Magic Item Crafting Rules: Difference between revisions

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Of course, some players just don't want honest, hard-working townsfolk to earn a living for themselves, and would rather save some money by making magic items for themselves.  Sure, they'll waste weeks of their own time, as well as that of their loyal party, frittering away their days toiling over a workbench while the barbarian blows all his hard-earned gold on booze and, um, other recreations.  What could go wrong?  If your party demands to make their own stuff, with their own hands, these rules can also be used to determine the costs and time required for that, as well.
Of course, some players just don't want honest, hard-working townsfolk to earn a living for themselves, and would rather save some money by making magic items for themselves.  Sure, they'll waste weeks of their own time, as well as that of their loyal party, frittering away their days toiling over a workbench while the barbarian blows all his hard-earned gold on booze and, um, other recreations.  What could go wrong?  If your party demands to make their own stuff, with their own hands, these rules can also be used to determine the costs and time required for that, as well.


== Magic Item Caster Level ==
* Every magic item has a caster level (CL).  This is the minimum caster level required to create the item.  In Epic Path, a character with the [[Creator (Feat)|Creator]] feat has an effective caster level equal to the number of ranks in their bailiwick skill.


===Effective Caster Level and the Magic Item Creation Check===
* If you are attempting to create a custom magic item (one which does not already have a pre-defined caster level), you must determine the caster level yourself, or ask the GM to establish one.
* To create magic items, characters must have the [[Creator]] feat. No exceptions!  The Creator feat represents the innate talent required to handle magic and infuse it into an object. Creator allows a character to invest time and money in an item's creation. During each Interval of this Abstract process the Creator may make a single Skill Roll (using any bailiwick skill: [[Divinity]], [[Naturalism]], [[Reason]], [[Spellcraft]], [[Spycraft]], or [[Warfare]]) to determine his action pool for the interval. The action pool is then rolled, and the resulting pips can either be expended or banked, per the [[Abstract Encounters]] rules. If the character possesses multiple bailiwick skills, he may select the skill he prefers to use.


* All magic items have a Caster Level (CL).  For purposes of magic item creation, all characters have an Effective Caster Level based on the number of ranks they have invested in their bailiwick skill (Divinity, Naturalism, Reason, Spellcraft, Spycraft, or Warfare).  This Effective Caster Level can never be higher than the class level of the class which qualifies for the skill they are using for the creation roll.  For example, if a Paladin takes the Creator feat at 15th level and has invested only seven ranks into Divinity, then for item creation purposes she has an effective caster level of seven.  Conversely, if that same Paladin had fifteen ranks in Divinity, her Effective Caster Level is fifteen for item creation.
* Items which have more than one enchantment on them use the enchantment with the highest caster level as the base, and add +3 to the caster level for each additional enchantment being added.


* While item creation costs are handled in detail in the linked pages above, note that the two primary cost factors are the caster level and the level of the spell (or the allowed substitutions) put into the item. A creator can create an item at a lower caster level than her own, but never lower than the minimum level needed to cast the prerequisite spell.
* You may not always know the exact CL of the item you are attempting to create. In such a case, only the GM knows the true CL.


* The DC to create a magic item is double the Impossible Skill Check number for the CL of the item. Note that you CAN attempt to craft items with a Caster Level higher than your own Effective Caster Level!  While possible, this is not recommended. If a spell is required that has a minimum caster level of five (such as a fireball), you could choose to set the caster level to 10, increasing the cost and creation DC, but also increasing the power of the spell when it is cast from the item.
== Creation Requirements ==
* All items have requirements in their descriptions. These requirements must be met for the item to be created. Most of the time, they take the form of spells that must be known by the item's creator (although access through another magic item or spellcaster is allowed). The DC to create a magic item increases by 5 for each requirement the creator does not meet. The only exception to this is the Creator feat, which is mandatory. In addition, you cannot create potions, spell-trigger, or spell-completion magic items without meeting its prerequisites. Note that due to this requirement, it is much easier for a spellcaster to make these items, as seeking substitutes for a potion takes just as long as seeking a substitute for a mighty sword.
 
