Talk to me about item crafting

[sniffles]

I'm playing a wizard in a new campaign. We just reached 3rd level, and I'm trying to decide what feat to take. I was considering Craft Wondrous Item.

Go ahead and treat me like I don't know anything. I've read the feat description and the DMG section on crafting wondrous items, but I'd like to see someone else explain it.

So tell me about item crafting. How does it work? Is it something my character can do at this level or will I have to wait until I'm higher level for it to be beneficial? What constitutes a wondrous item? Can I craft multiple-use items, or only single-use?

 

[Klaude dOrien]

depends on how ameniable your DM is to you designing new magic items using the formulas in the DMG or whether you are limited to the ones actually in the DMG

If the later you can basically just make cloaks of resistence, pearls of power, and stat boost items - most of the other wondrous items in the DMG either require you to know 3rd or higher level spells or are seriously expensive to make.

if the former you can for example make one use a day items that duplicate the spells you (or other party members) can cast.

the time needed to create items isn't much of a constraint at 3rd level.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I'm not a huge fan of it. You're paying exp for an item.

In a core rules setting you can pretty much commission what you need. So why make something? Of course, if you're not in a core rules setting and if items are more limited, the feat allows you to make stuff the DM has no real plans on giving you. Hopefully, your DM will be open minded about this. In theory and mostly in practice, a core rules game is balanced so there shouldn't be any concerns.

Maybe if I was a cleric I'd make wondrous items of cure light wounds that you could use twice a day. That way the healing load would be spread out and if I dropped to -1 hp, someone could get me back on my feet quickly.

So I guess a lot of it depends on both your DM and your intentions. What did you have in mind to make?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Incidentally der_kluge lives and breathes for this kind of thing. He's run the math on item creation and muses on it often.

 

[sniffles]

I'm not a huge fan of it. You're paying exp for an item.

In a core rules setting you can pretty much commission what you need. So why make something? Of course, if you're not in a core rules setting and if items are more limited, the feat allows you to make stuff the DM has no real plans on giving you. Hopefully, your DM will be open minded about this. In theory and mostly in practice, a core rules game is balanced so there shouldn't be any concerns.

Maybe if I was a cleric I'd make wondrous items of cure light wounds that you could use twice a day. That way the healing load would be spread out and if I dropped to -1 hp, someone could get me back on my feet quickly.

So I guess a lot of it depends on both your DM and your intentions. What did you have in mind to make?

I've got to talk to the GM about it, but I don't think the XP components is going to be much of a problem. He plays pretty loose with the rules and I suspect he'd rather keep all the party members at the same level than worry about one person falling behind when that person is doing something beneficial for the group.

Plus he's a game designer so he'll probably be able to think of some way to house-rule it easily.

 

[der_kluge]

Incidentally der_kluge lives and breathes for this kind of thing. He's run the math on item creation and muses on it often.

Believe it or not, I'm not even that familiar with the core system. What I know of it, I hate, which is why we wrote the Artificer's Handbook. Now *that* system I can pretty much use blindfolded, at least the basic formula - 10gp(spell level * caster level -1) * # of spell slots ^2.

Sniffles, you might consider picking up the Artificer's Handbook (it's available in PDF). It replaces (optionally) the core Craft feats with a simplified hierarchy of Craft Simple, Medium, and Complex (though I could be misremembering their names).

The general idea is that it makes no sense to require one feat to create Boots of Flying and another separate feat to create a Ring of Flying. Same spell - why do I need two different feats? Well, with this system, you don't.

Another common criticism, as BG has pointed out - is that the default Craft mechanic requires XP expenditure. The Artificer's Handbook has alternate rules around that, too. So, the wizard lagging behind isn't a problem. It also solves the "I just leveled, and have no excess XP" problem which occurs with the core system.


I use the Artificer's Handbook in my game, and I'd never consider going back to anything other than it, honestly. It's just SO much better, in my opinion. Of course, I'd think that way, I wrote it.


As to your question - Craft Wondrous is good, and so is Craft Wand - being able to cast 50 of any spell is a HUGE power boost for a wizard or cleric (wands of cure moderate wounds, anyone?). I think the latter is more powerful, but I believe it requires 5th level.

You also have to make sure there's actual downtime in your game to allow you the time necessary to create these things.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Here's an example of magic item creation, going by the rules.

My PC, Griselda, is a 6th-level necromancer. She has the feat Craft Wondrous Item. She wishes to create a Cloak of Arachnida (DMG pg 252) because it is cool, stylish, a bit evil and also pretty useful.

At the bottom of the section on the cloak are its crafter stats. These read - CL 6th; Craft Wondrous Item, spider climb, web; Market Price 14 000gp.

