Inventive Crafter

Jack Simth · Apr 20, 2008

Hey Fred? How the heck did you make that ring of Protection for me? There's no way you could cast the required Shield of Faith spell....

Well... there's ways around that....

Inventive Crafter
Requirements: Caster Level 6, any item creation feat
Benefit: When making any magic item that is not a spell-trigger or spell-completion item, you may ignore the spell requirements by adding drawbacks. For each required spell ignored, select one drawback from the following list; if you have a magical writing of the required spell (such as a scroll of the spell, or a copy of the spell in a Wizard's spellbook), the drawback has reduced severity (in parenthesis in most cases). Utilizing a magical writing in this manner does not use up the magical writing like crafting normally would, and the same magical writing can be used on each day of crafting. Not all options are available for all types of items, and you cannot select any one drawback more than once for a given item:

1) Increase material and XP costs by 20% (10%).
2) Increase Crafting time by 100% (50%)
3) When the item is activated, there is a 10% (5%) chance that nothing happens; this is only available for items that have to be specifically triggered by the user (such as Boots of Teleportation, or a Ring of Invisibility; you may not select this drawback for automatic items such as a Cloak of Resistance or a +1 Bane(Dragon) sword).
4) The item is temporary, and will run out in a year (two years); this is not available for items that get used up (such as Potions or a Brooch of Shielding), but only for normally permanent items (such as a Cloak of Resistance or a Helm of Teleportation).
5) The item requires a second item to be of any use; the second item takes up an item slot of the Crafter's choice and has no other benefit (so that Ring of Telekinesis might require you be wearing a particular shirt that uses up your Vest slot, or the Goggles of Night might require you wear a particular helmet). If you have a magical writing with the required spell, you can enchant the useless item with a property normally associated with that type of item with a 50% increase in cost (as though it were a secondary ability).
6) The item has half of the normal hardness and hit points (75%); this is only available for swords and shields.
7) The item only has 50% of the normal charges for the item (75%), round down; this is only available for items that either have a finite number of uses but can be used more than once (such as a Ring of the Ram or a Scarab of Protection, but not a Potion of Cure Light) or a limit on use per day that's above single-use (such as Boots of Teleportation or Boots of Speed, but not a Cape of the Monteback or a Circlet of Blasting).
8) The item has a 2% (1%) chance per use of exploding for 1d6 untyped damage per caster level of the item in a 20-foot radius spread every time it is invoked; this explosion destroys the item in the process. This is only available for normally permanent items that are specifically activated (such as a Cape of the Monteback or a Chime of Interruption, but not for a +3 Sword or a Feather Token).

Each drawback other than 1 or 2 (which do not affect the market price of the item) applied to an item reduces it's sale price by 20% (10%, for the reduced severity ones), but does not alter the cost of creation.

For example, Fred the Sorcerer wants to craft a Helm of Telepathy. He's got a captured spellbook with Suggestion in it, but he doesn't have access to Detect Thoughts at all. He's short on cash, so he tinkers with it for a lot longer than normal, and comes up with something; he spends 13,500 gp and 1,080 to craft it, but takes his time (option 1) for not having Detect Thoughts, but he's not quite careful enough when he's applying the Suggestion aspect, leaving it with a slight chance of blowing up every time it's used (option 8, magical writing available, so 1% chance of exploding for 5d6 damage in a 20 foot radius every time he uses it). If he ever decides to sell it, it's got a market price of 24,300 gp.

Normal: You must cast the spell requirements for each day of item crafting, or have someone collaborate who can cast the spell requirements.

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My own thoughts on balance:
1) Most magic items' balance comes from their costs to create - which this leaves primarily unchanged. It skips the inconvenience of casting the specifically required spells but adds other drawbacks.
2) A wizard can learn spells from scrolls, but this will not let a Wizard skip spell requirements for such - the Wizard must still be able to cast the spell to make a scroll or wand of it. This feat does not get around that.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the balance of this feat?

Original feat Text:
[sblock]Inventive Crafter
Requirements: Caster Level 6, any two item creation feats, Spellcraft 9 ranks
Benefit: When making any magic item that is not a spell-trigger or spell-completion item, you may ignore the spell requirements by doubling the crafting time. If you have magical writings on hand that match the spell requirements, you only increase the crafting time by 50 percent, rather than doubling it (this does not use up magical writings, such as scrolls). You still must meet any other requirements, and pay the standard gold and xp costs. For example, if Fred wanted to make a +2 Cloak of Resistance, but did not know the Resistance spell, with this feat, Fred could spend 8 days, rather than the normal 4, to craft it. If he has a scroll of Resistance handy, he could do so in six. He could not, however, craft a Wand of Resistance (as that is a spell-trigger item).
Normal: You must cast the spell requirements for each day of item crafting, or have someone collaborate who can cast the spell requirements.[/sblock]

Dannyalcatraz · Apr 20, 2008

First, let me say that I really like the concept!

This "Kludge Crafter" feat of yours should probably have one or more additional downsides (depending upon the item), like:

1) Increasing the cost of the item, possibly based upon how much of a change the crafter has to make in his workaround.

