E6, item creation, and balance issue

[Will]

Yeah. Item caster level is SO often a source of confusion. It's only meant for things like SR, dispel magic, detect magic, and the like.

As long as someone can cast cat's grace, they can create ANY gloves of dexterity (+6 if they wish)

 

[Werebat]

Wow. So, does this mean that the artificer effectively "breaks" E6? I mean, by the book he doesn't have to be of a level to actually CAST the prerequisite spells to craft an item, he just has to make a UMD check against the item's caster level.

I guess the +2 to effective caster level that the artificer gets for the purposes of crafting magical items is sort of pointless, too. I mean, if he can elect to lower the caster level to 1 for everything, what's the point?

- Ron ^*^

 

[Will]

You can't lower the caster level below what would be required to actually cast the spell, though; an item of Flight is going to likely require Caster Level 5, because that's needed to cast Fly (which is a 3rd level spell).

I don't have Eberron, so I have no idea how an artificer functions, but there you go.

ANY caster can, when creating an item, lower the caster level or raise it with more conventional items, like a wand or scroll; the minimum is still 'whatever you need to cast the spell,' and I'm not aware of any maximum -- I think you could have a CL 20 wand, if for some reason you thought that was a good idea.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Wow. So, does this mean that the artificer effectively "breaks" E6? I mean, by the book he doesn't have to be of a level to actually CAST the prerequisite spells to craft an item, he just has to make a UMD check against the item's caster level.
- Ron ^*^

It would seem obvious to me that an artificer can't imitate a spell that does not actually exist for casters (ie 4th level or higher) This would be a function of e6 not RAW.

Nift & co are right about the caster level thing, the limitations on buffing items is a house rule. I put some caster level limit on +4 and +6 items.

When I did the list of items I only went on the level of the spell required, orginally with a note that I would disallow statboosters other than the gloves of ogre power.

 

[Nifft]

Wow. So, does this mean that the artificer effectively "breaks" E6?

Go look at the WotC CharOpt boards. This is hardly the first thing the Artificer has broken. It's an obscenely overpowered class in the right hands.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Evilhalfling]

As for the +2 caster level I suppose this would allow a wand of MM that shot 4 missles or a scorching ray wand that fired a second ray. Useful but not game breaking. (unlike the infamous metamagic/double wand tricks also available.)
(scooped by Nift)

 

[Werebat]

As for the +2 caster level I suppose this would allow a wand of MM that shot 4 missles or a scorching ray wand that fired a second ray. Useful but not game breaking. (unlike the infamous metamagic/double wand tricks also available.)
(scooped by Nift)

No, the rules say that the artificer doesn't increase the CL of his items. The bonus is only useful to enable him to craft items with higher required CL than his artificer level.

- Ron ^*^