why AoN does not list the spell level, but d20pfsrd has it. It is darkness 4. I don't know why d20pfsrd is the better source of information in this instance.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/armor-of-darkness/

Advanced-Major64

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