Do you ever use item creation feats?

[MoonZar]

The feat survivor thread brought this up to me. I haven't used an item creation feat that I can recall, and certainly it's been rare in my games. I don't like paying XP.

How about everyone else?

Well this weird but none of my players had ever select these feat, they are so afraid to fall behind by a little xp, or to sacrifice a feat to create item to help the group.

My npc use it sometimes, as a player i never tried yet.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Hey, if your style allows for laid-back times in game (realism ), that's fine. I've just never been in such a game.

Perhaps a valid question might be, "Why doesn't your style allow for some small, scattered laid-back time?"

Why does one plot-hook immediately follow another, rather than, say, three weeks later?

 

[Ahnehnois]

My last campaign was one big plot (take mysterious artifact to mysterious location, must hurry, keep it secret, keep it safe). Individual plotlines came and went, but the central impetus to keep moving was constant.

And because of the importance of it to the campaign world, it was high-fantasy, high-adventure in general. Players leveled up very fast and were given items of amazing power by superior beings wanting to help out. Downtime was not an option, and players had better items than they could make anyway. This was not a conducive environment for crafting stuff.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I've often had a similar problem. I tend to run my games fairly fast-paced, in terms of the speed of the overall plot. It's just the sort of fantasy I'm familiar and enjoy, so my games often lean that way as well. In such instances, there's not much room for down time.

However, if I'm running a campaign of this sort, I let my players know in advance, so they can tailor their feats and characters accordingly.

Sometimes I do run slower, more "episodic" campaigns, and in those instances, I'm happy to work frequent down time into it. My problem then becomes that, since I give XP entirely by story awards and RP rather than by encounter, people who fall behind don't catch up unless I artificially inflate their XP. I'm toying with the idea of a magic item-creation system that doesn't cost XP, but just gives wizards a pool of "points" they can spend on magic items. Thus, they keep up with the group, and they can choose to create a constant stream of small items or save up for a few big ones.

Haven't gotten much of it down yet, though.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I'm toying with the idea of a magic item-creation system that doesn't cost XP, but just gives wizards a pool of "points" they can spend on magic items. Thus, they keep up with the group, and they can choose to create a constant stream of small items or save up for a few big ones.

Doesn't AU or UA do something like that?

Also, the ECS Artificer class does something similar. Each level in the class gives you a pool of Craft Reserve points, which may be spent as XP for crafting. They get an ability, also, to drain existing items and add the points to their Craft Reserve.

It refreshes every level (so if you don't use it, you lose it), but a variant might work for your purposes.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Doesn't AU or UA do something like that?

UA: Craft Points does something like this. I know it basically reduces time and makes crafting easier. I don't have it on me so I can't comment on the mechanics.

I imagine if craft points or something similar were standard issue, this poll would come out differently.

 

[jsewell]

oops, psoted a question already asked... edited my post to delete it.

 

[maggot]

My players make things occasionally, and never the small stuff. Maybe a dragonslayer sword or an amulet of wisdom +4. No option on the poll reflects this behavior.

 

[Harmon]

I have a wizard with Craft Wands and of course Scribe Scrolls. I never hesitate to make either, and do not worry about xp cost. He has Permanency as well, though has only spent 1500 xp with that (Dark Vision and Low Light).

DarthJaye in Treebore's campaign has been using hte helll out of Arms and Armor as well as Wonderous item, but Treebore doesn't charge xp for anything under a value of 15k gp so I think that is a major factor in his choice to do so (that and we need magic items).

Two Players in one of Coyote6's campaign took Scribe Scroll yet hardly ever use them, because of the xp cost.

Me I see it as an investiment in my entertainment.

 

[eyorsdoc]

Why don't you just create a system/feat/Magic Item that can drain the experience from the character wanting the item created for them. Then, if the Fighter wants the +3 sword, he pays the exp, not the wizard.