In a previous post, about my Samurai Jack knock-off PC, I mentioned that I gave him sandals of striding and springing to provide him the speed and jumping abilities you see in the show. When I did this originally, I simply used the info from Boots of Striding and Springing, Ring of Jumping (and Improved), and the magic item creation rules. After scanning through Pathfinder Unchained looking at the new action economy in there (2e research), I saw the scaling magic items and realized that it would have been the perfect way to create these sandals that I wanted. I thought it would make for a fun exercise here to go through my original process and then write it up as a scaling magic item.
Let’s start with the Ring of Jumping. We have the base model for 2,500 gp to boost acrobatics +5. The Improved Ring of Jumping costs 10,000 gp to boost acrobatics +10. These follow bonus squared times one hundred, so it makes sense to have a Greater Ring of Jumping for 22,500 gp to boost acrobatics +15.
Ring of Jumping: 5 ^ 2 * 100 = 25 * 100 = 2,500
Improved Ring of Jumping: 10 ^ 2 * 100 = 100 * 100 = 10,000
Greater Ring of Jumping: 15 ^ 2 * 100 = 225 * 100 = 22,500
Ring of Jumping, Greater
Aura strong transmutation; CL 12th
Slot ring; Price 22,500 gp; Weight –
Description
This ring functions as a ring of jumping, except it grants a +15 competence bonus on all Acrobatics checks made to make high or long jumps.
Construction Requirements
Forge Ring, creator must have 15 ranks in the Acrobatics skill; Cost 11,250 gp
Next I broke down the boots. 5,500 gp for +10 speed and +5 acrobatics. We know the Ring of Jumping is 2,500 gp for +5 acrobatics. This leaves a value of 3,000 gp for the +10 speed. Because both items take up a body slot (ring/boots), but the abilities are similar, it falls in between simply adding the values together and making the secondary cost +50%. If we were to make the ring +50%, they would be 3,750 gp, leaving the boots to only 1,750 gp … not right. Making the boots +50% would mean they only cost 2,000 gp alone, a value I find too cheap compared to the ring. Therefore, I chose to stick with simply adding their values together, which meant leaving the boots at a value of 3,000 gp. The math from 10 (speed) to 3,000 (gp) looks like bonus squared times 30. This gives us three values of 3,000, 12,000, and 27,000 … all of which are just a bit over the value of the rings at each tier.
+10 speed: 10 ^ 2 * 30 = 100 * 30 = 3,000
+20 speed: 20 ^ 2 * 30 = 400 * 30 = 12,000
+30 speed: 30 ^ 2 * 30 = 900 * 30 = 27,000
Boots of Striding
Aura faint transmutation; CL 3rd
Slot feet; Price 3,000 gp (10 ft.), 12,000 gp (20 ft.), 27,000 gp (30 ft.); Weight 1 lb.
Description
These boots increase the wearer’s base land speed by 10, 20, or 30 feet (considered an enhancement bonus).
Construction Requirements
Craft Wondrous Item, longstrider; Cost 1,500 gp (10 ft.), 6,000 gp (20 ft.), 13,500 gp (30 ft.)
After that, I wanted Improved and Greater Boots of Striding and Springing. Using the items I have above, I did some math and ended up with the following.
Boots of Striding and Springing, Improved
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 7th
Slot feet; Price 22,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
These boots increase the wearer’s base land speed by 20 feet. In addition to this striding ability (considered an enhancement bonus), these boots allow the wearer to make great leaps. He can jump with a +10 competence bonus on Acrobatics checks.
Construction Requirements
Craft Wondrous Item, greater longstrider, creator must have 10 ranks in Acrobatics; Cost 11,000 gp
Boots of Striding and Springing, Greater
Aura strong transmutation; CL 12th
Slot feet; Price 49,500 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
These boots increase the wearer’s base land speed by 30 feet. In addition to this striding ability (considered an enhancement bonus), these boots allow the wearer to make great leaps. He can jump with a +15 competence bonus on Acrobatics checks.
Construction Requirements
Craft Wondrous Item, greater longstrider, creator must have 15 ranks in Acrobatics; Cost 24,750 gp
Because I had wanted to be able to increase the boots bit by bit, I created boots that increased the stride without increasing the spring (see what i did there?). Using the same math as above, I mixed and matched the boots/ring I wanted to get items that stepped between the core items above.
Boots of more Striding than Springing
Aura moderate transmutation; CL 7th
Slot feet; Price 14,500 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
These boots increase the wearer’s base land speed by 20 feet. In addition to this striding ability (considered an enhancement bonus), these boots allow the wearer to make great leaps. He can jump with a +5 competence bonus on Acrobatics checks.
Construction Requirements
Craft Wondrous Item, greater longstrider, creator must have 5 ranks in Acrobatics; Cost 7,250 gp
Boots of more Striding than Springing, Improved
Aura strong transmutation; CL 10th
Slot feet; Price 37,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
These boots increase the wearer’s base land speed by 30 feet. In addition to this striding ability (considered an enhancement bonus), these boots allow the wearer to make great leaps. He can jump with a +10 competence bonus on Acrobatics checks.
Construction Requirements
Craft Wondrous Item, greater longstrider, creator must have 10 ranks in Acrobatics; Cost 18,500 gp
And there we have it, a lot of items created from simply looking at Ring of Jumping, Greater Ring of Jumping and Boots of Striding and Springing. I am still not sure how I feel about taking something like this and converting it into a scaling item. The book is pretty straight forward in taking your value at each stage (step, or tier; needs a better term) of the item and comparing it to the Value of Scaling Items table to get the level at which the powers function. If we list them out by the level obtained from matching the value with the Wonder column of the Value of Scaling Items table, the progression can be found in below. Using Acrobatics as the primary ability actually starts the item at a lower level and provides for a smoother progression of 3,2,2,2,1 instead of the 2,3,1,2,1 when you have the speed as the primary ability.
Speed as the primary ability:
5th Level: +10 speed: 3,000 gp
7th Level: +10 speed, +5 Acrobatics: 5,500 gp
10th Level: +20 speed, +5 Acrobatics: 14,500 gp
11th Level: +20 speed, +10 Acrobatics: 22,000 gp
13th Level: +30 speed, +10 Acrobatics: 37,000 gp
14th Level: +30 speed, +15 Acrobatics: 49,500 gp
Acrobatics as the primary ability:
4th Level: +5 Acrobatics: 2,500 gp
7th Level: +5 Acrobatics, +10 speed: 5,500 gp
9th Level: +10 Acrobatics, +10 speed: 13,000 gp
11th Level: +10 Acrobatics, +20 speed: 22,000 gp
13th Level: +15 Acrobatics, +20 speed: 34,500 gp
14th Level: +15 Acrobatics, +30 speed: 49,500 gp
I hope you enjoyed this random dive into tearing apart existing magic items to create new tiers and recombining them into variants of themselves. I really like the idea of scaling magic items, as I prefer characters to find or make magic items that they keep their whole careers … you never read about heroes throwing away their old items every single time they find new ones.