* It should be stated clearly that the prerequisites are NOT set in stone. Substitutions are allowed and encouraged. Instead of a scroll of fireball to empower an item with magic, a barbarian might go and get breathed on by a red dragon while holding it. Instead of a Jump spell, a Monk might leap off a cliff while wearing the item to be empowered. Creativity is allowed and encouraged. In only the most prosaic of cases should hiring an NPC to cast a spell be the preferred method. How boring such a solution is.


* Using the metamagic feat [[Heighten Spell]] (or the metamagic rod, if you have one), it is also possible to place spells in items at a higher level than normal. The primary reason to do this is to make the saving throw DC higher, though this is only really applicable to offensive spells.  Note that this obviously increases the item's caster level.
* Using the metamagic feat [[Heighten Spell]] (or the metamagic rod, if you have one), it is also possible to place spells in items at a higher level than normal. The primary reason to do this is to make the saving throw DC higher, though this is only really applicable to offensive spells.  Note that this obviously increases the item's caster level.


* You may not always know the exact CL of the item you are attempting to create.  In such a case, only the GM knows the true CL, so it is possible to underestimate the number of pips required, and fail to create the item.  Failing to expend enough pips on the magic item creation check means that the item does not function and the materials, time, money, and pips are wasted. Failing this check by 5 or less results in a working, but cursed, item.  Yikes!  Note that cursed items are almost always subtle, IE, the creator does not know they are cursed. Note that is is VERY unlikely that a player character will create a cursed item for their own use, but an NPC just might.  Such acts of negligence (or spite) are where many cursed items in the world come from.
== Magic Item Creation Cost ==
* The cost to make an item yourself with the Creator feat is half of the cost to purchase the same item on the market.  This cost represents the material costs of building the item.  Whether the magic item creation check succeeds or fails, these materials are always used up in the creation process and cannot be recovered.  The cost of a workshop and its tools are not part of the cost of item creation.
 
* For magic weapons, armor and shields, the cost of a masterwork version of the base item must also be added to the total cost of the item. This cost is not reduced by half when making the item yourself (unless you also make the masterwork item yourself with that Profession (Weaponsmith) or Profession (Armorsmith) skill you took).  Similarly, if a magic enchantment is being placed in an object that has a value when it is non-magical, a masterwork version of that object must be purchased at full market cost in addition to the material costs for enchanting the item.  For example, to create a +1 flaming longsword, the Creator must first purchase a masterwork longsword (300 gp for masterwork, 15 gp for the longsword), and then spend the 4,000 gp in materials to create a weapon with an absolute bonus of +2 (the +1 enchantment and the +1 magic property "flaming" equals an absolute bonus of +2; the market cost of a +2 absolute bonus is 8,000 gp, so the Creator has to spend half that for materials)).
 
* In addition, some items cast or replicate spells with costly material components.  The cost of the spell components must be factored into the overall cost of the enchantment, as described in the [[Magic_Item_Enchant_-_Spell_Effects|Spell Effects]] page. (Spoiler: The spell component cost varies depending on how many times per day the spell effect can be used.)
 
== Making the Creation Check ==
* To create magic items, characters must have the [[Creator]] feat. No exceptions!  The Creator feat represents the innate talent required to handle magic and infuse it into an object, allowing a character to invest time and money in an item's creation.
 
* The base number of days required to create a magic item are 2 days + 1 day per caster level of the item.


* All items have prerequisites in their descriptions. These prerequisites must be met for the item to be created. Most of the time, they take the form of spells that must be known by the item's creator (although access through another magic item or spellcaster is allowed). The DC to create a magic item increases by 5 for each prerequisite the creator does not meet. The only exception to this is the Creator feat, which is mandatory. In addition, you cannot create potions, spell-trigger, or spell-completion magic items without meeting its prerequisites.  Note that due to this requirement, it is much easier for a spellcaster to make these items, as seeking substitutes for a potion takes just as long as seeking a substitute for a mighty sword.
* You also need an appropriate place in which to work. The nature of such a place can vary wildly. A noisy pugilarium full of hard-training warriors might be ideal for a Brawler to work on his new amulet of natural armor, but it's probably not going to be a good place for a Sorcerer to get anything done.


