Okay, I should probably explain my POV a little better - I don't want to see the crafting times drastically reduced, but maybe a modest reduction. I'm working on a system whereby crafting times are somewhat standardized for different items types, and modified by the market prices - it roughly halves crafting time, except for epic items, which are reduced to about one-quarter (but if we didn't use the x10 gp multiplier, would also be about half).
Simple? Who said that making +10 Armour should be simple? If magick was a simple thing, then everyone would be doing it. If it was simple to make a magickal item, everyone would have a +1 can opener.
Okay, bad choice of words. I guess I meant simple in that it's only a set of magic armor.
In general I have no problems with the magic item creation rules. A case could be made for one shot items being made in less time (in fact I think it would be workable to make batches of cure light wound potions that could be divided into seperate containers).
I like this idea - I'll have to see if I can work it into the rules.
I've never seen a player craft anything more than a few thousand Gp item. Is it that common in your games?
I don't think it's common in anyone's game, really. We rotate DMing duty among the group (three people do it), so one campaign is high-magic - some of the PCs have made a few items; one's low magic - the party mage took a bunch of feats and made most of the items the party has (and as a result, he's lagging about 2 levels behind everyone else); and one's low-mid magic - no item creation there.
A lot of folks have said that it's good for enforcing downtime - good point, and I agree. Our high-magic DM often lets us have some time off to do stuff; he usually just hand-waves the time ("The fighter and rogue spend a month getting drunk and starting bar fights, while the cleric spends the time making his staff of the python.") or has the non-crafting PCs doing other things - in that campaign, our PCs often have their own agendas, so it's easy to handle this.
But... if you're making lots of magic items (with or without reduced time), you're not going to get to L20 in a few months of game time, simply because you're burning tons of XP. Also, there is (I believe) a built-in limiter to making magic items - you can't lose a level from burning XP. I can't find the rule for this, so I posted it over in the Rules forum, but let's say it's true - if, every time you get enough XP to make something, you immediately burn it off. You'll have lots and lots of magic items, but you're not going to advance very quickly, and chances are you're going to be broke on top of it.
I guess my question should be: Do you think magic item creation should be more accessible to the PCs, in terms of costs in time, gold, XP, etc.? Some of you have already said they want to see their players making more magic items, and some say no. Out of the half-dozen or so characters I've made since starting to play d20, only one of them has taken an item creation feat, and that's only because he (a wizard) developed a bunch of unique spells, then invented a staff to cast some of them. I'm with Hussar - I've got better things to blow my feat choices on, even as a wizard (especially since he took a PrC and doesn't get bonus feats).