2) Reducing the durability of the item.

3) Taking up an additional item slot.

4) Reduced dependability. Perhaps it doesn't always work. Perhaps it works chaotically. Maybe it only works under certain conditions, like during a full moon. Regardless, it doesn't always do what its supposed to do when its supposed to do it.

5) Increased number of charges to do what its supposed to do.

6) Reduced number of charges in the item.

7) Less permanent. The ring you make this way might only work for a year before losing its power. Perhaps there is a (cumulative or noncumulative) chance it will break or blow up each time you use it.

Jack Simth · Apr 21, 2008

Thanks for the feedback.

One quick question, though: Why does it need more drawbacks than the extra time and the extra feat slot? Do you expect that the ability to bypass spell requirements for most items is likely to cause balance issues, or do you want more drawbacks in there for flavor reasons?

If it's for balance, a standard party is expected to have both a Wizard and a Cleric - between the two, they'll be able to collaborate on Crafting almost anything that's craftable anyway - without either of them spending the extra feat. Mechanically, all this really does is cut back on bookkeeping, and permit limited spells known classes (such as the Sorcerer) to be reasonable crafters; it's got a side-benefit of permitting parties that are missing one of the two expected Primary Casters to craft things (e.g., it lets a Wizard craft Potions of Cure Light Wounds when there's no Cleric in the party, or a Cleric without the Travel domain to craft Boots of Teleportation when there is no Wizard in the party).

Dannyalcatraz · Apr 21, 2008

A lot of it is about flavor, especially in the light of RW workarounds. Admittedly, some workarounds have proven to be better than the initial designs, but they're the exception.

The other side- mechanics- was something I was less clear about.

What I meant was that there should be a list of options for how the Kludge Crafter gets around the normal requirements- it shouldn't just be all about the increased time.

Perhaps the Cloak he made last week took more time to make than usual, the one he did 3 months ago is unstable and will cease to function in a year, and the one he did 4 years ago works just as advertised...but he had to buy better materials than usual to make it, so its more expensive.

I mean, think about the classic kludgers in fiction- Scotty from Star Trek, Uncle Red Green from [/i]Red Green[/i], Joe from News Radio. While they may have used certain tools in ways unintended (like Duct Tape), the results varied in effectiveness, appearance and other variables.

Jack Simth · Apr 21, 2008

So, you're looking for something more along the lines of...

For each required spell ignored, select one drawback from the following list; if you have a magical writing of the required spell (such as a scroll of the spell, or a copy of the spell in a Wizard's spellbook), the drawback has reduced severity (in parenthesis in most cases). Utilizing a magical writing in this manner does not use up the magical writing like crafting normally would, and the same magical writing can be used on each day of crafting. Not all options are available for all types of items, and you cannot select any one drawback more than once for a given item:

1) Increase material and XP cost by 20% (10%).
2) Increase Crafting time by 100% (50%)
3) When the item is activated, there is a 10% (5%) chance that nothing happens; this is only available for items that have to be specifically triggered by the user (such as Boots of Teleportation, or a Ring of Invisibility; you may not select this drawback for automatic items such as a Cloak of Resistance or a +1 Bane(Dragon) sword).
4) The item is temporary, and will run out in a year (two years); this is not available for items that get used up (such as Potions or a Brooch of Shielding), but only for normally permanent items (such as a Cloak of Resistance or a Helm of Teleportation).
5) The item requires a second item to be of any use; the second item takes up an item slot of the Crafter's choice and has no other benefit (so that Ring of Telekinesis might require you be wearing a particular shirt that uses up your Vest slot, or the Goggles of Night might require you wear a particular helmet). If you have a magical writing with the required spell, you can enchant the useless item with a property normally associated with that type of item with a 50% increase in cost (as though it were a secondary ability).
6) The item has half of the normal hardness and hit points (75%); this is only available for swords and shields.
7) The item only has 50% of the normal charges for the item (75%), round down; this is only available for items that either have a finite number of uses but can be used more than once (such as a Ring of the Ram or a Scarab of Protection, but not a Potion of Cure Light) or a limit on use per day that's above single-use (such as Boots of Teleportation or Boots of Speed, but not a Cape of the Monteback or a Circlet of Blasting).
8) The item has a 2% (1%) chance per use of exploding for 1d6 untyped damage per caster level of the item in a 20-foot radius spread every time it is invoked; this explosion destroys the item in the process. This is only available for normally permanent items that are specifically activated (such as a Cape of the Monteback or a Chime of Interruption, but not for a +3 Sword or a Feather Token).

Each drawback other than 1 or 2 applied to an item reduces it's sale price by 20% (10%, for the reduced severity ones), but does not alter the cost of creation (so a Helm of Telepathy that has a 1% chance of exploding each time it is used would cost 13,500 gp and 1,080 xp to make in this manner, but would be worth only 24,300 gp, rather than the normal 27,000 gp, when determining how much you can sell it for later on).

Do note that this type of thing does weaken the feat, though (as many of the better items require multiple spells - which means multiple drawbacks); as you are in no way claiming that the feat as it stood is unbalanced, I'll make it easier to get to compensate. Editing in a moment....