* It should be stated clearly that the prerequisites are NOT set in stone. Substitutions are allowed and encouraged. Instead of a scroll of fireball to empower an item with magic, a barbarian might go and get breathed on by a red dragon while holding it. Instead of a Jump spell, a Monk might leap off a cliff while wearing the item to be empowered. Creativity is allowed and encouraged. In only the most prosaic of cases should hiring an NPC to cast a spell be the preferred method. How boring such a solution is.
** For users of [[Spellcraft]], any place suitable for preparing spells is suitable for making items. [[Warfare]] works best in forges and smithies and training halls; rough, rude places of strife. [[Spycraft]] works best in hidden spyholes full of small secretive nooks and hidden tools. [[Naturalism]] works great in grottoes and caves and glades, anywhere the Nascent Seed is strong and vital. [[Divinity]] works well in temples and crypts and ossuaries, anywhere the sense of the Divine is strong. [[Reason]] works best in libraries and meditation halls, dojos and saunas, places where quiet thought is enhanced.
** If the workspace is considered a poor fit for the item being created, the time required is doubled.
** If the workspace is inconsistent, or the item is being moved around between creation days (such as attempting to create an item while journeying overland), the required time is doubled again.  


* The cost to make an item yourself with the Creator feat is half of the cost to purchase the same item on the market.  This cost represents the material costs of building the item.  Whether the magic item creation check succeeds or fails, these materials are always used up in the creation process and cannot be recovered.  The cost of a workshop and its tools are not part of the cost of item creation.
* Each day of crafting requires 8 hours of work, with no more than 1 hour of interruptions (not counting food and rest breaks).  If you are unable to work 8 hours in a given day, the entire day's efforts are wasted, and not counted toward your progress.


* For magic weapons, armor and shields, the cost of a masterwork version of the base item must also be added to the total cost of the item.  This cost is not reduced by half when making the item yourself (unless you also make the masterwork item yourself with that Profession (Weaponsmith) or Profession (Armorsmith) skill you took).  Similarly, if a magic enchantment is being placed in an object that has a value when it is non-magical, a masterwork version of that object must be purchased at full market cost in addition to the material costs for enchanting the item.  For example, to create a +1 flaming longsword, the Creator must first purchase a masterwork longsword (300 gp for masterwork, 15 gp for the longsword), and then spend the 4,000 gp in materials to create a weapon with an absolute bonus of +2 (the +1 enchantment and the +1 magic property "flaming" equals an absolute bonus of +2; the market cost of a +2 absolute bonus is 8,000 gp, so the Creator has to spend half that for materials)).
* The days spent creating a magic item need not be consecutive.  Partially finished magic items stored in a safe fashion will keep indefinitely.  Since magic items in progress keep indefinitely, you may schedule time to work on one as you wish.


* In addition, some items cast or replicate spells with costly material components.  The cost of the spell components must be factored into the overall cost of the enchantment, as described in the [[Magic_Item_Enchant_-_Spell_Effects|Spell Effects]] page. (Spoiler: The spell component cost varies depending on how many times per day the spell effect can be used.)
* Once you have determined the total number of days required to craft the magic item, you must craft the item for half this amount of time before you may make a skill check to determine the item's success or failure.


* At the midway point of the item's creation, the GM makes a single bailiwick skill check ([[Divinity]], [[Naturalism]], [[Reason]], [[Spellcraft]], [[Spycraft]] or [[Warfare]]) on your behalf to determine the efficiency of your crafting process.


