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== Scaling Item Qualities ==
In 3.5e D&D, magic item qualities are designed in a very static way. A [[SRD:Flaming|flaming]] weapon will always deal 1d6 points of extra [[SRD:Fire Effect|fire]] damage on hit for the price of an effective +1 increase in the weapon's enhancement level, regardless of the weapon's base enhancement level. Adding this quality to a +1 weapon costs 6,000 gp. Adding it to a +5 weapon costs 22,000 gp. Regardless of the order in which qualities and enhancements are added to an item, you might end up wondering if the end result was worth it. You could always add the [[SRD:Flaming Burst|flaming burst]] enhancement on top of your epic God killing outsider-dread axe of unbridled carnage for another half a million gold, but that only cranks the cost up further for yet another quality too that doesn't go anywhereeither.
The solution is simple; scale the effects of an item quality to the effective price you pay for them. Adding a '+1' quality to a magical weapon increases its value by 6,000 gp (+1), 10,000 gp (+2), 14,000 gp (+3), 18,000 gp (+4), 22,000 gp (+5), and so forth, which means that the actual price you pay for making your sword flaming is a base cost of 2,000 gp, plus an additional cost of 4,000 gp × the weapon's current [[SRD:Enhancement Bonus|enhancement bonus]]. It follows that prices in terms of '+X' are (disproportionally) linearly dependent to the magic item's base enhancement value. The least one can do to fix this discrepancy between cost and effectiveness is to at least make the effects of a magic item quality proportionally linear.
''Example 3:'' Have a quality that can't be scaled, like ''[[SRD:Vorpal|vorpal]]'' or ''[[SRD:Returning|returning]]''? Give it a cost based on gp instead of enhancement.
Needless to say, this concept is still very bare bones. My intention is to eventually rewrite, in part or full, the way magic item qualities work, including a comprehensive list of magic item qualities, both modified and new. I welcome any comments and suggestions on the talk page of this article, as this is still very much a work in progress.
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