This means that the crafter must have a minimum caster level of 6. They must have the Craft Wondrous Item feat and during the crafting both spells, spider climb and web, must be cast once each per day. It so happens Griselda has both in her spellbook but if she didn't they could be cast by an ally or from another item such as a wand.

For the crafting she will need 7000gp (half of the market cost) in raw materials. The cost of the base non-magical cloak is, I believe, included in this. Creating the item will take 14 days, one day for every 1000gp of market price. The creator has to work 8 hours a day for this period in a "fairly quiet, comfortable and well-lit place". It will also cost Griselda 560 xp, which is the market price divided by 25.

 

[Klaude dOrien]

at lower levels you can commission anything you need. the advantage of item creation feats is mainly allowing you to trade 1XP for 12.5gp. this is a pretty good deal at low levels. They also allow you to make items in the field/down the dungeon. At these levels you normally can't easily teleport back to town. this can be quite a big deal e.g. in a wilderness adventure


at the higher levels 1XP for 12.5gp isn't that attractive (standard PC wealth grows faster than XP as you level up). and you can teleport back to town to commission stuff. the advantage of item creation feats at the higher levels is that in most campaign worlds there are a limited number of really high wisards and clerics and commissioning the really powerful stuff e.g. a vorpal sword may not be so easy.

 

[Doug McCrae]

From the DMG, the best and most popular wondrous items are probably the six stat boosters - amulet of health, gloves of ogre power/belt of giant strength, gloves of dexterity, cloak of charisma, headband of intellect and periapt of wisdom. The minimum caster level for these is 8th (or 10th for the belt), they boost a stat by +2, +4 or +6, and have a market price of 4000gp, 16000gp or 36000gp. The spell required is the appropriate 2nd level stat booster, such as bull's strength or fox's cunning.

Cloak of resistance and amulet of natural armor are also well worth making, though the amulet requires the druid spell, barkskin.

Also good are bag of holding, bracers of armor, boots of striding and springing, boots of speed, eyes of the eagle and hat of disguise (caster level is 1st for this one, and very cheap at 1800gp market price)

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

My favorite PC in a long time is an artificer, so ...

Okay, first off, the really, really basic part: Craft Wondrous Items allows you to trade a feat slot for money, XP, and customization.

Anyone, generally speaking, can get a ring of protection. You, however, have spent a feat to be able to get it at half price (plus a bit of XP) when you need it.

Craft Wondrous Items covers, basically, those magic items which are not specifically covered by another feat: gloves, clothing, cloaks, bags, ioun stones, etc.

When you go to craft an item, you first determine its Market Price. You then must spend half of that amount in gold pieces, and 1/25 of that amount in XP, to craft the item, which takes 1 day per 1,000gp of value.

So, crafting a 2,500gp item costs 1,250gp in raw materials, 100xp, and 3 days.

Generally speaking, there are no checks to be made; success is automatic.

When you are making an item out of the DMG (the "stock" items, as it were), the prereqs and costs are easy to find. Note that every item has a CL (Caster Level) entry. This is representative of the most common level at which the item is crafted, but it is not a hard requirement. Should you wish to make the item at a different CL, this is usually doable, but the cost and effectiveness of the item may need to be adjusted.

For instance, the Pearl of Power is listed with a CL of 17. This means that, should the DM throw a random Pearl of Power into a treasure horde, it will likely have a CL of 17. If you wish to create your own PoP, you can set the CL at any level up to your own CL, so long as you are still able to meet the prereqs. Since the prereq for a level 1 PoP is "Ability to cast 1st-level spells," you could make a CL 1 PoP (1) for 1,000gp.

Other items, like Boots of Levitation, have an effect which is based on their CL. In this case, the boots act like a levitation spell cast by a 3rd-level caster each time they're used (including how long they work before you need to command them again). If you want the boots to last longer, you'll need to increase the CL, which will increase the cost.

When costing items which are not already present in the DMG (including items reliant on their CL at a different CL than is listed), you'll need to use the formulas to estimate the cost.

This is a delicate process, and should always involve your DM. For the most part, magic items have a cost expressed as:

[Constant] * [Variable 1] * [Variable 2]

In many cases, Variable 1 and 2 are the same thing: attack bonuses, save bonuses, etc. In other cases, they're different, spell and caster level being the primary one.

Additionally, when it comes to Wondrous Items, you'll need to be careful about something called "Affinity." Broadly speaking, each magic item slot is designed to do certain things: hands to make you quicker, belts to make you stronger, etc.

If you try to go against the slot's affinity (by making boots that increase your Intelligence, for instance), you pay a penalty of 50%.

Sound good so far?