Patlin
Explorer
Proposal/clarification on creating scroll for a level 1 artificer in Living Eberron.
I believe the following to be true, and would like confirmation:
1- You do not need to spend craft points to craft the scrolls out of your craft reserve during character generation.
2- You must roll dice to determine if you craft the items succesfully.
3- You get 2 and only 2 dice rolls per scroll, as a first level scroll takes 1 day to craft.
Here's where I see a problem:
My artificer has a UMD of +5, so to succeed on the roll he must roll a 16 ot higher on d20, a 20% shot each roll -- the probability of succeeding given two rolls would be 36%. It would on average be cheaper, therefore, to buy scrolls from a merchant rather than using the class's main ability. That's disheartening.
There's an infusion that gives a circumstance bonus on skill checks, but I believe the duration is too short to help. Even if it would work, the +2 bonus would only increase the odds of success to about 58% -- not great, though at least slightly better on average than just shopping.
It seems likely that the only way to make efficient use of the ability is to find a way to meet the prerequisite "honestly." In other words, find a way to get the spell cast into the item. I can think of two ways to do this:
1 - Cooperate with another caster, have him cast the spell, you spend the xp from your craft reserve.
2 - Use the spell storing item infusion to create a temporary wand of the spell you want, then use that to create the spell. This basically adds additional xp cost, which moreover cannot be paid through the craft reserve, and is therefore unavailable at time of item creation... the amount of additional xp and time is unknown, since the infusion also requires a die roll, but at least you don't throw away gold.
Option one seems the better option, but the question becomes whether we will allow it, and whether it will cost craft points. Can it be done with an NPC, or just with a PC?
Proposal
Starting artificer character can cooperate with NPCs to make 1st level scrolls. The NPC casts the spell, eliminating chance of spell failure, but the artificer must make one scroll of equal value and give it to the npc for each scroll he gets. The NPC provides the materials/gp cost for his share of the scrolls.
Game mechanic result: Artificer characters can make scrolls on character creation without chance of failure, but at double the xp cost from their craft reserve.
I believe the following to be true, and would like confirmation:
1- You do not need to spend craft points to craft the scrolls out of your craft reserve during character generation.
2- You must roll dice to determine if you craft the items succesfully.
3- You get 2 and only 2 dice rolls per scroll, as a first level scroll takes 1 day to craft.
Here's where I see a problem:
My artificer has a UMD of +5, so to succeed on the roll he must roll a 16 ot higher on d20, a 20% shot each roll -- the probability of succeeding given two rolls would be 36%. It would on average be cheaper, therefore, to buy scrolls from a merchant rather than using the class's main ability. That's disheartening.
There's an infusion that gives a circumstance bonus on skill checks, but I believe the duration is too short to help. Even if it would work, the +2 bonus would only increase the odds of success to about 58% -- not great, though at least slightly better on average than just shopping.
It seems likely that the only way to make efficient use of the ability is to find a way to meet the prerequisite "honestly." In other words, find a way to get the spell cast into the item. I can think of two ways to do this:
1 - Cooperate with another caster, have him cast the spell, you spend the xp from your craft reserve.
2 - Use the spell storing item infusion to create a temporary wand of the spell you want, then use that to create the spell. This basically adds additional xp cost, which moreover cannot be paid through the craft reserve, and is therefore unavailable at time of item creation... the amount of additional xp and time is unknown, since the infusion also requires a die roll, but at least you don't throw away gold.
Option one seems the better option, but the question becomes whether we will allow it, and whether it will cost craft points. Can it be done with an NPC, or just with a PC?
Proposal
Starting artificer character can cooperate with NPCs to make 1st level scrolls. The NPC casts the spell, eliminating chance of spell failure, but the artificer must make one scroll of equal value and give it to the npc for each scroll he gets. The NPC provides the materials/gp cost for his share of the scrolls.
Game mechanic result: Artificer characters can make scrolls on character creation without chance of failure, but at double the xp cost from their craft reserve.
Still, taking 10 is never allowed, and the 1 is the reason why.
