Creator (Feat)

"You were born special. You have always had... something. Perhaps your hands are clever, and you find yourself making tiny sculptures out of twigs without thinking about it. Maybe you draw perfect portraits with spilled beer. Maybe you can sing without even trying. Maybe your hands just know exactly how to hammer that glowing steel."

"Maybe.... Magic just happens for you.''

Prerequisites: Level 1, any Bailiwick skill 1 rank.

Related: Creator, Epic (Feat), Cypher Magic (Feat), Field Repair (Feat), Master Staff (Feat)

Benefit: This feat allows you to craft magic items. You can only make an item that is already defined in the game. You cannot create custom items, nor attach a spell effect, feat, class feature, racial trait, or other ability into an item. See Magic Items for a list of magic items in the game.

You may also use the creator feat to upgrade an item to a higher-level version of itself, assuming that the item is part of a family of items. In such a case, the rules below still apply, except that the gold cost is the difference between the existing item's creation cost (not store cost) and the upgraded item's creation cost (i.e. new item's creation cost - existing item's creation cost).

The process for creating a magic item is:

1) Determine the Creator Level of the item.
2) Gather the materials required to craft the item.
3) Find a suitable workspace to create the item.
4) Make a Bailiwick skill check.
5) Spend the materials and time required to make the item.

Creator Level

The creator level (CL) of an item is the recommended character level for someone to create it. This means that a CL 10 magic item should generally be created by a creature who is at least character level 10, and who possesses this feat.

The CL for every item is listed in its description.

You may attempt to create a magic item that is of a higher CL than your character level, but doing so inflicts a penalty on the difficulty check (DC) to create the item. There is, however, no bonus to your DC for attempting to craft a magic item that is of a lower CL than your character level.

The Creator feat only allows a character to craft magic items up to CL 20. Magic items with a CL of 21 or above are considered Epic, and therefore require the Epic Creator feat to craft.

Materials Required

At the bottom of each magic item, there is a section called "Creation", which lists all the required materials needed to craft that item. In general, every item requires:

• the Creator feat (or the Epic Creator feat, if CL 21+)
• a remnant of some quality based on the CL
• an item symbolic of the enchantment
• some gold

Remnants are sometimes acquired when a group of monsters is defeated. They are somewhat rare, and they are unusual in that they cannot be traded, bought, or sold. Only those present in an encounter when the remnant was dropped can make use of that remnant. Once used by anyone who had access to it, it is expended and no longer available to anyone else. See Remnants for details.

Remnants come in nine 'tiers' of quality, with the higher tiers being far more rare than the lower tiers. However, the tier is unrelated, for the most part, to the level of the monster. A CR 25 monster can still drop a Languid (tier 1) remnant, while a CR 1 monster can (very rarely) drop an Empyrean (tier 9) remnant.

Generally, you need a remnant of the specified quality (tier) listed in the magic item you are creating, or a remnant of a higher quality, in order to create a it. If you wish to use a lower quality remnant, it increases the DC of the bailiwick check. You may also attempt to create the magic item without a remnant, but at an even more severe penalty to the Bailiwick check.

An item symbolic of the enchantment can be almost anything, as long as the creator and the GM agree that the object largely fits the spirit of the enchantment. For example, a creator who wishes to craft a magic item that provides a bonus to AC (such as a Ring of Protection +1) might use some stone taken from the body of an Earth Elemental, or the hide of some monster that is notoriously tough. Generally, as long as the item being used is somewhat close to the idea of the magic item being created, the GM should allow it. Obviously, the GM has the final call on such things.

As with a remnant, the creator may elect to use a less-than-ideal symbolic item, by accepting a penalty to their Bailiwick check to make the item. They can even forego the symbolic item entirely, at the cost of a more severe penalty.

If the symbolic item has any monetary value, its value is subtracted from the gold cost listed for the magic item. The remaining gold must be provided by the creator at the start of the magic item creation process. It is assumed that this gold is spent on materials, powders, runes, and other components necessary to make the item.

