His Dark Materials and Skill checks to activate item featu..

I'm currently reading His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. For those of
you who haven't read the books, the important aspect for this discussion is
the existence of two artifact level "magic items" in the series. One of
them is the Alethiometer, a device whose capabilities is roughly equivalent
to Divination useable at will. The other is The Subtle Knife, whose
capabilities is roughly equivalent to Gate useable at will (plus being like
+6 or something equally obscene).

The catch for both of these items (and a few more) is that they both require
what could easily described as DC 20 concentration checks to activate the
capabilities of the item (including all of the unsurprising aspects of
situational penalties for making the checks).

This got me thinking that this would be an interesting addition for D&D. It
would accomplish the following things:

1. If the skill were "one of those" skills (e.g. Forgery, Concentration for
a Monk, Use Rope, etc.) the skill's viability would be catapolted from "eh"
to "wow!".
2. It would make for a reasonable discount on item creation costs.
(Especially if a failure caused the loss of the charge/use per
day/whatever.)
3. It's little different from the existing capabilities of limiting items
to "class features" (e.g. must be on your spell list), but yet adds a new
dimension to the game.

So, I'm wondering if either anyone else, or any other D20 product, has added
this kind of thing to the game and, if so, what were the results?

Also, I'm interested in the numerical aspects of this... what would a
reasonable DC be, and what would the price discount be... should there be
multiple options? DC 20, DC 25, DC 30, each with a different discount?

Obviously, there are some caveats here... having the skill be something like
"Spellcraft" and the item being a sorcerer/wizard toy isn't particularly
interesting (nor should it result in a discount), and somehow those aspects
must be accounted for as well.

--
Reginald Blue
"I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my
telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my
telephone."
- Bjarne Stroustrup (originator of C++) [quoted at the 2003
International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces]

Reginald Blue wrote:
> I'm currently reading His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. For those of
> you who haven't read the books, the important aspect for this discussion is
> the existence of two artifact level "magic items" in the series. One of
> them is the Alethiometer, a device whose capabilities is roughly equivalent
> to Divination useable at will. The other is The Subtle Knife, whose
> capabilities is roughly equivalent to Gate useable at will (plus being like
> +6 or something equally obscene).
>
> The catch for both of these items (and a few more) is that they both require
> what could easily described as DC 20 concentration checks to activate the
> capabilities of the item (including all of the unsurprising aspects of
> situational penalties for making the checks).
>
> This got me thinking that this would be an interesting addition for D&D. It
> would accomplish the following things:
>
> 1. If the skill were "one of those" skills (e.g. Forgery, Concentration for
> a Monk, Use Rope, etc.) the skill's viability would be catapolted from "eh"
> to "wow!".
> 2. It would make for a reasonable discount on item creation costs.
> (Especially if a failure caused the loss of the charge/use per
> day/whatever.)
> 3. It's little different from the existing capabilities of limiting items
> to "class features" (e.g. must be on your spell list), but yet adds a new
> dimension to the game.
>
> So, I'm wondering if either anyone else, or any other D20 product, has added
> this kind of thing to the game and, if so, what were the results?
>
> Also, I'm interested in the numerical aspects of this... what would a
> reasonable DC be, and what would the price discount be... should there be
> multiple options? DC 20, DC 25, DC 30, each with a different discount?

Of course. One might look at hero for activation limitation discounts
as a starting place, - say 1/4th discount for spells that activate most
of the time for a person with that skill as a class skill at a level
equal to the level the power normally becomes available, and is a power
that a person might have, 1/3 for about 50% chance, 1/2 for a need a
20. Halve the discount for powers that time/action is not so
important for, and halve discount for not using up the power, and just
taking an action.

So for instance if you made a wand of fireball that used spellcraft as
an activator you'd and you needed a 19 spellcraft to activate (5th lv
max ranks) it and it used a charge even if you failed it would give a
1/3 discount.

> Obviously, there are some caveats here... having the skill be something like
> "Spellcraft" and the item being a sorcerer/wizard toy isn't particularly
> interesting (nor should it result in a discount), and somehow those aspects
> must be accounted for as well.
>

An interesting option. Spellcraft is not always taken by sorcerers
who generally don't have the skill slots to spend a lot of skills. Not
even all wizards have it. It becomes even more difficult when you talk
about a class like rogue with a ton of different options and no way to
cover them all.

- Justisaur