Alea Iacta Est

Costing Miscellaneous Items

I refer you to Table 8-40, on page 242 of the DMG, and Table 4-3, page 74 of Tome and Blood. As a clarification, as best I can tell, the phrase 'Use-activated' in the Spell Effect section includes any effect that is constant while the object is being worn/wielded ('used'). In other words, although the Lantern of Revealing is used as an example, since the 'use' of clothes is to wear them, items such as the Cloak of Elvenkind (which gives an effect when the hood is raised) is also an example of this trigger type.

Oh, and look carefully: in the DMG version, on the Special: Charges per day line that symbol is a divide sign (which I don't even seem to have on my keyboard), not a plus. Took me a while to notice that... In the Tome and Blood version, that symbol is instead a minus sign, which almost certainly isn't right (since '5 - charges per day' should remain positive, in my opinion. But then again, maybe Wizards know what they are doing. What do I know about formulae?

Beyond that, it is mainly a case of finding a spell of about the right power level for the effect you want, or an item that already does something similar. The main principles to remember are:

1. that the second most expensive power of a group of similar ones costs only three quarters, and the third and subsequent ones are half cost each.
2. that additional powers that are not similar are double in price.

I recommend implementing combinations of these are follows:

• For each group of related powers (and this in itself is a judgement call; consult your ref, or if you are refereeing talk to someone else you trust to know what is going on), use the first principle to determine a total cost.
• Use the normal cost of the most expensive of these groups, and double cost for each other group.

Remember, if the cost that comes out after using the tables is not competitive with other items, feel free to reduce it (provided you are the ref, or the ref agrees). The example in Tome and Blood comes in at 23,000gp, which is far more than the Bag of Holding 2 (of which it is a souped-up version), so the designer makes some arbitrary changes (that do not stem from game rules) to reduce it to something more reasonable. If you only use some aspect of a spell's power, treat it as a lower level, or scale down the cost some other way.

The main thing to remember is that the referee always has power of veto over anything that anyone else attempts to bring to their game. Whether I tell you this as a reminder to bow to the ref's will, or as a reminder that you are allowed to subject people to it, you would do well to remember it.

If in doubt, leave it out. It is far harder to put up with the player who is annoyed because you took away his favourite game-unbalancing toy than it is the one who is annoyed because you wouldn't let them have it in the first place.

And if the worst comes to the worst, as ref, call it an artefact. Then you don't need to price it at all...