Holy Avenger Price

[Anubis]

120,630 gp . . . How do they get that? How do you price an item that is, in effect, two totally different items?

Also, how would a spellcaster "improve" a Holy Avenger to give it a higher plus or another power that require a "+" enhancement? (Like making it Keen or Ghost Touch or Evil Outsider Bane)

Basically, could someone try to break down the price using the rules? I can't for the life of me figure it out, and I would like to add to a Holy Avenger in my game.

 

[magnas_veritas]

Basically, could someone try to break down the price using the rules? I can't for the life of me figure it out, and I would like to add to a Holy Avenger in my game.

Gah. Starts out as a +2 cold iron longsword (cost of 10,330 gp), and then a +5 holy cold iron longsword (cost of 98,330 gp). SR of 5+ paladin's level, and greater dispel magic 1/round of paladin's level.

The problem, of course, is that the other abilities work (1) only for paladins and (2) based on the paladin's level. And that seems to be one of those DM judgement calls that's discussed in the DMG.

I'd say, off the top of my head, enhancements added solely for paladin use would cost 50% of normal. So, the "base price" for the holy avenger without the SR and dispel magic would be 10,330 gp plus (88,000/2), or 44,000, for a total of 54,330. Incidentally, that allows for the 1/round greater dispel magic and SR to cost a decent amount, but they also have the discount. So,
the abilities would cost 66,300 for the standard holy avenger.

So, a +2 cold iron longsword that functioned as a +5 axiomatic holy keen longsword in the hands of a paladin would then cost 106,330 gp for the weapon, plus the above 66,300, for a total cost of 172,630 gp.

Probably not what you're looking for, but it's the best I can do without doing some really serious math.

Brad

(Edit: Sorry, forgot to add in estimated costs of the other stuff.)

 

[The Souljourner]

+5 holy is 98,000gp, cold iron is +2000gp, 30gp for the longsword (doubled for cold iron), 300gp masterwork, (I think they doubled the cost of the masterwork as well, even though the description of cold iron doesn't say you double that)...

Wow, I just did some calculations...

120,630gp actually sounds pretty cheap given the fact that greater dispel magic at will is 132,000 all by itself even at the minimum caster level. Let's see that's 232,330 so far... add in spell resistance of at least 20 ('cause no one under 15th should have an item this expensive) is another 80,000gp, that's 312,330gp. I'm not even doubling the cost of "extra" powers....

Spell resistance of 5 plus your level is not very good, but I suppose it is 20% against guys of your own level.

Still... this is one awesome sword, well worth the measly 120 large the paladin lays down for it.

-The Souljourner

 

[hong]

120,630gp actually sounds pretty cheap given the fact that greater dispel magic at will is 132,000 all by itself even at the minimum caster level. Let's see that's 232,330 so far... add in spell resistance of at least 20 ('cause no one under 15th should have an item this expensive) is another 80,000gp, that's 312,330gp. I'm not even doubling the cost of "extra" powers....

The dispel takes a standard action, and it's area only, which is definitely a mixed blessing. IMO the SR is better.

 

[reapersaurus]

The dispel takes a standard action, and it's area only, which is definitely a mixed blessing. IMO the SR is better.

SR of 5 + paladin level has always been weak, IMO.

 

[FireLance]

While I can't give an exact pricing for the Dispel Magic and Spell Resistance abilities of the Holy Avenger, this is what I advise:

The Holy Avenger starts out as a +2 cold iron longsword, for a base cost of 10,030 gp.

The other abilities add 120,630 - 10,030 = 110,600 gp to the cost. However, since they can only be activated by a paladin, this is after a 30% discount for an item that requires a specific class or alignment to use (see sidebar on DMG p282). The cost of these abilities, if usable by anyone, would be 110,600 / 0.7 = 158,000 gp.

This 158,000 gp breaks down into 90,000 gp for the additional +3 enhancement bonus and the holy quality (difference in market price between a +7 weapon and a +2 weapon) and 68,000 gp for the Dispel Magic and Spell Resistance (frankly, I have no idea how to break these down further and price them).

If you want to add another quality to the Holy Avenger, and assuming that only a paladin can activate it, add 0.7 of the base cost to the standard Holy Avenger cost of 120,630 gp.

Example: To create a Holy Avenger that becomes a +5 holy keen longsword in the hands of a paladin, add 0.7 of the difference between a +8 weapon and a +7 weapon ([128,000 - 98,000] x 0.7 = 21,000 gp) to 120,630 gp to get a final market price of 141,630 gp.

 

[The Souljourner]

The dispel takes a standard action, and it's area only, which is definitely a mixed blessing. IMO the SR is better.

Activating all magic items is a standard action unless otherwise specified... granted, it's not like you can just do it and make a full attack, but in many situations, it can be very handy, *and* it is still a 6th level spell cast at your paladin level at will. That's darn good.

The spell resistance is pretty crappy. 20% against people your level, assuming they don't have spell penetration (which at this level, they really all should), which drops it to 10%, and then if they also have greater spell penetration (which they should) they just automatically pass. Not so great.

-The Souljourner