Hmmm… So you’re saying make it a Death spell by touch and make the gold a flavour point? Could be interesting. Still, you could have the evil mage adduct children just to turn their blood into gold!
This - instead of trying to make part of the statue gold, I think the flavor of weird I’m going for would be to have them transform into a stone statue with a precious gem embedded in its forehead, with a value in gp equal to their xp. You could play with gem types corresponding to some quality of victims emergently. (Need a 3000gp sapphire for your next magic item? A little research by your friendly neighborhood sage reveals you just have to find a Neutral left-handed explorer or barbarian of at least the 3rd level.)
If this becomes central to play, rather than just an amusing spell the players stumble across but never add to their repertoires or something they lose one henchman to, point out how much caution is required to extract an already-faceted gem from the stone matrix without damaging it. Introduce the complication that de-petrified victims who have had their gems removed are affected by a fairly serious energy drain. …
This introduces some really high-value gemstones into play, which are good portable fungible wealth (more so than monster parts), but consuming a 4th level spell slot feels like it’ll at least help balance things out.
Exactly right. Aryxymaraki’s point about monster part value is what makes the whole thing work without additional rules - the fact you’re getting more fungible gold rather than specific organs or whatnot is I think a small enough deal for a 4th level spell to come out in the wash.
A campaign in ancient Greece would call it ‘The Midas Touch’. And I call dibs on a share of movie gross if Hollywood-whomever’s been doing all these Titans movies comes in and borrows my visual. 
It’s actually the monster parts XP value; meaning it’s the same amount in GP that you get for defeating the monster in XP - so it’s the Monster Experience Points table on pg114.
For 3000XP you’re looking at something with between ~10~13 hit dice with multiple special abilities.
UPDATED VERSION OF GOLDEN TOUCH
Heart of Gold. This is a Death spell, target slain (85), target 1 creature (x1), range touch (x0.4*), duration instantaneus (x1), target’s heart transformed into pure gold (x1.25**), saving throw negates (x0.5), arcane (x1). Total 21.25 points. This is a level 3 spell.
- IMHO this should subsume the requirement for touch attack on the target.
** Guesstimation
Heart of Gold
Arcane 3
Range: touch
Duration: instantaneous
By touching the creature (this requires a successful attack throw against a resisting target, otherwise the spell is wasted), the caster transforms the victim’s heart into pure gold, instantly slaying the creature. A successful save vs. petrification negates the effects of this spell. The heart, if pulled out of the corpse, is worth 1 GP per XP the target has - the bigger and more feroscouis the creature is, the more its golden heart is worth.
Do you mean 1 GP per XP the target has or per XP the target is worth when killed? A level 5 Fighter has at least 16,000 XP…
XP the target is worth.
Why isn’t this save vs. death?
Where did the duration for the nausea come from?
I don’t know. All things considered if you face off against an ogre, you are probably better off with Charm Person than with Toad, no?
I hadn’t read that post. Very insightful.
I agree! I needed to have been reading this thread more closely. Awesome!
Thanks!
Ego is my prime requisite, so I feel qualified to answer your questions about rules.
The Blast spell construction: Nausea-inducing (as Stinking Cloud), 10 points.
Stinking Cloud can be built as the following:
Nausea-inducing (10)
20x20x20 cube (x2.25)
1 round per level (x4)
30’ range (x.6)
Save negates (x.5)
Total 27 - a breakthrough’d 2nd level spell.
For Stinking Cloud, the actual cloud lasts 1 round per level, and the nausea lasts 1d4+1 rounds after a failed saving throw. (Actually d4+1 rounds after the creature leaves the cloud, but as a more generic form, d4+1 rounds after failed saving throw seems to make sense).
If the nausea lasting d4+1 rounds increases the cost of the spell by more than 3 points, then this spell is not legal even with a maximum breakthrough. Therefore, the nausea inducing effect must come with d4+1 rounds of duration after a failed save on its own.
If there is a cost involved in the d4+1 round duration: in order to make Stinking Cloud a legal spell, given the multipliers involved (x2.7 net), the base cost of d4+1 round duration must be no more than 1.11~ points (or, alternately, a multiplier of 1.11~, much more likely 1.1). In either case, the Blast of Goo spell would remain first level, with a total cost of 9.something (the something depending on which one it is).
That’s been my interpretation, anyway, and I assume Golan agrees with it (because as said previously, ego, etc :P).
Amended because for some reason, my brain told me +1 level was max breakthrough. It is, in fact, +2 levels.
This means that the maximum cost for the d4+1 round duration is either (40 - 27)/2.7 = 4.815 flat or 40/27 = 1.48 multiplier. (Realistically rounding would make it 5 points and x1.5 multiplier).
Applying these to the goo spell, we would get a final spell cost of 11.34 with the 5 flat, or 13.0725; low end of 2nd level, or 1st with a breakthrough.
Tough decision. On one hand this is a Death spell, on the other hand it “petrifies” your heart.
While the flavor text does imply that, the spell isn’t reversible via stone to flesh. Save vs. death might be appropriate from a simple mechanics perspective. It is also the more lenient of the two saves.
OK, you have a point.
Keep in mind that this spell has a significant chance of failure as it requires BOTH a touch attack AND a save vs. death.
Debatable. Charm Person definitely has more out-of-combat utility, but during combat the Ogre’s loyalty is torn; it might just try and stop you from fighting its original friends.
Oh, and the other thing is that Charm Person doesn’t render the Ogre helpless; it can still defend itself from you.
Really, I think some of the costing problem is solved if you stop applying multipliers inappropriately. For example, why should mental characteristics replaced by new form’s (x0.2) make your spell so much cheaper when it’s actually making it a way more effective spell? To me, that’s clearly not what that multiplier was intended for. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, Alex.