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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kreynolds" data-source="post: 402017" data-attributes="member: 2829">I haven't, nor has anyone else in my group. The knowledge required to create a magic item is part of the item creation feat itself, as others have already stated. You don't really need to do research, as you have already done it.But, there are times when a player might want to create a funky item, one that can't be found in the DMG or any other supplement. In those particular cases, the player not only needs to decide what kinds of effects they are going for, but they also need to decide what spells to use to make the item. It isn't your job to tell them what spells to use either. It's up to them.For example, say you have a player that wants to make a magic item that adds a +4 deflection bonus to AC and allows the wielder of the item to inflict 1d4 points of force damage with their unarmed attacks. Unreasonable? Not at all. But here's the kicker. The player wants to use Magic Missle to make the item. Well, magic missle is a [Force] spell after all, so that does explain the deflection bonus to AC, which is a force effect, as well as the additional damage inflicted with unarmed attacks, which is also a force effect. So, technically, Magic Missle fills the prerequisites. But does it really? By sheer spell level, it's doubtful, since its only a 1st level spell.Now remember this though; it's not your job to tell them if something will work or not. So, what do you do? You should figure out what the finished item will actually do, regardless of what they might think it will do, then let them build the item. When they are finished, which will no doubt take very little time because they were working with such a low level spell, they will realize that the item doesn't exactly do what they had envisioned. For example, their item may very well indeed grant them the extra damage with unarmed attacks, but it might not give them the AC bonus. But, are they stuck with a worthless item? Nope. It's still useable, and even if nobody in the party has a use for it, it's still useful to someone else. It's a magic item after all, so it's still worth some money. At the very least, they player can sell it and make some cash.To give you an idea of how I do this myself, take the example I gave above. Basically, if the player asks me whether or not their character thinks they can do it, I'll say "You're pretty sure you can pull it off.", or "It's possible.", or "You're not very sure.", or something along those lines. I'll also give them a better idea of whether or not they can pull it off depending on how much relative game time they spend researching, drawing up magical blueprints, whatever, of the item they want to make.I don't have a set system, but I also don't hamstring the players with unnecessary skill checks, additional cash spendatures, or higher XP costs. I just tend to go with my gut on this. My goal, however, is to avoid making the players waste their time on a useless item. For example, if they don't do enough research or put enough thought into an item, and I know for a fact that they can't make it, then it's my turn. They make the item, then I decide what it does. But that's not a bad thing at all, because all of my items totaly kick butt, so it's pretty much a win-win scenario. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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