Scribe Scroll questions: DC 5 or 10 + level, and why the failure chance?

[Noumenon]

I was thinking of a cleric or druid having a different stat for spellcasting than you use for Spellcraft checks.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

The Spellcraft check is not going to do a very good job of making up for not having to spend XP if the DC is 5 + caster level and you can take 10. That means a caster with Int 10 and 1 rank in Spellcraft can create up to a 9th-caster-level item with no chance of failure. What's the point?

The point is that you can also create items for which you do not have the requisite spells known / memorized (in some cases).

For each prereq you're missing, the DC increases by 5.

Therefore, a Wizard with a high-int and lots of ranks in Spellcraft can create just about any item he wants to.

A dabbler, on the other hand, can only create items for which he knows the spells or has a buddy providing them.

A novice can only create low-powered items using spells he has access to.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I was thinking of a cleric or druid having a different stat for spellcasting than you use for Spellcraft checks.

This is why the Spellcraft DC can't be set too terribly high.

If it was, then you'd have Clerics taking the Brew Potion feat who couldn't actually brew anything meaningful.

 

[billd91]

The point is that you can also create items for which you do not have the requisite spells known / memorized (in some cases).

For each prereq you're missing, the DC increases by 5.

I believe you can also speed up the process by trying to make it with a higher DC as well.

And the chance of failure (due to a blown roll) isn't just to compensate the lack of XP cost. It's also the way to create cursed items. Previously, there was no real mechanism for them. Now... there is.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I believe you can also speed up the process by trying to make it with a higher DC as well.

Yep! I'd forgotten that that was available, too.

The creator also needs a fairly quiet, comfortable, and well-lit place in which to work. Any place suitable for preparing spells is suitable for making items. Creating an item requires 8 hours of work per 1,000 gp in the item's base price (or fraction thereof), with a minimum of at least 8 hours. Potions and scrolls are an exception to this rule; they can take as little as 2 hours to create (if their base price is 250 gp or less). Scrolls and potions whose base price is more than 250 gp, but less than 1,000 gp, take 8 hours to create, just like any other magic item. The character must spend the gold at the beginning of the construction process. Regardless of the time needed for construction, a caster can create no more than one magic item per day. This process can be accelerated to 4 hours of work per 1,000 gp in the item's base price (or fraction thereof) by increasing the DC to create the item by 5.

 

[Noumenon]

I guess the intent of the rules makes sense but I just wasn't smart enough to figure it out from reading their literal text.