Starmantle cloak...

[Dwarmaj]

This cloak is in the Book of Exhalted Deeds and makes the wearer immune to nonmagical weapons and states that they get a DC15 Ref save to 1/2 damage from magical weapons. Does this seem over powered for 132k gp? I've seen a couple of Epic items that cost ten times this amount and only give DR10.

Should only the weapon damage be halved or all damage from a single attack?

 

[Darklone]

All damage.

That thing is... BAD. Refl save DC 15.... I think any char who can afford that thing will make this save all the time.

 

[Matafuego]

A high level cleric IMC has it...
I've ruled that it's only against manufactured weapons (so no Unarmed Attacks or Natural Weapons)

And he's not likely to make the saves (he has Dex 8)
Of course with his Con 3 and 30 HP at lvl 16... It helps him...

 

[Darklone]

Wow. Now that's a low powered high level campaign if I ever saw one.

 

[James McMurray]

he item is vastly underpriced. Starmantle IRC lasts one round per level. The item is priced without using the duration multipliers in the DMG. If it used them it would cost 4 times as much. It also doesn't account for the 100 uses of its material component.

The cost via the guidelines should be 530,000gp. And even that is probably too little. Starmantle is an unbalanced spell, especilly in the absence of any house rules preventing it from working in conjunction with Evasion.

The entire magic item section of BoED is suspect.

Amulet of Retribution: A forced shield other for your foes that grants no save and no SR for only 56k.

Enfeebling: For +2 you can get an extra d10 fire damage on a crit. Or for +1 you can get an extra d6+2 strength damage on a crit.

Blessed: For only +1 you get a good weapon that always confirms criticals on evil creatures.

Not everything in the section is bad, but the author of that chapter definitely should have done a bit more playtesting. For the most part the book is good, well balanced, and interesting. But the items and afew of the spells weren't playtested and/or weren't exmined closely for their effects on a game.

 

[Dthamilaye]

Some (I would say many) BoED spells and items are underpriced, overpowered and/or too low level (for spells).

Lots of large radius area spells that blind/nauseate/xxxx all evil creatures. Same spells also deal 1rnd/level damage to the same area. And the save only helps for the blindness/xxxeffect etc.

I just have had an idea to give few of those spells to my players as special end-of-adventureseries prices. Our game is bit munchkin, and still I have raised the levels and removed some abilities of the spells.

Some examples are Empyreal Ecstasy, Ember rain, Righteous Smite and Rain of Black tulips. Those are ok with some tweaking and such.

There are others with even more power. Of course, they are hard to get or have some limitations who can cast them or they have some have ridiculously steep costs for casting. (Pay 1 level for few summon monster IXs or 40d6 area damage? Yeah right )

I do think BoED and BoVD should be totally DM eyes only. The prestige classes, spells and magic items are not too well balanced. Good DM can give some things as treasure or abilites, but should do so only with great consideration.