Post/Author/DateTime	Post
oracle71 06-14-07, 10:27 PM	OK, here's the situation. I started playing the old AD&D Gold Box series of computer games (Pool of Radiance, Champions of Krynn, etc) nearly twenty years ago, not long after I discovered the D&D game. I recently went on a bender replaying these old games, and I was thinking about converting some of those characters into 3.5ed rules. What I would like is some suggestions on how to convert the silver shields from Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness. For those unfamiliar with these games, Silver Shields are +3 or better shields that automatically reflect gaze attacks. In the games, the only creatures with gaze attacks are basilisks and medusas, so in effect they just keep your characters from being petrified. I would greatly appreciate any help you could offer. Thanks, Oracle
RavenDrake 06-14-07, 11:33 PM	It depends on how you want to use them... it may be as simply as the character using the polished shield as a mirror to watch the creature.... If you wanted the shields to protect you at all times from gaze attacks... I seem to remember a mask from Dragon Magazine that gave immunity to all Gaze Attacks.. I think it was like 35,000gp. Assuming that's the right price for the item I'm thinking of then you can make the shield by adding double the price(as a slotless item) to the price of a +3 shield: 70,000gp for a Slotless(effectively) copy of the mask plus 9,000gp for cost of a +3 Shield... 79,000gp for Immunity to gaze attacks on a shield. That seems kind of steep, but It's a starting point. I wish I could find that mask again, but I can't seem to remember which issue it was in... i think it was called the Mask of the Basilisk maybe?
nilcat 06-15-07, 03:29 AM	IIRC there is a helmet in Magic Item Compendium with a similar property, you might want to look there for updated pricing
RavenDrake 06-15-07, 04:39 AM	Ahh.. I skimmed the MiC for masks, goggles and lenses, but skipped helmets. (Would it have killed them to include a freaking item by SLOT table, or, y'know, organized it BY SLOT instead of "Alphabet Soup". Or even, y'know, made items that were like the Horned Helm be entered as Helm, Horned so they'd all be freaking together.... Jeez that book's a pain to navigate unless you have it memorized.) Well... it's got a helm(Helm of Gazes) that blocks Gaze attacks 3 times per day.. and it's only 5,000gp. Considering how rare gaze attacks actually are I'm willing to say my prior price was way the heck off base(but, in my defense, it was all I had to go on at the time). If you're ok letting the sheild block 3 per day then you make the helm slotless(10,000gp) making the shield 19,000gp. If you want to make it alway active, it's going to take some fiddling. A good baseline is to assume that the price of the "blocks gaze attack" effect can can be reverse engineered like any other Charges Per Day item. So to get the normal price for a continuous effect we'd need to multiply by (5/3) or 1.67 x 5000gp to find the continuous price... that gives a value of 8350(probably round that up to 8500gp). So I'd have to say, at minimum, permenant immunity to Gaze Attacks is worth that much, and I'd probably say it's worth at least 10,000gp as a head-slot item. Doubled as a slotless item and you're looking at 17,000-20,000gp. But, again, this is all speculation on my part.
oracle71 06-15-07, 06:37 AM	I don't have the Magic Item Compendium, but I'll try to check it out and look through my old Dragon magazines over the weekend. My thanks to all of you.