Item creation problem

[Jorren]

I'm playing a wizard in a campaign that has been continuing long enough for my character to start making permanent magic items. What happens is that the party pools money for me to make useful items for the entire party. A large number of my feats are geared towards item creation.

The problem is that I've made enough items so that I'm falling behind the rest of the party in xp. Our dm follows a strict policy of equal xp division no matter what. At this point I'm about half a level behind everyone else, but at this rate, I can see the problem getting worse as the campaign continues (I'm 12th level right now). I wish there was someway to redistribute the xp loss among the rest of the party, but the rules don't allow anything like that as far as I know.

One other player suggested just killing off my own character since the dm allows new characters to come with the exact same xp as the rest of the party. However, this seems cheesy and lame, and I really like the character I have. There's really no way for me to do a side adventure to gain xp as the dm and I really don't have the time (it's hard enough to schedule games as it is).

Any suggestions?

 

[Shayuri]

I'm playing a wizard in a campaign that has been continuing long enough for my character to start making permanent magic items. What happens is that the party pools money for me to make useful items for the entire party. A large number of my feats are geared towards item creation.

The problem is that I've made enough items so that I'm falling behind the rest of the party in xp. Our dm follows a strict policy of equal xp division no matter what. At this point I'm about half a level behind everyone else, but at this rate, I can see the problem getting worse as the campaign continues (I'm 12th level right now). I wish there was someway to redistribute the xp loss among the rest of the party, but the rules don't allow anything like that as far as I know.

One other player suggested just killing off my own character since the dm allows new characters to come with the exact same xp as the rest of the party. However, this seems cheesy and lame, and I really like the character I have. There's really no way for me to do a side adventure to gain xp as the dm and I really don't have the time (it's hard enough to schedule games as it is).

Any suggestions?

Well, I believe it is possible for a character who can collaborate with you on an item to be designated as the one that pays exp. This requires the character in question to have caster levels, of course. Your non-caster buddies are pretty much powerless to assist you in terms of sharing the burden.

This is, of course, the reason magic items cost exp to make though. If you make a habit of it, yeah, you'll fall behind...but your party will also be blessed with a variety of magic items they would otherwise not have had the money to buy...and very likely would never have found randomly.

The ability to choose precisely what item you're getting is powerful. The exp cost is the balancing factor. This is why there's no easy way to get rid of it.

If your GM allows feats from Forgotten Realms, there is one called Magical Artisan. It causes the market costs from items created by any ONE item creation feat you possess to be multiplied by .75 for the purposes of calculating construction time, and final gp and exp cost.

If yer making big ticket items, that 25% off really helps.

 

[sledged]

Charge double the item cost. If they're able to find the item elsewhere, they'll purchase it there. Otherwise, you'll be getting rich. If they still keep asking you to make items, tell them, not until after you gain a level, and everytime you get close, spend all your XP making yourself hella items with all the money they paid you. When you run out of money continue advancing, you'll have so much stuff, it'll make up for the lack of advancement.

 

[Tatsukun]

You could also take extra gold from the party to make up for the Exp you are using. That way you might drop a level behind buy you'll be geared out so well you won't be significantly weaker than the others.

The PHB mentions 5Gp / Exp. That might be a starting point for your negotiations.

-Tatsu

 

[Thanee]

How about to ask your DM to use the standard 3.5 rules for XP distribution (as per the DMG 3.5), where you gain XP according to your own level, not according to the party average level.

This leads to lower level characters gaining a bit more XP from combat encounters, which helps to keep up with the rest.

Other than that, you could ask to create an item, which allows to transfer XP for the purpose of item creation only. The item would permanently "drain" XP (a necromantic effect, based on Energy Drain maybe?) from another character and you can spend the drained XP on item creation (only) then as if they were your own.

In any way, the Magical Artisan feat is really good, if you do a lot of item creation.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Jorren]

I already have magical artisan feat, so yeah, it helps quite a bit.

The money is really not the issue, since everyone pitches in to help everyone else on a as-needed basis. We really can't buy any decent magic items, so the ones we find during adventuring usually get sold to provide funds for me to make ones we can actually use. The issue isn't so much the xp loss as it is me falling behind everyone else. We have a cleric (with no item creation feats), but I'm the only arcane caster.

The necro-drain item idea actually sounds like it might be doable. I might be able to make an item that drains xp from everyone to make the item; that would keep all of us on an even footing.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

[Spatula]

Ask your DM if you can use the "power components" variant from the DMG. I think that's the name; it's the one that lets you avoid some costs of item creation if you use rare, hard-to-obtain "ingredients" - for example, roc feathers for a winged cloak. So the party wants an item, and your character (via the DM) determines what creature(s) you need to kill (or what legendary herbs you need to find, or whatever) in order to make it. Once the group gets its hands on the materials, you can make the item for no XP cost.

 

[Thanee]

About that drain item... of course the target has to be voluntary, everything else would be pretty abusive. But I guess that was obvious, anyways.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Li Shenron]

If I were you, I wouldn't be too much scared about being one level behind anyway, but I can see your point . Also, the Xp system is slightly self-correcting, so the lower level you are, the faster you take those levels back.

Maybe it's not the best thing to do since your party seems to handle money quite freely, but I second the option of charging full market price for the idem, instead of just the cost to create. As some sort of compensation for being behind in Xp, it would be like the party is handling to you a bigger share of the equipment to let you catch up with the average character power.

One other player suggested just killing off my own character since the dm allows new characters to come with the exact same xp as the rest of the party. However, this seems cheesy and lame, and I really like the character I have.

Yes this one was a very lame suggestion!