Spell Immunity, six grand a spell, one spell at a time?

[Three_Haligonians]

Hello all,

The spellblade weapon quality in The Player's Guide to Faerun costs 6,000gp and states that at the creation of the weapon, a chosen spell is cast into it and thus makes the wielder immune to that spell with the option of redirecting and what have you. The description says that it must be done at the forging of the weapon so characters can't just go buy spell immunity whenever they want, but my question is: can you spend 12,000gp at the start and get two spells? or 18,000gp to be immune to three spells of your choice? If the answer is yes you could then my follow up question is would it be worth it?

Thanks

J from Three Haligonians

 

[Darkness]

I think it would cost more, or at least precedent from other weapon/armor qualities/other items points in that direction.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

There's nothing preventing you from getting it placed on a weapon multiple times, unless the ability itself says it cannot be stacked multiple times.

My assumption is that, like the skill bonus armor enhancements, the increase in price is pre-calculated into the price of the ability, and therefore adding two would not cost more than adding 1 times 2.

 

[Nail]

Patryn, I don't get it. Could you re-explain?

As an aside, I've always wondered why, if weapon special abilities are stackable, I don't see more doubly or triply flaming weapons (+2d6 or +3d6 fire).

BTW, I *love the new post count system. I see that I have 25,866 fewer posts than Crothian!

 

[Lasher Dragon]

As an aside, I've always wondered why, if weapon special abilities are stackable, I don't see more doubly or triply flaming weapons (+2d6 or +3d6 fire).

Now there's a cool idea...

 

[DM_Matt]

As an aside, I've always wondered why, if weapon special abilities are stackable, I don't see more doubly or triply flaming weapons (+2d6 or +3d6 fire).
!

Too many things have energy resistances or immunities, and even relatively minor resistances are going to make 1-3d6 look pretty bad. Besides, in many (most?) campaigns, most of the enemies are of similar alignments, so Holy/Unholy/Axiomatic/Whateverthechaosoneiscalled weapons are usually better than double energy. Alternatively, having say, Cold and Fire, will give you more reliable results (1d6 vs resistance critters, 2d6 vs not) than two of one, and many people would opt for the uniformity instead sometimes being really good and sometimes really bad.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Patryn, I don't get it. Could you re-explain?

Certainly! But first ...

As an aside, I've always wondered why, if weapon special abilities are stackable, I don't see more doubly or triply flaming weapons (+2d6 or +3d6 fire).

Good question. I believe there was, once, in a published WotC adventure, a fire giant with a +1 Flaming [x3] Battleaxe.

I assume most people want to have Flaming and Shocking, rather than Flaming [x2], because it's more flexible.

There's nothing preventing you from getting it placed on a weapon multiple times, unless the ability itself says it cannot be stacked multiple times.

My assumption is that, like the skill bonus armor enhancements, the increase in price is pre-calculated into the price of the ability, and therefore adding two would not cost more than adding 1 times 2.

Ok, from the top:

Unless an ability says that it can't be applied multiple times - like, say, Keen - then there's no reason to assume that it can only be applied once. Accordingly, feel free to have a Flaming [x2] or [x3] weapon. As with armor, you could conceivably get the Silent Moves (+5 competence bonus to Move Silently checks) placed on it multiple times. However, since like-named bonuses don't stack, you'd just be wasting cash.

Now, if you look at the various skill bonus armor enhancements (Silent Moves [Improved], Slick [Improved], Shadow [Improved], etc., you'll notice that they have a cost of 3,750gp for the non-Improved versions, and 15,00gp for the Improved versions.

The handy-dandy "Magic Item Cost Calculator" table tells us that Competence bonuses to skill checks are priced at Bonus^2 * 100gp. Therefore, a +5 Competence bonus should cost 25 * 100gp, or 2,500gp. Similarly, a +10 Competence bonus should cost 10,000gp.

However, the same table tells us that, if you are putting multiple abilities on a item which takes up a slot, each additional power after the first has a 50% increase in cost.

Multiple Different Abilities: Abilities such as an attack roll bonus or saving throw bonus and a spell-like function are not similar, and their values are simply added together to determine the cost. For items that do take up a space on a character’s body each additional power not only has no discount but instead has a 50% increase in price.

So, what do a +5 and a +10 competence bonus cost when increased by 50%? 3,750gp and 15,000gp, respectively, which exactly equal to the prices given on the table. Thus, these special abilities already incorporate the "Extra Abilities" surcharge.

I imagine that, in a similar fashion, the spellblade quality already includes the "Extra Abilities" surcharge. Thus, adding one costs 6,000gp, adding two costs 12,000gp, etc. There's no further multiplier, because all relavent multipliers have already been taken into account.

 

[DM_Matt]

BTW, I think this item is based on the 4k Ring of Counterspells. Thus, 4,000gp x 1.5 for additional ability = 6,000gp. Thus, the additional ability cost appears to be built in.