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View Full Version : Artificer trick : Group lvl -1



DanReiv
2010-06-06, 11:56 AM
Hi, toying around with an artificer build, found an easy way to chunk out more crafting XP than you'll ever get with the reserve at the slight price of staying underleved.

The idea behind this is that you get more xp than your buddies if you are at lower ECL.

ECL -1 will do just fine, no need to gimp you more.

So let's say your 3 friends are ECL 5, and you're ECL 4.

They'll need to beat 10*(2xCR4) encounters to get the 5k xp they need to hit ECL 6.

In the meantime it netted you 6k xp, but you only need 4k to hit 10k xp and ECL 5.

Gratz you just got 2k "free" xp to craft with. You want to keep the difference all the time.

Let's just try again ?

3 buddies at ECL 10, you ECL 9. Need to beat 10x (2xCR9) to get 10k xp and hit ECL 11. This gives you 13350 xp, but you need only 9k to hit ECL 10.

4350xp to craft from, bit better than 300 craft reserve eh ?

In the end, most artificers that actually craft have a lower level than the rest of the party, use it to your advantage, stay that way and craft like there's no tomorrow :smallsmile:

Greenish
2010-06-06, 12:04 PM
The concept is usually referred to as "Experience is a river (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872242/Experience_is_a_River)".

mostlyharmful
2010-06-06, 12:42 PM
Be aware that at the rates most groups level, the length of time it takes to make items and the efficiency a well built Artifacer does it staying a whole level behind your team can be difficult:smallfrown:

DanReiv
2010-06-06, 12:59 PM
Should have guessed it was already figured out, analysed, put into charts :smallbiggrin:

I don't think it's such an hindrance, I guess it all depends on the group wealth and/or access to components (DM-controled variable, and the reason why I don't think we're hitting munchkinism), but a group with an artificer that takes the penalty should be way more equiped than one that don't.

All in all I think it's fair, it's really allow for group crafting, they're going to love you.

Time of course is always an issue, but if you know it's going to be fast paced and/or with lots of travel (and you should work it out with your DM beforehand) then there always the possibility of a Dedicate wright working in your portable hole.

Warforged don't sleep either and are a kickass race for Artificer.

(edit : actually you could work at night when you don't need to refresh infusions with artisan speed feat, and let the wright keep up the rest of the time, effective way to cut out crafting time !)

tyckspoon
2010-06-06, 05:31 PM
Warforged don't sleep either and are a kickass race for Artificer.

(edit : actually you could work at night when you don't need to refresh infusions with artisan speed feat, and let the wright keep up the rest of the time, effective way to cut out crafting time !)

Regardless of whether it's you or the wright that does the work, and when it's done, there is a hard cap of 8 hours of useful work on a magic item every day. Any further time can be spent adding mundane embellishments or working on the masterwork vessel for the next item ('cause Masterwork Mithril Full Plates take bloody forever to craft on the normal rules), but you can't hurry up the magic any more than that.