Re: helm values

> 3e has complete rules for standard magic item creation. But,
> not for artifacts, either minor or major, and the official 2e SJ has
> helms as minor artifacts. So, if someone wants to keep them as
> such, a price will have to be derived.

Helms were supposed to be *near* artifacts IIRC.  All quibbling aside,
I think for SJ to really work in 3e we need to just make them magical
items that can't be dispelled but have standard saving throws.  I
proposed a 3e helm creation feat that may or may not be someplace to
start working from.

> If someone wishes to make helms a creatable item, they will
> either need to create a new feat or assign it to one of the
> pre-existing feats, such as Craft Wonderous Item.

That sounds like a good prerequisite feat.

 There are
> guidelines for pricing new magic items, but I am not so certain
> that they are the best route to pricing helms. They work best
> when a magic item replicates some sort of spell function, and
> while there are spells for making a chair a helm, permanent
> helms to go beyond this.

Don't permanent longswords+1 go beyond the effects of a bless of
enchanted weapon which are temporary?

> In my opinion, some price needs to be created for helms,
> whether or not the DM is going to make them creatable or
> minor artifacts, and I think the best way to do so is to find
> the value of a helm relative to the value of other magic items,
> and I don't think the built-in system is going to be all that
> helpful.

Should the spell levels of the helm spells be dropped for 3e as they
did
with permanency?  Perhaps 4th or 5th and 5th or 6th?

> How does one fix this and still follow as closely as possible the
> 3e guidelines for treasure? That is a question I have been asking
> myself a lot lately, and why I had the polls. Should the DM hand
> out more treasure? That seems reasonable, as long as the players
> are reasonable. What if you hand out more treasure so players
> can upgrade their ship like they do themselves, but then decide
> a portion of that will go towards more magic items for themselves?

Perhaps the 3e SJ should consider ships and personal treasure related
but seperate values?  Say total officer levels on the ship equals the
ship type.  So 36 officer levels (navigator, captain, first-mate,
helmsman, chaplain)=squidship.  Certain ships (groundling ships,
tradesmen) should be easier to get level wise than would seem correct
on a level=ton basis due to frequency (tradesmen are the workhorses of
the spheres) or undesirability (groundling ships typically aren't good
in space).  Then, after figuring ship and helm based on level, assign
personal treasure the usual way (this makes figuring and porting easier
with only an add-on rule for SJ).  Of course, certain ships would not
matter how many levels as they are unique to a group (armadas,
mantises, etc.).  Anyway, it seems like such would be essential along
with helm creation rules (now that magical items are so much easier to
create in 3e helms should be creatable too) to making SJ a viable and
desirable setting for 3e DMs.

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