Item Creation Feat Consolidation Suggestion

[Vraille Darkfang]

Item Creation Feat Consolidation:

In my games, I try to encourage players to make their own magic items, unfortunately, they rarely get the necessary time required to really make anything. (Particularly now that they're 18th level and need around 200+ days to make their "really, really, really, really, REALLY, cool thingy of absolute power). I also use Power Components exclusively in my game (spending XP is not an option). Ironically, players tend to prefer to spend 5,000 xp than find the eyeteeth of an epic lich. Go figure.

And I like my players to make magic doo-dads.

Thus I've come up with the following campaign option:

ITEM CREATION FEAT CONSOLDATION:

Basically, I've combine several IC feats as follows:

General notes: In the case of Feat Prerequisites, the prerequisites are equal to the lowest requirements of all the combined feats. However, all items now automatically require one to have the necessary prerequisites of the old feat. Confused? (I am) Here's an example: Craft Magic Rod, Staff, or Wand now has the prerequisites of Caster Level 5th (the lowest of Craft Rod, Craft Staff, and Craft Wand). However, all Magic Wands now gain Caster Level 9th in addition to whatever requirements it already had, unless the Rod already required a higher caster level than 9th. This is because Craft Rod required a 9th level caster. I know, I know, Since you have to be 9th level to take the feat, shouldn't all Rods require the creator to be 9th level? It probably should, but the clerics of copy editing and proof reading aren't what they used to be.

On to the Feats:

Craft Magic Arms & Armor: No Change. As the only IC Feat that actually combines 2 separate magic item categories of the DMG, I'm surprised it isn't split into 2 feats.

Brew Potion & Scribe Scroll:
Prerequisites: Caster Level 1st.
Benefit: You can create magical scrolls & potions you meet the requirements for.
Special: All Potions gain the requirement Caster Level 3rd, if it does not already have a higher Caster Level.

Craft Rod, Staff, or Wand:
Prerequisites: Caster Level 5th.
Benefit: You can create magical rods, staves or wands you meet the requirements for.
Special: All rods gain the requirement Caster Level 9th, if it does not already have a higher Level. All Staves gain the requirement Caster Level 12th, if it does not already have a higher Caster Level.

Craft Wondrous Item (& Forge Ring):

First, I wanted to try to lessen the inequalities between the various IC feats. Craft Magic Arms & Armor and Craft Wondrous Item are massively superior to all the other permanent IC feats. Also Craft Wondrous Item is a "catch-all' for every other magic item not listed. Also many Rings are duplicated by various Wondrous Items (Cloak of Invisibility/Ring of Invisibility; Ring of Jumping/ Boots of Striding and Springing) In fact, aside from having 2 item worn "slots", as opposed to a single, Magic Rings are functionally no different from other item "Slots" such as Cloak, Feet, Belt, etc…. In fact, I have no Idea WHY rings are such special items in D&D. Knock Knock. Umm, excuse me.
"Yes"

"Preciouuuss… Have you seen my Preciouuuus?"

"For the last time NO!. I have no RING! None, No one ring, no wrestling ring, no ringworm either (thanks Dr Scholls!) Now leave before you fall in this volcano in my living room."

Where was I? Oh yes. In fact if some unnamed British author had described "One boot to rule them all", I'd probably be ranting about combing the Cobble Magic Footwear feat into Craft Wondrous Item.

Prerequisites: Caster Level 3rd.
Benefit: You can create any Wondrous Item or Magical Ring you meet the requirements for.
Special: I intentionally didn't add the "all rings now have Caster Level 12th requirement" as many rings have to high of caster level requirement for the benefit they deliver (all the Lesser Rings or ____ Skill for example).

Special IC Feats:

Feats such as Brew Infusion, Encode Gem, Inscribe Rune, or many of the various Craft Magic Tattoo feats I've seen can be absorbed into either my combined Scribe Scroll & Brew Potion Feat or the Wondrous Item Feat. Basically anything that looks, acts, and duplicates a Scroll or Potion, but simply in another form can be added into the Scroll & Potion feat, I just add an additional requirement to craft the item, usually X ranks of a related skill (Craft Herbalism for Infusions, Craft Gemcutting for Encode Gem, Craft Stoneworking for Inscribe Rune, & Craft Tattoo for 1 use Magical Tattoos). In general, 5+ level of the spell ranks in relevant skill. Those that create various effects, such as the Tattoo magic in Relics & Rituals can be accomplished through the Craft Wondrous Item Feats & the required number of skill ranks.

Dragoncraft (from Draconomicon). As I use Power Components, Dragoncraft doesn't exist. The power of Dragoncraft items is inherit in the base components themselves and no special effort is required to bring it out.

What do you think?
Vraille Darkfang

 

[Spatzimaus]

Well, first of all I'd change some names.

Brew Potion and Scribe Scroll both make one-shot, consumable items.
Staves and Wands are both many-charged consumable items.
Rods, Rings, Arms & Armor, and most Wondrous items are unlimited-charge items.
So, instead of calling it "Brew Potion or Scribe Scroll", it could be named something like Craft Expendable Magic Item, so that there'd ne no need to clarify Tattoos, Power Stones, Infusions, etc.; they'd obviously fall into that group.
Likewise, you'd have Craft Charged Magic Item, Craft Persistent Magic Item, and Craft Magic Arms & Armor.

