No cleric or healer in party heals

[AzureKnight]

I normally run campains from level 10 to 20. The group wants to have amulets made to cast heal critical wounds 3 times a day. how would i come up with a price for such an item as wel as time needed for creation.

[Cloud]

It may be easier to answer this question if you know why the groups wants the amulet. Even Cure Critical wounds strike me as useless for in-combat healing at level 10 (heck I'd say it was useless at 5th level onwards...which is problematic when it's a 4th level spell), and if it was for out of combat healing, I'd look at investing in wands of lesser vigor, used by Use Magic Device.

If they're sold on the healing item, tell to take a look at the belt of healing from MIC. If they really insist on a Cure Critical Wounds amulet, well, the extremely poor guidelines in the DMG suggest a price of;
Spell Level * Caster Level * 1,800 / (5/3)

So for the item in question, that would come out to be 30,240. ...That strikes me as extremely overpriced for how bad of a spell cure critical wounds is (a belt of healing can provide 6d8 points of healing a day, which is less than 12d8 + 21 for sure, but the belt is only 750 gold). I'd probably peg it at closer to 13,000 gold (which is likely still a massive overestimation, but it is 4d8+7 for a single standard action so I erred on the side of overpricing it).

For a comparison a healing belt is 27 points of healing a day for 750 gold. The amulet would be 75 points of healing a day (...putting it like that 30,240 should clearly be ridiculous, and even my 13,000 estimate seems quite large). The only saving grace is that the belt is 9 points per action, and this is 25 per action. Is it being more than 6 times less efficient in gold cost worth it being nearly 3 times more efficient action economy wise? ...If it healed a decent amount probably, but as is I doubt it.

In any case the days to craft an item is really simple, 1 day per base 1000 gold you decide the item is worth. I'd also advise not using the DMG guidelines, and instead look at items that already exist (at least from the MIC onwards), and see if for this price would PCs buy this new item, or are the going to go boost their AC, Saves, and Stats.

[Cicciograna]

Relevant handbook:

A Player's Guide to 3.5 Healing (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=2cn9cnf32p20t01gv8bqtt88q1&topic=2710)

[DrunkenMists]

*Snip*

As thier DM; Azureknight could always Fiat "cheaper" versions. If he feels his players need the boost that healing "could" give too. Either that or somehow insert a healer into thier group...NPC or PC...:smallsmile:

[johnbragg]

You could also homebrew an alt-pixie with or without the usual SLA's, give it 4 levels of Sorcerer, an inexplicable devotion to the party (or a devotion to the party's mission), and extreme physical cowardice.

2nd level spell: Invisibility. First action upon any signs of danger
1st level spells: Sanctuary, Lesser Vigor, REduce Person. Sanctuary and Reduce Person right after invisibility.

Or a straight Pixie with a couple of Cleric levels, following the party whether they like it or not, and healing them without asking first.

[ddude987]

If you make it off a different spell list with a lower spell level, the lowest being 3rd, than the price is actually: (3 * 5 * 1800)/(5/3) = 16200gp which is still a lot. As others have said, wands of lesser vigor for outside of combat.

[Cloud]

Well, I did suggest a price that was almost 40% the DMG estimate, and it wasn't clear I'll flat out say the DMG estimates are horrible and should NOT be used, and a better way to price things is decide a price as DM that is competitive with staples such as resistance bonus to saves, enhancement bonuses to attributes, armour, shields, weapons, deflection bonus to AC, etc.

[ddude987]

Well at the same time, I love getting constant favor of the martyr for only 112k gp

[Cloud]

Another reason they should probably be ignored and the DM use his best judgement. =P

Afraid I don't know what else to say on actually pricing the item AzureKnight, I can't remember the last time I actually healed in combat, even if someone goes down when we don't have a healer, we would instead use actions to finish the fight and then save the downed members.

[AzureKnight]

Thanks guys for the help.

[johnbragg]

Thanks guys for the help.

Did we ever find out exactly why the players wanted that rather unique solution to their no-healing problem?

Did the players (or DM AzureKnight) take one of our suggestions? (Probably not my "pixie groupie" idea, but there were several solid suggestions.)