Giving Templates as Wealth?

[kevin video]

So a concept I've been told some GMs do to their players is if they want a template, it comes out of their wealth table. Well that's all fine and good, but how does one figure out the cost? And is it really worth the amount of gold that you might be losing?

Got a couple of players who want a template from the Pathfinder system called the Advanced template. I figure it's probably a +2 or +3 LA as it gives +4 to all stats and +2 natural armor. Wealth wise that's about 100k as a belt of magnificence +4 and an amulet of natural armor +2 for another 4k. So 104k instead of 2 or 3 LA. Does that seem right? I know technically it should be double because it doesn't take a slot, but I feel that's way too expensive. Even the 104k is pricey. But how would one figure out something like the half-fiend template, or the half-dragon template. There aren't too many items that give you that. I guess you could break it down based on each stat that goes up, flight speed, and natural armor bonus. Still...

Have you guys done this before? How did you figure out costs?

[Kethrian]

I have never done anything like that before, and the only thing I know of for comparison is the Continuous Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis.  It effectively bestows a +1 LA template for the cost of 22k and the throat slot.  I'd say then that a +1 LA, when converted to WBL,  should probably be about 50k (x2 for unslotted, rounded up to 50k because it can't be removed or dispelled).  And each 1 higher on the LA should double the cost, so +2 LA would be 100k, +3 LA is 200k, and so on.  This is all just my opinion, however.

[ksbsnowowl]

A similar example to the Collar mentioned above is the Broken Shadow Gate magical location in Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave.  Passing through it (and surviving) grants you the Dark template for as an ability 1/day for ten minutes.  It has a listen value of 5,000 gp.

The adventure mentions that many of the foes you fight in the adventure have made 10+ trips through the gate, and thus have gained the +1 template continuously.  This implies that a +1 template is worth roughly 50,000 gp, as Kethrian suggested.

[Maat Mons]

A ring of the white wyrm (Frostburn, p111) gives the half-dragon template for one hour per day.  It has other functions that should be subtracted from the price.  After that, you would probably multiply the cost by 5 to get unlimited uses per day, by 20/18 to get continuous, and then by 1 to adjust for the duration.