New Magic Item : Meta-magic Ioun Stone
Ashwood
Shape : Sphere
Effect : Allows a caster to boost his spells in various ways
When casting a spell the caster can choose one of the following
effects which will cause the stone to go inert for 1 day before it can
be used again : Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, or Spell Penetration
(will stack with the feat of Spell Penetration for a +4 bonus)
Or the caster can choose to Empower one of his spells, which causes
the stone to go inert for 7 days before it can be used again.
Finally, the caster can choose to Hyper-Charge a spell which gives all
the benefits of Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, and Spell Penetration.
However, this will burn out the Ioun Stone permanently, changing it to
a dull grey.
--Ashwood the Wizard
What do you think? Is it too unbalancing? How much should the market
price be?
Craig T. Dalrymple
mind when reading my opinion of this...
I would find more balance in a set of ioun stones, each keyed to a
specific meta-magic feat. Instead of one that allows choice. Then add
in a ruling that having more than one of these stones going at the
same time either: 1. Causes them to negate each other and not work
(limiting the player to just one stone of this sort) or 2. Runs a fair
risk of burning the stone out each time it's used (due to the
proximity of other meta-magic stones) - say a 20% chance that the
individual stone burns out (allowing the player to have multiple
stones for his character, but risking them each time they are used).
Perhaps your stone as offered could be a minor artifact of some sort?
The flexibility it offers (choose the feat that you need most now) is
what cautions me. Anything that is too convenient can be unbalnaced.
Though you did a great job of limiting it to one use per day. I do
like the flavor of the one time desperation Hyper-Charge for the item.
It's something that a character would save for a life or death moment
in a big fight and could add a bit of flash and drama to the encounter
- but you would have to factor it in for every encounter (ok - what if
the mage just goes berserk with that ioun stone) and prepare for
something that you might have thought would be a good fight to end up
being a one round flash in the pan.
Another question to answer: Does it override/ignore the change in
spells level?
ie: an "enlarged" spell requires that the spell is memorized at +1 to
it's level (so a level 3 spell enlarged would be treated as a level 4
when memorized). If it does bypass this requirement, the item becomes
much more beneficial and desired. If it does not, then the caster in
question would have to choose the spell to effect and which effect to
choose during normal spell memorization - which is a balance (which
you might not desire).
All in all, I think this is a good idea that should be developed. So
long as these stone(s) aren't common and every day it would be quite a
prize for a character to have and can be balanced in a variety of game
styles (from lower power to high) without much effort.
As to the market price - I'd think that demand for it would be high -
driving the price up (economy model). Compare it to another item that
you feel has the same rarity and basic power/value and put it close to
that. This way it's crafting difficulty and value reflect something
you already agree with as a benchmark for it's value...
Nice idea!
CTD
ratd...@earthlink.net (Ashwood) wrote in message news:<3b04c39e...@news.earthlink.net>...
thomas jorgensen
Ashwood wrote:
The main balance problem is that this stone could allow you to cast an
"empowered" meteor swarm, or otherwise cast metamagiced spells that
are normally impossible. This can have very kinky consequences, along
the lines of "I prepare a maximized awaken and use the stone to
empower it. Meet my old and wastly improved animal (or worse:
plant) companion."
If it can be used for this kind of thing the price should be fairly high.
100.000 GP? If you limit its effect to metamagiced spells that would
normally be possible, it provides limited access to three feats. and
judging by the "alertness" stone which already exists that would cost
about 24.000 gold.
The nessesary prerequisites for makiing one would naturally be
all three feats.
Ashwood
Shape : Sphere
Effect : Allows a caster to boost his spells in various ways
When casting a spell the caster can choose one of the following six
effects which will cause the stone to go inert for 1 day before it can
be used again :
Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, or Spell Penetration
(will stack with the feat of Spell Penetration for a +4 bonus)
Alternatively, the caster can choose to Empower or Maximize his spell.
However, this runs a risk of permanently burning out the stone,
turning it to dull grey. The chance for burn out is 5% per spell lvl
for an Empowered spell and 10% per spell lvl for a Maximized spell.
Finally, the caster can choose to Hyper-Charge a spell which gives all
the benefits of Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, and Spell Penetration.
This will always burn out the Ioun Stone. In addition, there is a 5%
chance per spell level that the stone will explode as it burns out
causing 1d4 pts of damage to the caster and requiring a Fortitude save
DC 15 to avoid being stunned for 1 round. (Burn out occurs just after
the spell goes off)
--Ashwood the Wizard
Better? Worse?
Bruce Grubb
ratd...@earthlink.net (Ashwood) wrote:
I never really liked Ioun stones. The consept of a character walking around
with with this little stone circling them like a planet or electron always
struck me as somewhat ridiculous.
IMHO something similar in concept like the Powerstone out of GURPS Magic
might be a better idea. Basicly a Powerstone is nothing more than a magic
battery that slowly recharges on the surrounding magic. Depending on the
surrounding magic and enchantment proceedure this recharge period can take as
long as 1 pt/week or as short as 1 pt/3 hrs.
In D&D terms the Powerstone functions similar to a Ring of Wizardry but
instead of simply doubling the nubmer of certain level spells that can be
cast it allows any level combination of spells to be cast as long as it
doesn't exceed its current Strength.
For example a Powerstone at STR 8 would allows a mage to cast 8 extra 1st
level spell, four additional 2nd level spells, two 3rd level and 2 first, or
any other combination totaling 8. A Powerstone must be used in conjuction
with any material components to provide any benifits
Varient item: Manastone. Simply put this is a powerstone that cannot
recharge.