Help with Custom Magic Item

[Rev Haus 235]

I'm having a problem making a new magic item. It's a minor holy relic, according to the GM. I'll include the description of its powers, but I'd like help making it in my own system so I learn more about how to use the tool set for custom stuff.

The description is as follows:
The Orb of Preservation

The Orb is actually composed of thousands of tiny segments that are forged from alchemically treated steel that gives it a charcoal-colored, shadowy sheen.
At will, these segments can be commanded to form virtually any shape and serve as a shield to protect the wielder but no larger than an orb than about 6' in diameter (or a 120' square).
The segements do not form a solid wall, but rather an incredibly fine net that is nearly impossible to pierce.
In effect, they are the equivalent to a +5 shield (+7 to AC) with missile deflection capability (as the Arrow Deflection ability, DC 20 Reflex save to deflect the missile) and light fortification (25%).
The orb will also protect you from falling to damage to a degree, equivalent to absorbing the first 2d6 of falling damage. Basically this means Alexei can fall 20' and take no damage as long as the orb is deployed. This also requires a concentration roll.
The Orb has no encumbrance value. The Orb will not work for anyone but a worshiper of Cyriss. It is a minor divine relic.

My first thought was to make a shield, call it The Orb of Preservation and call it a day. I did that, and could add all the AC bonus to it, along with the Arrow Deflection and the Light Fortification. I could make a power for the fall damage reduction, and I'd be good. The problem there is that a shield takes up a hand slot, where this item doesn't. Then I thought to make a Wondrous Item, but I can't figure out how to add the Ac bonus to such an item, or the Arrow Deflection or Light Fortification or the fall damage reduction either.

Please help. Thanks so much.

 

[Sendric]

If the Orb isn't taking up a slot, then this is fairly straight forward. I would create it as a Wondrous Item, as you did, and emulate the Bracers of Armor or Ring of Force Shield for the AC Bonus. You can pretty simply bootstrap Arrow Deflection as well. Both of these would need a bootstrap condition that the item be activated. For more on that, I recommend this thread from Mathias:

http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=47611

Light Fortification might be a bit trickier. You can try bootstrapping the item power, but if that doesn't work then I would just make a new special with the same description that can be bootstrapped along with the AC bonus and feat.

 

[Rev Haus 235]

I don't think that I have the boot strapping part down right, the powers don't show up anywhere on the character when I equip the item.

I'm also not getting the correct AC adjustment, but I'm pretty sure that its because of a house rule adjustment that effects AC.

I took the following Eval Script from another item, Bracers of Armor +7.
The Eval Script that's needed for the adjustment to AC for the item normally should look like the following:

~ If we're equipped, add an armor bonus
if (field[gIsEquip].value <> 0) then
hero.child[ArmorClass].field[tACArmor].value = maximum(hero.child[ArmorClass].field[tACArmor].value, 7)
endif

I suspect that the problem is that we have a house rule for AC, and that this house rules is screwing up the script math above. The house rule is scripted as follows:

doneif (field[pIsOn].value = 0)

var newac as number

newac = 5 - hero.child[Attack].field[tAtkBase].value

hero.child[ArmorClass].field[Bonus].value -= newac

I tried to adjust the first script with parts from the second script, but I'm really not sure what I'm doing, and all I managed to do was make it not work right. All I had to do was get one character wrong, so I'm really not sure how close I was to getting it right, probably not very.
Please help. Thanks a ton in advance.

 

[Sendric]

Well, the first thing you need to figure out is the kind of AC bonus this orb is providing. Based on the description, I'm assuming its a shield bonus. That means you don't want to tACArmor anyway. What you want is tACShield. If you simply replace "tACArmor" with "tACShield" in the script you pulled from Bracers of armor you should be all set.

 

[Rev Haus 235]

That change to tACShield did the trick. Thanks.
I also found that Arrow Deflection had a pre-requisite issue because it needs to be on a shield. So I just copied it into a new power called Arrow Deflection Wondrous, and removed the Shield pre-requisite. Problem solved.