Item creation.

[Bob5th]

When a PC creates a magic item they lose XP. I feal that this is wrong and actually IMHO they should gain XP. I understand that something had to be done to limit item creation. Don't want to see elves spending 500 years making magic items.
However I think it should have been limited in other ways. Anyone have any ideas.

P.S. XP loss for casting certain spells should still apply.

 

[skunian]

I am ok with the XP loss. The way I look at it is that the people making the magic items are not learning anything new so no XP, they are merely following the recipies they leared when they learned the feat. So unlike fighting, or casting spells in varying situations, item creation is just following recipies and "empowering" items with your own very life force.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I know where you're coming from, but I don't see how to balance it without XP loss. What areyour suggestions.

 

[rhammer2]

Move to House Rules Please

This would be a good thread for the house rules forum.

 

[Crothian]

So, you'r saying I can make an item of my choicing exactly to my specifications AND I also gain XP for this? Sign me up, my adventureing days are over. All I need is a shop in a large city and make order to fit the customers. They supply the cash, I make the item. And soon I am gaining levels right and left.

 

[Grendel]

Well if cities weren't such a huge market for surplus magic items then cost would be a great balancing factor. Imagine if a party couldn't customer order their Mirthril Full Plate of Fortification and ghost touch at the local farming village.

Then you could increase the cost item creation (since the party can't purchase any items they need from a 3rd party) and eliminate the xp cost. Players would still take and use these feat to gain access to items that would be otherwise unavialible (after all how often does you party find a ultra-rare Arcane Wand of Cure Light Wounds, caster level 3. And the DM could easily controll the flow of magic items into his campaign.

Personally I never liked the idea of characters being able to purchase ANY item they desired, or create any item they desired for half that listed price.

 

[Cloudgatherer]

A friend of mine had an interesting idea. The first time you create an item, you gain XP equal to item's creation cost (essentially, the first one is free for going through the process). The additional items cost money. So the first boots of haste can be made for no XP loss, but the following boots cost you...

 

[kreynolds]

Personally I never liked the idea of characters being able to purchase ANY item they desired, or create any item they desired for half that listed price.

Technically, if they create an item and keep it, the item counts against their character wealth at full market value. Of course, I might have eaten too much cheese today, so just take my opinion with a grain of salt.

 

[EOL]

Personally I never liked the idea of characters being able to purchase ANY item they desired, or create any item they desired for half that listed price.

Yeah but that's a whole seperate discussion that's been had many, many, many times.

As to the original question, yeah realistically it might make more sense for people to gain experience, but this is a game and certain elements of the game are just there for playability and balance, and when the 3E designers added magic item creation they knew that it would have to be very costly otherwise it would get out of hand, and having it cost XP was just the thing to keep everything balanced.

 

[kreynolds]

If you wanna gain XP like this, just take the Magister template. Although, it'll bump up your ECL just a tad.