[[Image:Workshop_1.png|484px|right|Where did I put that treatise on Time-Spalled Anguishes?]]
** If the bailiwick skill check result is less than an [[Skill DC|Easy]] DC for the CL of the magic item, or you roll a natural 1 on the die, the magic item creation process fails, and the material costs are wasted.
** If the bailiwick skill check result is at least an [[Skill DC|Easy]] DC for the CL of the magic item, but less than the [[Skill DC|Average]] DC, a cursed version of the item is created. (see cursed items, below).
** If the bailiwick skill check result is at least an [[Skill DC|Average]] DC for the CL of the magic item, but less than a [[Skill DC|Challenging]] DC, the required time to complete the magic item is unchanged.  Once you complete the remaining days of crafting, the magic item is successfully created.
** If the bailiwick skill check result is at least a [[Skill DC|Challenging]] DC for the CL of the magic item, but less than the [[Skill DC|Hard]] DC, the required time to complete the magic item is reduced by 1 day OR 10%, whichever is better.  Once you complete the remaining days of crafting, the magic item is successfully created.
** If the bailiwick skill check result is at least a [[Skill DC|Hard]] DC for the CL of the magic item, but less than the [[Skill DC|Impossible]] DC, the required time to complete the magic item is reduced by 3 days OR 25%, whichever is better.  Once you complete the remaining days of crafting, the magic item is successfully created.
** If the bailiwick skill check result is at least an [[Skill DC|Impossible]] DC for the CL of the magic item, the required time to complete the magic item is reduced by 5 intervals OR 50%, whichever is better.


===Workspaces and Time===
* No magic item can ever be created in less than 1 full day of crafting. The exceptions to this are consumable items and ammunition.
* The creator also needs an appropriate place in which to work. The nature of such a place can vary wildly. A noisy pugilarium full of hard-training warriors might be ideal for a Brawler to work on his new amulet of natural armor, but it's probably not going to be a good place for a Sorcerer to get anything done.


**For users of Spellcraft, any place suitable for preparing spells is suitable for making items.
**Warfare works best in forges and smithies and training halls; rough, rude places of strife.
**Spycraft works best in hidden spyholes full of small secretive nooks and hidden tools.
**Naturalism works great in grottoes and caves and glades, anywhere the Nascent Seed is strong and vital.
**Divinity works well in temples and crypts and ossuaries, anywhere the sense of the Divine is strong.
**Reason works best in libraries and meditation halls, dojos and saunas, places where quiet thought is enhanced.


*Once you have a good work place, the Abstract Encounter of creating the item begins. The Interval is one day, which is filled with eight hours of uninterrupted work. Each such Interval allows a Bailiwick skill roll to generate Action Dice, which are then rolled, and the player discards half of them to bank the other half.  The minimum time to create any item is seven days of work, no matter how low the caster level is or how incredibly well the creator rolled on their Action Dice.


*If the conditions are poor, work can still progress on a magic item but the number of pips you can bank per day is divided by three(round down).  Crafting in a bad workspace is very time-consuming.


*If the item being made is not one that naturally 'fits' with the skill being used, then all creation times are tripled as above. It's a bad idea for a Wizard to try and make a suit of armor using Spellcraft, just like its a bad idea for a Brawler to try to make wand using Warfare.  Note that many items are just weird (like wondrous items) and such items should not be penalized by this rule.  GM's are encouraged to be merciful.  GMs should also consider setting times 'in-between' fast and slow as they see fit, to fine-tune the process.
[[Image:Workshop_1.png|484px|right|Where did I put that treatise on Time-Spalled Anguishes?]]


*These time penalties DO NOT stack!  If you're going to use Spycraft to make a great axe, you might as well not worry about finding a proper hole to work in, it's not going to get any slower.


* For example: If a Warlord uses Warfare and a forge to make a magic breastplate, then the time is as above for fast crafting. If that same warlord then tries to make a magical staff with that same forge, they certainly may do so, but the time for such a deed should be tripled at a minimum. Similarly, if a Wizard seeks to make a wand of fire in his study, such a feat is done in the time laid out above. If that same Wizard wants to make a flaming sword in his study, then the time required should be tripled. Note that simply changing workplaces has no effect on this process: The Warlord in the study makes the staff no more quickly, and the Wizard in the forge doesn't fare any better with the sword either. In all cases, they can both make the items they want, but it would be much quicker and easier if they made each others item, and simply swapped for them.


