Aiding Another In Magic Item Crafting

[Syntallah]

I have the Craft Wondrous Item feat, and meet all the prerequisites for a particular item I am crafting for a fellow PC (an item to help his animal companion see again after an unfortunate encounter with a nasty spell caster). My question is:

Can my druid friend assist me in the process, and thus incur the cost of the Xp prereq (he is paying the gold cost already) if I am the one actually crafting? I seem to remember that such a thing can be done, but cannot seem to find it anywhere in writing...

 

[Ragmon]

I my self do not know of such a rule as written, you would have to ask your DM if it is possible.

 

[Syntallah]

I have every intention of doing so...

The thing is, my DM is rather new to the whole DMing process. I myself play and DM 4E, and just recently started playing with this particular group of 3.5E enthusiast friends as a side project (oh the forgotten joys of just showing up with a character sheet and dice!). I am trying to help him learn as much as I can, and prefer to show him things in the rules to back up what I am telling him. I have little doubt that he will let the druid assist me, but the teacher in me likes to show him the rules as written, and then explain how to house rule from there.

 

[Cleon]

I have the Craft Wondrous Item feat, and meet all the prerequisites for a particular item I am crafting for a fellow PC (an item to help his animal companion see again after an unfortunate encounter with a nasty spell caster). My question is:

Can my druid friend assist me in the process, and thus incur the cost of the Xp prereq (he is paying the gold cost already) if I am the one actually crafting? I seem to remember that such a thing can be done, but cannot seem to find it anywhere in writing...

Normally the creator must pay the XP cost of the item.

It's usually not that big a deal, since the advantages of having the item normally more than outweigh lagging a little behind on experience progression.

Offhand, the only way I could think of to "transfer" XP is having one item-crafting spellcaster collaborate with an Artificer (from the Eberron Campaign Setting) of at least 5th level. The Artificer's Retain Essence power allows them to recycle the XP in magical items, so the ally could invest XP into a magical item, give that item to an Artificer, who takes the item apart and reuses the XP.

That seems a bit pointless though, since it expends roughly twice as much time and money making the items and the ally needs to have Item Creation feats too.

 

[Ragmon]

Ok, so it just occurred to me, I remember reading somewhere, that when crafting stuff that require XP, a willing participant could lend some or all XP to the crafting. The "willing" part is there so there would be no shenanigans.
So yea the druid could lend some XP, the rules might be in Book of Vile Darkness or Heroes of Horror...I'm just guessing.

 

[LostSoul]

You can sacrifice someone to get "Dark Craft XP" which can be used in the creation of magic items. That's in the Book of Vile Darkness.

Though I'm not sure that's what the druid had in mind when he offered to help...

 

[Syntallah]

Ok, so it just occurred to me, I remember reading somewhere, that when crafting stuff that require XP, a willing participant could lend some or all XP to the crafting. The "willing" part is there so there would be no shenanigans.
So yea the druid could lend some XP, the rules might be in Book of Vile Darkness or Heroes of Horror...I'm just guessing.

Right! This is the part that I was remembering... Now to just find it in writing.......

 

[Nagol]

DMG 3.5, pg 215 under pre-requisites

If two or more characters cooperate to create an item, they must agree among themselves who will be considered the creator for purpose of determinations where the creator's level must be known. (<snip>), The character designated as the creator pays the XP required to make the item.

 

[squirrel]

I think this may be what you are looking for from the Rules of the Game Archive http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050118a :

A Completely Unofficial Rule: Cooperative Item Creation

As noted back in Part One, more than one character can cooperate in the creation of an item, with each participant providing one or more of the prerequisites. According to the rules, however, XP costs cannot be shared. One character must shoulder the XP burden alone.

If players in your game are avid magic item creators, you might want to experiment with shared XP costs. You can allow characters who work together on a magic item to divide up the XP cost any way they like. To share the cost, a character must provide at least one of the item's prerequisites. Any division of the XP cost is possible, provided that all the creators agree to the scheme.

If you have the kind of campaign in which some of your players pester the others to make magic items for them, you might want to allow any character to share the XP cost to make an item. An XP donor must be present each day during the item's creation (or at least when work begins on the item each day). Allow the XP donation to be strictly voluntary -- it doesn't work if the donor is magically charmed or compelled, or if the donor is bullied or intimidated into contributing. On the other hand, allowing evil spellcasters to force XP from unwilling victims might just add the right touch of nastiness to dark fantasy campaigns.

Edit note: I added this post because I'm not sure if your druid friend would meet any of the preqs to help with the crafting.

 

[Syntallah]

Awesome! Thanks!