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Pricing a new class of magic item

   
Pricing a new class of magic item

I'm working out a new type of scroll, but have no idea how to price it. What would you pay to have the right spell at the right time?

Prescient Scroll
Like a standard scroll, a Prescient Scroll is a spell that has been stored in written form. A Prescient Scroll is a spell completion item that can be used only once. The writing vanishes from the scroll when the spell is activated. Using a Prescient Scroll is like casting a spell and the spell you use it for must appear on your spell list. When it is created, powerful divination magic is invoked to scribe the right spell onto the scroll for when it is needed most. Only when the scroll is unrolled to be cast do the words appear for it's user. Until then it is an amorphous mix of potentials and possibilities. The scroll can be used to cast any one spell of the indicated spell level of the scroll. It cannot be used to cast spells of lower level or have metamagic feats applied to it. Any power or ability that modifies a scroll as it is being used can also apply to a prescient scroll as it is being cast as long as the spell it is used for qualifies for the power or ability. A prescient scroll cannot be scribed into a spell book. In addition, the scroll cannot provide material or Experience Point components for the spells and the caster must provide those at the time of use should they be necessary.

To create a prescient scroll you need to be able to have a caster level and access to the levels of spell that the scroll is being designed for and you must have both the Scribe Scroll and Craft Wondrous Item feats and access to a divination spell of equal or higher level than that of the scroll being created.


So how much?
Should they be specified for arcane or divine at time of creation?
Is this nifty or brokenly abusable?
How can I write the text better?

Sounds like the Book of Infinite spells and from what I remember it is an artifact, and actually even more practical than the Book of infinite spell since you can choose the spell. At least little I remember of dnd 3.5 but I do recall, there was a spell called Any spell (spelling?) might want to look at it in the spell compendium or something and see how they priced the spell use.

Cost it as the combination of a single use of an appropriate Pearl of Power plus a single use of a single-spell Runestaff? Probably not less than that, anyway.
Probably want to check that formula against standard scrolls of spells like Limited Wish, etc.

I would definitely distinguish between arcane and divine if you normally would require scrolls to be distinguished as such, otherwise not.

Appropriately costed, I don't think this would be significantly more abusable than plenty of other options available to casters.

I had thought of Anyspell too, but it's a cleric spell that allows them to prepare an arcane spell in their domain slot.
The pearl is a permanet item so 1/50? The limited wish idea might fit.

Lessee Limited wish is 7th level and has a 300XP cost. It has a cost of 3775gp and the value that it places on the XP is 1500gp (the standard 1/5 XP to gp ratio). It can only create up to 6th level effects. So if we place a 7th level Prescient Scroll at the same price (7th level, caster level 13) then the base modifiery is rounded to 42gp.

So the pricing breaks down to this:
1st level: 42gp
2nd level: 252gp
3rd level: 630gp
4th level: 1,176gp
5th level: 1,890gp
6th level: 2,772gp
7th level: 3,822gp
8th level: 5,040gp
9th level: 6,426gp

A standard 9th level spell on a scroll costs 3,825gp

Thoughts?

I had actually meant that the price of a standard scroll of Limited Wish be used as a benchmark for the upper limit (because Limited Wish does offer some additional flexibility beyond what these scrolls would offer, like casting spells from others' lists) for a Prescient Scroll of 6th level (the highest level of spell Limited Wish can be used to replicate from its caster's class spell list).

What I meant was that a 6th level version of this item should not cost more than [what you currently have calculated for a 7th level version].

Or, if we accept the general rate of scaling to and past that point, that a 1st level version should cost [something less than 252gp] and an 8th level version should cost [something less than 6426gp].

It's a tough call, because IMO your "Prescient Scroll" basically makes normal scrolls obsolete. My kneejerk response is that having them be only twice as expensive is a little low. From an absolute perspective, however, maybe it's just that normal scrolls are overpriced.

If you're looking to avoid broken-ness, your test case needs to be the Artificer. It has Metamagic Spell Completion, encourages UMD optimization and various infusions that could cause issues. Increasing the time to actually cast the spell--maybe make it 1 round, like a summoning spell--should remove most in combat issues.

Anyspell is not a good comparison I'm afraid, because it explicitly must be prepared in a domain slot. You can't make scrolls of it at all.

One of the most compelling purposes of scrolls in the metagame is to have access to spells you wouldn't be likely to need every day, but when you need them you can't afford to wait a day. Your system accomplishes this much more efficiently, so you would only need a handful of prescient scrolls to accomplish it.

(On a totally unrelated note, maybe come up with a different name to avoid linguistic confusion? Just a thought.)





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