Cerulean the Blue's Modding Frenzy

you guys are rocking nice to see changes to randoms and shop map at last!! yay

 

Mod Test.
Intro into shop map working great. Still have not seen new random incounter, But I will keep trying. Have not been able to test as much as would like, my boss had a heart attack:no: . Has thrown my schedual out the window, but I will test as much as I can.

 

Jury rigged a temporary fix for the video card, though I'll be surprised if it lasts the week... on the good side, however, I was able to finish my prescibed testing regimen and I pronounce the shop map and the "new random mugging" (er, encounter) good to go. BTW, hilarious, C-Blue, nice to know we're maintaining our reputation for enjoyability. :yes:

Oh, and the other good news is that I did manage to sweet-talk the wife into letting me splurge on the new video card; hopefully within the month, since AFAIK the duct tape upgrade could quit on me at any time. :censored:

--Blair
"Why do these little family trips always turn out this way? I'm going to spend more Saturdays at the office."

 

As some of you may know, I'm working on Leomund's Secret Chest. The material components of that spell are a finely crafted chest that costs 5000gp, and an exact miniature replica of that chest that costs 50gp. Other than this, casting the spell costs nothing but 10 minutes, according to the 3.5 rules

The way I have the spell working right now is that when you cast it you get the miniature, which then allows you to summon the larger chest from the Ethereal Plane and return it at will an unlimited number of times. When cast from memory the spell removes 5050gp from the party, but using the miniature costs nothing.

Here is my question: Should it cost more to cast the spell from memory, seeing how any character can then use the miniature to summon the chest and send it back an unlimited number of times? Also, should the value of the miniature be set at 5050gp, or should it be more?

This mod should be ready soon, so expect a call for testers.

 

The tiny chest should cost like 500 gold. The duration of the spell is 60 days, and no one else should have access to the contents of the large chest, even if they hold the tiny one. Ethereal beings finding the large chest...? Now that's something else entirely. It shouldn't cost any more to cast the spell however it is done; one way is as good as another. Cost should be 5500 GP to cast; unlimited access for 60 days, then the spell ends. This is the abridged version, but you get the idea.

 

The SRD lists the cost of the tiny chest at 50gp.

No one will ever leave the chest out there for more than 60 days (especially considering that time_events don't take into account time spent resting or passing time in the game). I might be able to implement that, but as far as I'm concerned it would be too much of a hassle.

Letting only the caster access the chest is probably possible, but I don't know it is worth the trouble.

Ethereal Beings: This is sort of taken care of as any charged items will not return with the chest, and any crafted arms and armour will lose any crafted ability while in the chest on the Ethereal Plane. Other than that I'm not going to implement it.

According to the SRD, it's one send and one return per spell cast. The chest may be recalled from the Ethereal Plane with 100% chance of success for sixty days. After that the chance of recall goes down by 5% per day.

I did read the SRD on this before I made the first post.

 

Knowing of your other work here, I figured that you would do it right & well; and I wasn't trying to imply otherwise...but if that sense snuck in there, then you have my apologies. Zorn'll tell you that I love making PC's spend their hard-earned treasure, but 5050 is ok. You've accounted for the other things, so it sounds good to me. My one thing is the restriction on access, however. I think it's necessary, after all it is Leomund's Secret Chest.

 

With the forewaring that I'm barely even familiar with the official rules, this is my $0.02 worth from a gameplay standpoint.

I don't see any problem with other people accessing the chest through the miniature. It's how I would expect it to work. If you wanted to do it that way, you could always say the spellcaster had done something to protect it, but it doesn't seem necessary.

I wouldn't make it cost more to cast it from memory.

I would make the finished miniature worth more. You not only have 5050gp worth of material, you have the very specialized labour of the spellcaster. I'd think somewhere around 7000.

Cuchulainn.

 

Forgive me for not being more precise. Time-events for the party (or objects with them) do not take into account time spent resting or passing time. This I have tested. I cannot put a time event on the chest itself because when it is not with the party it does not exist. When it is "sent away to the Ethereal Plane" it is destroyed, i.e. removed from the game entirely. The contents of the chest exist as numbers in a text file, but not in the game itself. Like I said, I could probably work it out, using some variables, some python commands and some clever scripting, but I am disinclined to do so.

If the other rules lawyers (I say others because I count myself among them) do not approve of the way I have implemented this spell, so be it. It is a fifth level spell, and is not likely to see much use with a 9th level party anyway. I see the primary use of this as a replacement for a bag of holding, and had intended to put it in as loot or a reward for a low level party, possibly in Lareth's dresser, but it doesn't have to be available that way. I think making this spell has broken new modding ground, thanks to Ugignadl (see, he has contributed something). Once you see it in action, and see how it works, I think you will agree.

By the way, the SRD does not say or imply anything regarding whether only the caster can recall the chest, or whether anyone can. I don't see it as a stretch to assume that is is possible to cast the spell in such a way as to allow anyone holding the miniature to recall the chest.

 

The entire point of this spell is to create an extra-planar secret hiding place for stuff a magic user would want to hide. For anyone except the caster, it is a finely wrought tiny chest with a magical dwoemer. No one aside from the caster would be able to access its contents. He would have to tell someone how to do it (command words, hand gestures, etc.). But, being non-magic users, they would likely screw up and break the spell. I'm not debating the point to say this or that MUST be done; but it's the secret nature of the spell which is being over wrought to make what is really a Box of Holding. Might as well make it a box, and be done with it. But it sure as hell isn't going to be Leomund's Secret Chest. It's more like Leomund's Group Treaure Chest.

 

I believe Blue has rendered a good solution that is quite adequate and is good enough for ToEE and its playability. It's not like Blue could have made it exactly per the rules and decided to make it outside of the rules. IMO - I say job well done, Blue.

 

I should have just posted this sooner.

Note in 3.5 it is no longer called Leomund's Secret Chest, but just Secret Chest. I have opted to keep the "Leomund's" in sticking with the Greyhawk theme.

It appears that the "Secret" part come from the fact that the miniature does not radiate magic. It just appears as a non-magical, finely crafted miniature chest. Anyone finding it would have to have some idea of what it was for in order to use it. My version does appear magical because it is enchanted to allow the possessor to cast the spell.

I checked my First Ed. Players Handbook as well, and the description of the spell does not explicitly state either way about who may recall the chest.

I agree with you Spike about the "Box of Holding". In my opinion, though, that is exactly what players were most likely to use this spell for. And they would most likely craft the miniature to be able to cast the spell.

I do realize that I am stretching the rules a bit in this regard. How about if I remove the magical properties of the miniature, and the long description, so that it is not immediately obvious what the miniature is and that you can use it. I can probably even make it require a fairly high Use Magical Device check in order to use it, but in my opinion that would make the spell almost useless in the game.

If that isn't good enough, I can change it to a Bag of Holding that summons a chest. I was working on a Bag of Holding to begin with, but I couldn't get an invisible chest to open to the inventory exchange screen automatically, and the I couldn't get an invisible merchant (my second idea) to buy and sell for zero money. So instead, I went with the Secret Chest, since there were already entries in the game files for the spell.

 

Actually, it's still Leomund's. The SRD doesn't have any of the character names associated with the spells, as the names are Copyright of WotC, whereas the spells themselves are part of the Open Gaming Liscense.