Suitable Workspace

Once all the components have been acquired, the creator must find a suitable Workspace to create the item. Generally, this should be a workshop that is appropriate to the type of item being made: a smithy for creating helms, armor, or other metal-based objects; a leatherworking shop for boots, gloves, and other hide-based objects; a jewelers workshop for rings, necklaces, or other jewelry-like objects; etc. The GM should determine whether the workspace is suitable.

The creator may elect to use a less-than-ideal workspace, but doing so might incur a penalty to the Bailiwick check. Similarly, however, a very high quality workspace might grant a bonus to the check.

Note: Creators gain the most benefit from a workspace, but any class may have need for such a space. Alchemists, for example, often find a workshop is required if they wish to work on learning a new extract, which is a class feature they can use without the Creator feat. Wizards are famous for their wizardly towers, fighters love their practice halls and pugilaria, brawlers practically live for their brawling pits, etc, etc. Workshops are nigh-ubiquitous...but having the Creator feat takes them to another level entirely!

The Bailiwick Check

The creator makes a bailiwick check, against a base Difficulty Check (DC) equal to 10 + double the Creator Level of the item being created. As mentioned above, this base DC can be modified by a variety of elements:

• Quality of the remnant being used
• Appropriateness of the symbolic item
• Quality of the workshop

In addition, some other factors may alter the DC of the check:

• You can attempt to rush the job, reducing the total time required to create the item, in exchange for a higher DC.
• You can also take your time, giving yourself a bonus to the check, but also increasing the amount of time required.
• Attempting to craft a magic item of a higher CL than your own character level inflicts a penalty to the DC.

See the bailiwick skills (Divinity, Naturalism, Reason, Spycraft, Spellcraft, or Warfare) for more details on the skill DC, and modifiers to that DC.

After taking into account all penalties and bonuses to the DC, you roll your bailiwick skill and compare it to the adjusted DC.

Time Required

The base amount of time required to craft a magic item is 2 days, +1 day per creator level of the item being created. You can adjust the base time by either rushing the job, or by taking your time, but each of these affects the DC of the bailiwick skill check.

A day of crafting a magic item is 8 uninterrupted hours of work in an appropriate work space. While you can do other things during that day, you must have 8 consecutive hours in your work space for it to count towards the number of days required to make the magic item. Working fewer than 8 hours at a time fails to reduce the number of days required to finish the work — you can't work fractions of days and then add them together to create a day of work.

Days of work need not be consecutive. You can take breaks or go adventuring, then come back and keep working, and this does not harm the final product in any way, except to delay its completion date. However, if you begin working on a different magic item before the first one is finished, all work on the first one is lost, and any components used for its creation are destroyed, just as if you had failed the check.

The outcome of your bailiwick skill check also affects how long it takes to create the magic item. A very poor roll can increase the base time, while an exceptional roll will decrease the time required:

• A result that is between 1 and 5 points less than the adjusted DC is considered an easy success, and increases the base time required by either 1 day or 10%, whichever is worse.
• A result that equals or exceeds the adjusted DC, by up to +4 above the DC, is considered an average success, and the base time to complete is unchanged.
• A result that exceeds the adjusted DC by between +5 and +14 is considered a challenging success, and the base time is decreased by either 1 day or 10%, whichever is better, to a minimum of 3 days.
• A result that exceeds the adjusted DC by 15 or more is considered an impossible success, and the base time is decreased by 3 days or 25%, whichever is better, to a minimum of 3 days.

Failure

It is also possible to fail to create a magic item:

• A result that is between 6 and 10 points less than the adjusted DC is considered a failure. A failure means that half of the material costs and the symbolic item (but no the remnant) are destroyed in the attempt, and half the base time (rounding up) required for the item is also wasted.
• A result that is 11 or more below the adjusted DC, or if you roll a natural "1" on the die, is considered a critical failure. A critical failure means that all of the materials, the remnant, and the symbolic item are destroyed in the attempt, and the entire base time required for the item is also wasted.