Why Forge Ring when you can Craft Wondrous?

[Zelda Themelin]

Forge ring is not that good feat to have. Amulets and rings seem to universally carry similar properties. But if you want to have many items with amulet like properties picking forge ring is not so bad choice, since you can have two slots for rings, and only one for amulet.

Of course if your dm is kind enough to let you find at least some wonderous items and rings (aka permanent magic items beyond +1 weapons and armor and potions), don't bother with ring forging. It's not worth it it.
You can be more creative with wonderous items.

My both dm:s don't like to give out too many of those items, so crafting is about only way to have them. Of course in those games amount of free down-time sucks, so I only go for cheap and practical wonderous items myself, and wands.

IMO forge ring should be a bit more worthy.

 

[Epametheus]

If I remember right, Psionicists can make psionic rings simply with their version of Craft Wondrous; they don't have to take a seperate feat just to make rings.

I'd say that the Ring effects can't be done with wondrous items, just to make rings a bit more special; i.e. no Boots of Evasion or Robe of Fire Resistance 30 or what have you.

 

[Staffan]

Well, even with very generous attitude toward making new wondrous items, rings have one advantage: you can put ability into a ring without a cost increase. Also, you get two "ring" slots which increases flexibility a bit - even though both Boots of Speed and Boots of Striding and Springing are valid items, you couldn't use both at once. You can use a hypothetical Ring of Speed at the same time as a Ring of Striding and Springing, though.

I admit that's a rather small advantage, but it's there.

 

[RangerWickett]

The revised Elements of Magic has three magic item creation feats.

Craft Wondrous Item - Anything with a constant effect

Craft Charged Item - Anything which has a limited number of uses (or at least limited per day)

Craft Permanent Spell - These special permanent spells can emulate both of the above feats, but not on items. You can place permanent spells on areas or creatures, but you can't use it to make items to swap between friends. It's a nice way to make things like magical traps, to create magical tattoos, and to create golems.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I just upped the prerequisites on Forge Ring and made it better.

 

[gravyboat]

Wow. This is such a better solution than the item creation feats in the player's handbook. What does everyone else think? Three simple generalized feats based on the power level of the item.

There was something that never sat right with me about the arbitrary types of items you could make with the core feats. I'll definitely be using this variant in my game. I'll have to check out this book further.

If you feel like the core rules make no sense (I don't), you can pick up an alternative - Mystic Eye Games' Artificer's Handbook. It has rules that allow you to replace the core feats with basically three - create minor, create moderate, and create major item.

I'm with you. It doesn't make any sense to me as to why I would need one feat to create a ring of water walking, and a second feat to create boots of water walking.

 

[Perun]

Forge ring allows you to have two slotted items of the same type on your person (i.e. you can have two rings functioning happily alongside each other), where in all other cases you can have only a single item in any given slot.

On a similar note craft rod allows you to create non-slotted items (rods) that have market value of slotted items. (That is, rods don't use one of the body slots, but do not have the ×2 price modifier similar wondrous items would have.)

OTOH, rods cannot be always active, and rings can. Perhaps these are the reasons why the drsigners thought rings and rods needed the separate feats to create them? I wonder...

Regards!

 

[Staffan]

Wow. This is such a better solution than the item creation feats in the player's handbook. What does everyone else think? Three simple generalized feats based on the power level of the item.

A bit too few IMO. I prefer AU's version, which has: Spell-completion items, Single-use items, Charged items, Arms & Armor, and Constant Items. Spell-completion are basically scrolls, Single-use are basically potions, Charged are basically wands and staves, and Constant are basically Rings, Wondrous Items, and Rods. My house rules also add a Greater Charged Item which has the special qualities of a 3.5e staff: Use wielder's caster level and stats if higher than those of the item, and combine multiple spells in one item.

That's still quite a few feats, but the separation is based on function, not form.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

A bit too few IMO. I prefer AU's version, which has: Spell-completion items, Single-use items, Charged items, Arms & Armor, and Constant Items. Spell-completion are basically scrolls, Single-use are basically potions, Charged are basically wands and staves, and Constant are basically Rings, Wondrous Items, and Rods.

Just to add: the neat thing about AU's item creation system is they don't have to be those kinds of items. Wanna make a ring with 50 fireballs? Just use the Charged Items feat. Wanna make a staff with an always-on power instead of charged spells? Use the Constant Items feat.

This would have been a great system for WotC to borrow to throw into Unearthed Arcana as a variant, IMHO.

 

[Endur]

Yes, there is an advantange. Magic rings can only be destroyed by having a halfling drop them in a volcano.