Do you give total freedom to your players about crafting magic items?

Li Shenron

Legend
More precisely...

Once they have the feat, and access to the prerequisite spells, do you allow them to craft anything from the DMG (and any other sourcebook you approved)?

Do you require them to cast the prerequisite spells once per crafting day? Once per item crafted? Or simply to "know" the spell or have a scroll/wand, but without actually casting it?

Do you fordib them to use scrolls/wands for crafting purposes?

Do you require some extra knowledge not included in the DMG (something that would require some roleplay or adventure)?

Do you use different levels of restrictions in different cases?
 

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I normally allow anything from the DMG. Anything from another source requires specific approval, as I don't vet every item in every book before allowing it into the campaign. I haven't allowed scrolls for magic item construction, but I do let two spellcasters work together (if a wizard wants to make a holy weapon, he can have a cleric with the Good domain help him to qualify for the holy smite requirement). In essence, I require the prerequisites to be met every day, but let multiple people combine their talents to do so (though that takes the full work time for every person involved). I might allow wands -- it hasn't come up.

I also allow players to design their own magic items, though those always require specific permission.

I have rules for specific kinds of items requiring special lore, along the lines of needing to know elven lore to make a cloak of elvenkind (automatic for elves, but theoretically could be learned by others), but again it hasn't really come up.

The biggest limitation in my games has been how long non-crafting players are willing to wait before they want to go adventuring again.
 

Yes, I give them freedom

Li Shenron said:
Once they have the feat, and access to the prerequisite spells, do you allow them to craft anything from the DMG (and any other sourcebook you approved)?

I sure do as long as they have the money and the time

Do you require them to cast the prerequisite spells once per crafting day? Once per item crafted? Or simply to "know" the spell or have a scroll/wand, but without actually casting it?

They have to know the spell and cast it but that never has come up in the campaign.

Do you fordib them to use scrolls/wands for crafting purposes?

Never had to yet.

Do you require some extra knowledge not included in the DMG (something that would require some roleplay or adventure)?

Sometimes, but it is mostly like joining a certain guild.

Do you use different levels of restrictions in different cases?
 

Li Shenron said:
Once they have the feat, and access to the prerequisite spells, do you allow them to craft anything from the DMG (and any other sourcebook you approved)?

Yes. Provided their character can free up some downtime in which to do it. This isn't usually a problem, but has occasionally prevented crafting.

Do you require them to cast the prerequisite spells once per crafting day? Once per item crafted? Or simply to "know" the spell or have a scroll/wand, but without actually casting it?

I believe they have to cast it once per day, but I'd need to check the DMG (since I use the RAW in this area). Since crafting is always done as downtime, that's only an issue if scrolls or wands are to be used, in which case these must be expended appropriately.

Do you fordib them to use scrolls/wands for crafting purposes?

Do you require some extra knowledge not included in the DMG (something that would require some roleplay or adventure)?

Do you use different levels of restrictions in different cases?

No, no, and no.
 


Yes I do.

Actually, in my mind a better question is- why wouldn't you? If you don't want the PCs to have the freedom to craft their own magic items and spend all that XP and treasure, not to mention time- why do you even let the PCs take those feats at all?

And technically, by the rules (or at least my reading of them), the crafter doesn't have to cast the spell in question in order to make the item- it just has to be "available" (whatever that means). If the crafter is pulling spell power from another item (like a wand or scroll) to power the one being made, then yes the charge gets used, but the crafter's own spell slots don't get used up by crafting the way they do by actual spellcasting.
 

paradox42 said:
Actually, in my mind a better question is- why wouldn't you? If you don't want the PCs to have the freedom to craft their own magic items and spend all that XP and treasure, not to mention time- why do you even let the PCs take those feats at all?

We use a home rule that eliminated the crafting feats in favor of a system where casters can know how to craft items, as they would spells. I'm pretty generous in allowing them to quickly study captured items and quickly figure out related items (e.g. found a headband of intellect, the same principals may get them to a cloak of charisma or, better yet, a "headband of charisma" - hopefully will encourage some novel magic item creation - but we're still beta testing this home-rule). They still need to meet the pre-requisites, and be eligible to have taken the feat (in terms of level) to create the type of item in question.

This was essentially because wizard PCs were tending lose their feats to item crafting as a sacrifice "for the group" instead of building up feats that aid their character concept (or that directly help them in adventures). Essentially, the group's caster became much like the old 1e/2e priests, but instead of peer-pressured healing spell memorization the peer group pressures for item creation feats. My hope was to give some latitude for character development, and encourage some non-traditional spell casters to create items also (clerics come to mind, as they don't have many feats to spare for item creation).
 

balterkn said:
This was essentially because wizard PCs were tending lose their feats to item crafting as a sacrifice "for the group" instead of building up feats that aid their character concept (or that directly help them in adventures). Essentially, the group's caster became much like the old 1e/2e priests, but instead of peer-pressured healing spell memorization the peer group pressures for item creation feats. My hope was to give some latitude for character development, and encourage some non-traditional spell casters to create items also (clerics come to mind, as they don't have many feats to spare for item creation).

A 2-level dip in the Chameleon PRC is one way to cut out the need for taking crafting feats. The floating bonus feat can be applied to anything you're currently crafting, and then changed to something useful for combat when needed. (And being able to switch in spell mastery when your spellbook has been stolen is great). Your wizard might have fewer spells, but the added survivability is a decent tradeoff.



Of course, making magical traps doesn't require any feats at all. Making the magical item crafting feats into skills might be a good way to balance it.
 

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