Enchanting Question: Always On

[fooflam]

I apologize in advance if this is posted somewhere, but I spent the last 1.5 hours searching for a reference to Always On for Enchanting items and was unable to find anything (even searched for "innate fatigue").

My question is this: When enchanting an item, is there an actual cost to include the "Always On" option? The Magic book didn't really say. I ask because my DM came up with a really cool, simple magical item that my character would like to recreate and sell, but I need to come up with a total point cost for casting (and then the materials cost after that, but that's the easy part).

[Langy]

To make it always on, just make it so the cost to cast and maintain it is zero, through use of the Power enchantment.

[Bruno]

Existing enchantments list an "always on" cost if one exists. If a regular version also exists, that gets listed separately.

That's about as close to an official rule for the cost of an Always On spell as I think exists - ie I don't think there are official rules for new enchantment costs at all.

I would find a similar spell with an always on and a regular option and see what the ratio between costs is (ie is Always on twice as much? +50%?) and adjust your custom enchantment similarly and see if the final number looks reasonable. Compare it to a few other enchantments with a similar base casting cost.

Compare, compare, compare - if the most similar spells seem to be all over the map, average their costs so at least yours is in the middle instead of a crazy edge case, unless it looks like your custom spell is a crazy edge case of course :)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Compare, compare, compare -

You can also look a little farther.

One of the great unfotunatenesses of 4e is that there is no 4e version of the Technomancer book and that said book's variant spells and othert rmagic info has not been brought forward. into 4e

In the Technomancer book there is a (b) Enchanted Item for the Purify Air Spell. It consists of a mesh grid that Purifies air drawn through it. It's exactly what you want and it only costs 200 energy (per hex covetred, round up) to Enchant.

It isn't listed as Always On but I've always assumes that 1 energy would cover anything a numan could wear.

So make the mask and goggles a one piece affair and spend 200 on the Purify Air, another 200 for the Air Vision and 500 for a single pt of Power which will supply both other Enchantments.

If you wonder, Power works so that however much Power you put on the item it supplies that much energy to _every_ spell on that item (even at the same time). Don't worry about energy per second or any other simlar concept. It doesn't work that way. The mask and goggles do need to be a single item rather than 2 separate items that are worn together.

[vierasmarius]

Something you could do to keep costs down would be to enchant it with only Power 2. This is sufficient to cover the maintenance for Air Vision and Hold Breath, but the wearer would just need to spend some fatigue to activate it when he first puts it on. It could be marketed as an "economy" version of the more Power-ful mask.

[jacobmuller]

How much do enchanted items sell for in your world?
Would the character get in trouble with any "guilds" for underselling?
If the going rate is $25 per point of power, a 1-5 thousand point mask is going to be a rich man's toy. And it can take up to 14 mage-years to make just one. Or 2 months work for a team of 100 enchanters (gives them about $600 per month income). Dang but don't that make magic items depressingly drudge labor:(

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Something you could do to keep costs down would be to enchant it with only Power 2. This is sufficient to cover the maintenance for Air Vision and Hold Breath, but the wearer would just need to spend some fatigue to activate it when he first puts it on. It could be marketed as an "economy" version of the more Power-ful mask.

Such cost-cutting measures are often a good idea when enchanting or commissioning an item for your own use.

[Snaps]

While the breathing item might be expensive, the Air Vision can be done for almost nothing.

In fact, you don't even need an item. If you enchant a staff with 1 point of the Power Enchantment and the Air Vision spell (for a total energy cost of 700) you can then cast Air Vision on someone that would allow them to see clearly for 1 Mile and lasts until dispelled.

Probably better than enchanting a single magic item to sell. Just sell putting the spell on people permanently!

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Snaps

In fact, you don't even need an item. If you enchant a staff with 1 point of the Power Enchantment and the Air Vision spell (for a total energy cost of 700) you can then cast Air Vision on someone that would allow them to see clearly for 1 Mile and lasts until dispelled.

I assume that always on doesn't apply to enchantments that affect someone other than the user of the item, as it doesn't make a lot of sense that way.

[Snaps]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I assume that always on doesn't apply to enchantments that affect someone other than the user of the item, as it doesn't make a lot of sense that way.

Pretty sure it does.

You have to have Power equal to the cost of the spell, not its maintain cost. (Otherwise it ends when you sleep, etc).

There is a staff in Magic Items 1 I once got in a game that let me Missile Shield and cast Invisibility on an entire army. (One by one).

I once played in a game where some evil necromancer was having people sacrificed in order to keep putting Power enchantments on him. (Which I think they had rules for in the 3e Religion book). He got pretty powerful before we could kill him, able to cast 100 point spells at will.