Strand of Prayer Beads (Lesser) - worth it?

[Joshua Randall]

I'm player a Clr6 in a fairly generic campaign world. My PC has come into some cash (about 5,000 gp) and I'm considering magic items to have crafted. One that jumps out at me is this:

Strand of Prayer Beads: This item appears to be a normal string of prayer beads until the owner casts a divine spell. Once that occurs, the owner instantly knows the powers of the prayer beads and how to activate them. Each strand includes two or more special beads, each with a different magic power. ...

A​

​

lesser strand of prayer beads has a bead of blessing and a bead of healing.​

Bead of blessing: Wearer can cast​

​

bless.​

Bead of healing: Wearer can cast his choice of​

​

cure serious wounds, remove blindness/deafness, or remove disease.​

Each special bead can be used once per day, ...​

The owner need not hold or wear the strand of prayer beads in any specific location, as long as he carries it somewhere on his person.​

Price 9,600 gp (lesser)​

I could have this item crafted for 4,800 gp. It seems pretty nifty: you can always use another bless spell, and the flexibility of the bead of healing is a strong feature. You don't really want to prepare remove blindness/deafness or remove disease every day, but when you need 'em, you really need 'em. And if you don't, there is always a use for cure serious wounds.​

So, what do you guys think? Is the lesser strand of prayer beads worth the 4,800 gp my PC would have to pay?​

 

[Scion]

you are making it yourself I take it?

Personally, I would go with 10 pearl of power 1 's

You can get your bless back, a bunch of cure lights (d8+5 a few times is way better than 3d8+5) and you can pass them around if other casters need an extra first level spell here and there.

Otherwise though, the cure blindness and such is very nice!

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

My Living Greyhawk cleric bought a lesser strand of prayer beads. I haven't regretted it. It has several good uses:

1. It functions as a spell trigger item. So, when a collossal animated rug grapples my character, he can heal himself once without any trouble. This is also useful for clerics without a good concentration score. It's a cure or bless spell that doesn't provoke an AoO.

2. It is a good cure spell with no opportunity cost. Ordinarily, I'm a bit hesitant to toss out a Cure Serious or a Cure Critical Wounds spell. That's my Magic Circle or Air Walk or Freedom of Movement or whatever else might be useful in the future. Now, if I need the cure serious or cure critical now more than I'm likely to need the other spell later it's a good deal but there's still a consideration. With the strand of prayer beads, I can just toss the spell out when it seems like it might be useful since it's primarily a curative item. There's less opportunity cost than there is for other cure items.

To tell the truth, it's even more useful for part-time divine casters like multi-class clerics, paladins, and rangers or less efficient healers like druids. For such characters, it's much harder to actually get the cure serious wounds spell so the ability to cast it is more valuable.

 

[UltimaGabe]

Keep in mind, the item doesn't need to be worn- it's effectively slotless. So it probably DID cost 4800 at one point, but as it has no space limitation, the cost was doubled.

 

[tensen]

Keep in mind, the item doesn't need to be worn- it's effectively slotless. So it probably DID cost 4800 at one point, but as it has no space limitation, the cost was doubled.

No.. it is still 4800 to create a necklace of prayer beads, lesser... with the bless and heal beads.


And if you have a little extra spare cash.. it is only 300 gp to create the beads of blessing, in case you need more. (Though this last part is up to your DM....as in any variation on magic item creation.)

 

[Joshua Randall]

you are making it yourself I take it?

Actually, I'm having the friendly wizard with Craft Wondrous Item make it for my cleric PC, with my cleric contributing the required spells. And yes, this is legal:

Note that all items have prerequisites in their descriptions. These prerequisites must be met for the item to be created. Most of the time, they take the form of spells that must be known by the item’s creator (although access through another magic item or spellcaster is allowed).

Personally, I would go with 10 pearl of power 1 's

That would probably be more efficient, but there's a limit to how much cheese I'm willing to eat.

It functions as a spell trigger item.

An important point that I forgot to note. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Which is quite nice.

I suppose I could just save up my cash for a better item later -- but my belief is that you never want your PC to die with a wad of cash when he could've lived with the use of a magic item.

 

[Felix]

I'm going to jump on the Pearl of Power bandwagon. For 10k you can get 2 PoP (1) and 2 PoP (2). And for 5k, a Pearl of Power for both first and second level. My wizard loves being able to scrape out another Rope Trick or See Invisibility or Magic Missile when times get a little hairy.

 

[Scion]

Actually, I'm having the friendly wizard with Craft Wondrous Item make it for my cleric PC, with my cleric contributing the required spells. And yes, this is legal:

yep, it is legal. In my games I even let the pc's choose who will lose what amount of exp from the total.

That would probably be more efficient, but there's a limit to how much cheese I'm willing to eat.

I've always found it much, much less cheasy than carrying around a handful of wands. Along with it being more beneficial in the long run.

 

[Scion]

For 10k you can get 2 PoP (1) and 2 PoP (2).

There you are then, even better! You can even put them on a strand and pretend they are your own personal prayer beads lol

 

[Thanee]

Personally, I would go with 10 pearl of power 1 's

As it seems, you need to be CL 17th in 3.5 to craft these, however.

Bye
Thanee