* Potions and scrolls are an exception to the 'time to craft' rules; 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. The character must spend the gold at the beginning of the construction process. Regardless of the time needed for construction, a creator can create no more than one magic item per day. This time can be halved by increasing the DC to create the item by 5.  So a potion worth less than 250 gold can be made in an hour if the DC is increased by 5.  In all cases, 1 hour is the minimum time to create any scroll or potion.


* A creator can work for up to 8 hours each day in a proper setting and fulfill one day of the creation time.  A creator cannot rush the process by working longer each day, there is only one Interval per day. Working sixteen hours in a single day does nothing but make you tired.


* The daily Intervals spent to create an item need not be consecutive.  Partially finished magic items stored in a safe fashion will keep indefinitely.  A creator can allocate his days as he sees fit. Since magic items in progress keep indefinitely, he may schedule time to work on one as he wishes.


* If the creator is out adventuring and wants to make progress on an item even as he's busy swinging his sword, he can devote up to 3 hours each day to item creation, although he nets only 1 hours' worth of useful progress (because he's working in a poor workspace). This time is not spent in one continuous period, but rather during lunch, morning preparation, and during watches at night.  In this way, 1 hour of progress is made per day, and no special requirements must be met, aside from declaring that he is working on the item during any and all downtime available. This is a special case, in whcih the Interval of the creation process is set to eight days for all work done in this way. It is possible to build up to skill rolls using both Intervals on the same item, but all progress must be tracked for both Intervals separately.


* It is possible to create a reasonable workspace out in the wilderness or in a dungeon, to really work on magic item creation with focus and dedication, but it requires first building a secure area, such as a fortified camp, or a locked off laboratory in the dungeon.  If such efforts are made, and the GM deems the workspace suitable, then item creation in this space is treated just like working in town (i.e. the Interval is one day for each skill roll).  Of course, if the workspace is right next to that hobgoblin torture pit that the players haven't cleared out yet, the workspace isn't really considered a peaceful work environment and should suffer the 3:1 penalty to the banked pips for a poor workspace.


* To Sum Up: Work that is performed in a distracting, inappropriate, or dangerous environment nets only one third the amount of progress.


* A character can work on only one item at a time. If a character starts work on a new item, all progress and materials used on the previous item are lost.  So don't do that.


===Dual-Slot Items===
===Dual-Slot Items===
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Some GM's might consider ruling that when using the shield or armor spikes as a weapon, you lose the actual shield or armor bonuses until the start of your next turn, just as if you used your shield for a shield bash. GM's should only really do this if the shield or armor is being used as a weapon very frequently (like more than once per encounter).  If it's only a rare case, it's way too much paperwork to ask a player to subtract all their armor or shield bonuses from everything.  Remember that these spiked shields or spiked armors cost as much to enchant as a magic weapon and a magic shield (or a magic weapon and magic armor), so the character has already paid a fair market value for being able to use the item as both a weapon and as a shield (or armor).
Some GM's might consider ruling that when using the shield or armor spikes as a weapon, you lose the actual shield or armor bonuses until the start of your next turn, just as if you used your shield for a shield bash. GM's should only really do this if the shield or armor is being used as a weapon very frequently (like more than once per encounter).  If it's only a rare case, it's way too much paperwork to ask a player to subtract all their armor or shield bonuses from everything.  Remember that these spiked shields or spiked armors cost as much to enchant as a magic weapon and a magic shield (or a magic weapon and magic armor), so the character has already paid a fair market value for being able to use the item as both a weapon and as a shield (or armor).


== Magic Item Slots==
== Magic Item Slots==

Revision as of 14:03, 18 June 2017

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