Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Totem of Hunting - Minor Wondrous Item

Totem, Hunting Pouch: This magical pouch is made from the hide of a dire beast, and filled with trophies from the creature it provides a bonus against, as well as natural items anathema to it.

A hunting pouch provides its wearer a +2 circumstance bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks used against a specific creature type or race. In addition, the wearer gains a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against the same creature type or race.

The creature type or race that a given pouch is effective against is chosen from amongst the possibilities on the ranger’s favored enemies list. These bonuses do not stack with a ranger’s favored enemy bonuses. A hunting pouch is worn as an amulet.

Some rare pouches provide a +3 bonus.

Caster Level 3rd; Create Wondrous Item, Survival 4+ ranks, true strike or favored enemy special ability; Market Value: +2 bonus, 1,200 gp, +3 bonus 2,700 gp.

NPC Gear:
+2 Bonus - 3rd
+3 Bonus- 6th

Treasure Value:
+2 Bonus - 4th
+3 Bonus - 8th

Math:

To mock this up, I broke up the component abilities.

5 skill bonuses, 2*2*100 each, 400 gp, +50%, 600 gp each, total 3000 gp.

a +2 weapon bonus is worth 8000 gp. Damage only is half as effective? a +1 bonus? for 2000 gp, +50% for 3000 gp.

total 6,000 gp, divided by five because it is usable against a single type of creature only (I figure this is roughly equal to being usable once per day, but of course, this is entirely situational. If you're fighting orcs all session and have a totem of hunting orcs, it's more useful. If you're fighting lizard men, it's useless).

for 1,200. 1,200 gp is equal the value of the totem (+2), squared, multiplied by 300.

You could extrapolate the value of this item up or down if you wanted, totem value squared *300.

This item would be worth more if it stacked with a ranger's favored enemy ability. By how much? at least double, probably more like quadrupal. The real problem in figuring it out is that stacking would make a ranger a monster in certain encounter, but have no value at other in others.

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