Frankly, though, IMO if you're going to rework the core system you should build it from the ground up instead of shuffling the existing feats around. Stick everything into a chain of Feats, instead of the current pick-n-choose setup. In one of my campaigns we just do it as:

ENCHANT TRINKET: Requires Caster Level 1. You can make items with a value of 1kgp or less. You create items at the rate of 1kgp per day. Only 1-shot consumable magic items are allowed (scrolls, potions, Quaal's tokens, etc.)
ENCHANT MINOR ITEM: Requires Caster Level 5, Enchant Trinket. The value cap increases to 10kgp, you create at 2kgp/day, and you can now make items with either multiple charges (i.e., wands and staves) OR 1 activation per day. You can also make magical weapons/armors, as long as your caster level is 3 times the market price modifier.
ENCHANT MODERATE ITEM: Requires Caster Level 10, Enchant Minor Item. The value cap increases to 50 kgp, you create at 3kgp/day, and you can now make X/day items and slotless items in addition to the previous types. You can also make items which boost numerical values directly (the stat-boosting items, Amulets of Natural Armor, Bracers of Armor, anything that boosts a skill, etc), as long as your caster level is 3 times the numerical bonus. For every 10kgp in the item's value, there's a cumulative 1% chance it is intelligent, although this cannot bestow abilities which would raise its cost above the value cap.
ENCHANT MAJOR ITEM: Requires Caster Level 15, Enchant Moderate Item. The value cap increases to 200kgp, you create at 4kgp/day, and you can make unlimited-use items (those which produce the effect of a spell either at will or on use, or those with no duration like goggles of darkvision). When checking to see if a created item is intelligent, you can choose to increase or decrease the chances by up to 10%.

And then there's Enchant Minor Artifact (21), Enchant Moderate Artifact (35), and Enchant Major Artifact (50), but you don't need to get into those yet.

Anyway, it makes it really easy for the DM. No more worrying about whether someone "wasted" a Feat on Craft Wand, no players trying to make a Wondrous Item that exactly duplicates a ring, etc. There's a bit more to it, but that's the basics.

 

[Chroma]

This is what we use in my campaign:

Craft Minor Wondrous Item [Item Creation]

Prerequisite: Spellcaster level 5th+.

Benefit: The character can create any permanent magic item (including amulets, armour, rings, rods, and weapons) of base price 8,500 gp, or less, whose prerequisites the character meets. Enchanting a miscellaneous magic item takes 1 week for each 1,000 gp in its base price. To enchant a permanent magic item, the spellcaster must spend 1/25 of the item’s price in XP and use up raw materials costing half of this price. The character can also mend a broken miscellaneous magic item if it is one that the character could make. Doing so costs half the XP, half the raw materials, and half the time it would take to enchant that item in the first place.

Note: Some wondrous items incur extra costs in material components or XP as noted in their descriptions. These costs are in addition to those derived from the item’s base price. The character must pay such a cost to create an item or to mend a broken one.


Craft Moderate Wondrous Item [Item Creation]

Prerequisite: Spellcaster level 9th+, Craft Minor Wondrous Item

Benefit: As Craft Minor Wondrous Item, but permanent items of maximum base price 25,500 gp can be created.


Craft Major Wondrous Item [Item Creation]

Prerequisite: Spellcaster level 15th+, Craft Moderate Wondrous Item

Benefit: As Craft Minor Wondrous Item, but permanent items of maximum base price 76,500 gp can be created.


Craft Master Wondrous Item [Item Creation]

Prerequisite: Spellcaster level 18th+, Craft Major Wondrous Item

Benefit: As Craft Minor Wondrous Item, but permanent items of maximum base price 250,000 gp can be created.


Craft Lesser Charged Item [Item Creation]

Prerequisite: Spellcaster level 5th+.

Benefit: The character can create a charged item (including rings, talismans, and wands) holding any single spell of 4th level or lower that the character knows. Crafting a charged item takes 1 day for each 1,000 gp in its base price. The base price of a charged item varies depending on activation method, caster and spell level, and number of charges. To craft a charged, the character must spend 1/25 of this base price in XP and use up raw materials costing half of this base price. Charged items hold a maximum of 50 charges, though they may be crafted with less for a commensurate reduction in base price.

Note: Any charged item that stores a spell with a costly material component or an XP cost also carries a commensurate cost. In addition to the cost derived from the base cost, the character must expend fifty copies of the material component or pay fifty times the XP cost.


Craft Greater Charged Item [Item Creation]

Prerequisite: Spellcaster level 12th+, Craft Lesser Charged Item

Benefit: As Craft Lesser Charged Item but spells of 5th level or greater may also be used and multiple spells may be placed in a single charged item (eg, staves).

 

[Stalker0]

Personally, I find craft magic arms and armor to be weaker than you think. The reason is its often a benefactor feat, most wizards get no real benefit out of it personally and wind up just making armor for their buddies.

Also, wondrous item is by far the best one, and shouldn't get craft ring with it.

I would recommend combining the ring and the arms and armor feats instead.