Crafting Wondrous Items and Rings

There is conflicting information in the source material about adding multiple powers to a single item. Some say that there is no limit anywhere, others specify various limits on various types of item.

In my point of view, having no limits throws the campaign out of balance. If there were no limits, then you would see a proliferation of multi-purpose items on the market and in the hoards. Except for weapons and armor, for which the limits are clearly stated, there is no such proliferation; therefore, limits on the other item types must exist.

Also consider rings. There is a limit of one ring per hand (or hand-like appendage). There is a feat for getting around this limit! But what's the point of that, if you can stack ring powers endlessly? A wizard could just create a ring of protection +5 / fire elemental command / air elemental command / 80 wishes.

The absence of a clearly stated limit on the addition of multiple properties to a ring or wondrous item is a gap in the rules that must be definitively addressed by the house rules. Likewise to the crafting cost and market price of such items. Here are my house rules on stacking abilities into items.

RINGS
Unless the ring is an epic ring, artifact, relic, or familiar, there is no stacking of properties on rings.

If the crafter has the forge epic ring feat, then such limits are relaxed. The limits on crafting of epic rings are not covered here.

WONDROUS ITEMS
The following rules apply only to items that are neither epic, artifact, relic, or familiar.

A crafter with the Create Wondrous Item feat may add a single "bonus" to an existing wondrous item. A "bonus" is defined as a numeric bonus to some ability, save, armor class, set of skills, or other statistic. The bonus must be found on some wondrous item on the books. For example, a +X to charisma checks is a qualified bonus (found on the circlet of persuasion). The ability to recall a spell previously cast that day, an ability granted by a pearl of power, does not qualify as a bonus.

Note that this rule does not allow for the stacking of the set of properties granted by any two wondrous items arbitrarily. For example, it is not possible to craft an amulet that combines the powers of an Amulet of Teamwork with an Amulet of Retributive Healing.

'''When a crafter (non-epic) attempts to add a bonus to a wondrous item, there is a chance that doing so will wipe out all existing magical properties of the item! The probability is 10% per existing magical property.'''

The cost of adding a property, in gold, is the same as that of crafting a new item of the additional type. The cost in XP is increased by 10% per existing magical property.

The market price of a multi-property item is computed as follows: (a) Sort the properties from least cost to greatest. (b) for each property, multiply the running price by 110%, then add the price of a new item of the additional property.

Example: Schmuck the 15th level druid has the Craft Wondrous Item feat, finds an Amulet of Retributive Healing, and wants to add a natural armor bonus of +5 to it. The cost is 25,000 GP and 1100 XP. Poor Schmuck rolls a 03 on the percentile dice and wipes out the teamwork properties. Had he succeeded, he could have sold the resulting item for (2000 * 1.1) + 50,000 = 52,200 GP. But as it is, he has a +5 natural armor amulet worth 50,000, and he wasted 100 XP to make it.

If the crafter has the Craft Epic Wondrous Item feat, then these limits are relaxed. Such limits are not covered here.

GENERAL
Enchanting an item of a type not explicitly and exactly described in the rulebooks requires prior research. For example, creating a boot with the powers of an invisibility ring would require research, because there is no such wondrous item on the books. Likewise to creating a suit of plate mail with a deflection bonus, or a hairpin with the power of a figurine of wondrous power: onyx fly.

Research costs 10x the daily cost of crafting per day, both in terms of gold and of XP. Research succeeds when, at the end of a day of work, the crafter succeeds at a knowledge check of the appropriate type (cleric=religion, arcane caster=arcane, druid=nature). DC is 20 + minimum caster level for the item + bonus/penalty known only to the DM. A bonus might apply to researching an item that is very similar to one on the books. A penalty might apply to researching an item that the DM deems silly or obnoxious.

The crafter does not know the DC for the item prior to research. Therefore, a naive crafter could spend a lot of gold and XP on research that can't possibly succeed.

The outcome of the successful research is a prototype item. Using the prototype requires a DC 40 - caster level, minimum 10 Use Magic Device check, with the negative consequences stated for the feat.

The prototype can be upgraded to a normal item at the usual cost of crafting the item.