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View Full Version : The Wrist Lojackometer (need help with balance and pricing)



JetThomasBoat
2012-07-23, 04:49 AM
So I was thinking about Futurama the other day and I got an idea for a few somewhat useful magical items based on random stuff from Futurama.

The Wrist Lojackometer
In the episode where Hermes is replaced by another bureaucrat and they end up taking Bender's personality chip. When they infiltrate the Bureaucrat headquarters, Leela pulls a little thing out of the thing she wears on her wrist and puts it in a tube that leads to the master sorting pile. So my idea was this.

Description: The wrist lojackometer is a bracer or armlet that has a faint magical aura. On it, there is a small pin that fits the general motif of the armlet or bracer (say the bracer has seashells and pearls, the pin would, too, or if the bracer had leaves and forest animals and such, the pin would be a fox head or something). Once identified by magic, it is apparent what the object does.

Effect: Once the pin is removed from the bracer, by extending the arm wearing the bracer and pointing in any direction, the bracer will tell you in an emotionless voice "Cold", "Warmer" or "Hot", with increased rapidity the closer it is to "Hot", to indicate which direction the pin is in. The item is useful for locating other members of the party, and while still attached to the bracer, the wearer can consciously choose to change the appearance of the pin to other things, such as a badge, buckle, or button, for the purpose of say sewing it into the shirt of a certain person you wish to track. In addition, the Bracer can determine which direction is north at any time.

And the other item is one that needs a lot more work and will have different grades or types, like a bag of holding. It is:

The Finglonger

Description: This item is a yellow glove made out of a smooth, sort of squeaky material (like rubber) that goes halfway down the forearm and only covers the thumb and forefinger. It has a varying magical aura.

Effect: When worn by a spellcaster, this glove provides a bonus on attack rolls for touch spells, depending on the strength of the item (I'm thinking +1, +2, and +3, but maybe more or less) and in addition, a certain number of times per day (I'm thinking for now, anyway, unless someone has a better idea), the forefinger can stretch and extend the reach of melee touch attacks, so for instance, a cleric with the least kind of finglonger could use it to deliver an inflict light wounds spell with a +1 to the attack roll and he could do it from five feet away.

Okay, so for these, I need some critiquing, some prices, and possibly some varying types for the finglonger.

While I'm posting this, can someone tell me what PEACH means?

Thomar_of_Uointer
2012-07-23, 07:36 PM
"PEACH" means "Please Examine And Critique Honestly". I personally don't see why you would put it in the title of your post. Are you expecting most people to casually read your post and then lie to you about it? Anyways, I like the Futurama references, you would definitely need a twisted wizardly mind to come up with these sorts of things.

Anyways, the bracer plus beacon item is probably on par with a level 1 or 2 spell. I would peg it at 2,500 gp with a maximum range of 1 mile, since it requires a lot of creativity to use effectively (compared to, say, an item that lets you cast locate object for any type of object, which would be 10,800 for an unlimited use level 2 spell).

The touch attack item is interesting. Normal magic weapons scale at 2,000 gp for a +1 to hit, 8,000 gp for a +2 to hit, and 32,000 gp for a +3 to hit. If you do the math mage touch attacks actually benefit less than normal weapons from to-hit bonuses (because they're already more likely to hit, so 5% is less of the total). This would basically be a wand or an orb of some kind granting a bonus to hit with melee touch and ranged attack rolls. I would put it at 75% of the price of a magic weapon, so 1,500 for +1, 6,000 for +2, and 24,000 for +3.

Extending reach is different, and there's already a spell for that (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/spectralHand.htm). However, I would let it be part of the item granting a touch attack bonus at no cost since it's a similar ability. By the wondrous item crafting rules that's 1800 * 2 * 3 / 5 per use, so 2,160 per daily use up to 5 uses. However, that's Medium range (at least 100 feet), and an effect with Close or 25' range would be more like a first level spell. I would put 25 foot range at 360 per use per day.

So after all that, an item that grants +1 to all spell touch, ray, and ranged touch attack rolls with the additional ability to make a touch spell ranged out to 25 feet once per day would cost about 1,860 gp. You can do the math to figure out more complex things.

JetThomasBoat
2012-07-23, 07:48 PM
Damn. That was a pretty concise answer. I haven't slept and I've started drinking beer, so I kind of just skimmed it, but thank you for the advice, I appreciate it. My head just can't grasp the math right now. But thanks for the answer.