E6 Artificer Optimization

[Black_Zawisza]

I want to focus on efficient item-crafting and party buffing. What feats, infusions, spells, UMD ranks, tactics, etc. do I need to do those effectively in E6? How do differences between E6 and standard 3.5 affect artificer gameplay?

Flaw: Skill Focus - UMD (+3 UMD) [Retrain to Extraordinary Artisan for -25% gold crafting costs at level 3]
Flaw: Shape Soulmeld - Mage Spectacles (+4 UMD, Spellcraft, Decipher Script) [Retrain to Extend Spell at level 4 to qualify for Persist]
1: Nymph's Kiss (+2 Charisma checks, +1 skill point/level, +1 to spells and SPA saves)
3: Item Familiar (huge skill and xp bonuses)
Artificer 4: Persistent Spell
6:
6+:
etc.

I'm familiar with the Personal Weapon Augmentation: Bane trick, but other than that, scroll-crafting (which doesn't look very cost-effective), and trapfinding, I don't see my character doing much of anything the first couple levels. Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks, Playground :smallsmile:

[Aegis013]

Heroic Surge, Action Boost, and Rapid Infusion are all amazing feats for helping you use in combat infusions to support the party. If action points are not being used, Rapid Infusion is the only one of these that still functions. (Get a 1 minute buff off in one round? Yes please.)

[Urpriest]

Big question: are you allowed to make stuff with fourth level spells?

[Black_Zawisza]

Big question: are you allowed to make stuff with fourth level spells?
:smallredface: I don't actually know yet; if it's not too much trouble, could you take Craft Contingency Plan and give me advice for both rulings?

[Urpriest]

:smallredface: I don't actually know yet; if it's not too much trouble, could you take Craft Contingency Plan and give me advice for both rulings?

If you can't, there's lots of straightforward reasonable stuff you can do that other people will cover.

If you can, Lesser Planar Ally can get you a Nightmare, which can give your party Etherealness and/or Astral Projection. Polymorph is also handy, though I can't think of anything as straightforwardly broken to do with it.

[Madcrafter]

Definitely pick up craft wand as a feat, since it is usually the artificer's bread and butter resource. If you are playing with errata, you get it for free at 6th, if not then even better, since you get metamagic spell trigger and just take the feat instead. Since you still continue to get feats, just stack up on some metamagic and head out on the path of your preferred artificer archetype. Pretty much all of them will still be viable, and a minionficer perhaps even more so, since you don't have to buff your little dudes so much to make them as useful.

And as for the first few levels, a crossbow, even without bane, and a few scrolls should do you just fine.

[Alienist]

Big question: are you allowed to make stuff with fourth level spells?

This is really important.

Consider this: if (as some people insist) 4th level spells don't exist in E6, then you can't make Homunculi.

The Artificer has a number of advantages:

Early access to higher level spells when crafting
Minions (Homunculi)
You are a list based spontaneous caster
A somewhat esoteric 'spell list'


List based spontaneous caster is a big deal, because using the Versatile Spellcaster feat you get access to 4th level spells. (E6 Dread Necros of the underworld rejoice! You can get Animate Dead after all! Hooray! (Beguilers and Warmages(?) also benefit under this interpretation))

Without 1,2 and 3, you could easily argue that the Artificer is simply a bad crafter (no one else needs to make skill checks against high DCs in order to craft magic items) with a bad 'spell list'.

The good bits of your 'spell list' work best with items, and if the items you can make are severely curtailed then you are strictly worse. There are a few oddities worth mentioning, such as not needing to pay the 100gp in order to cast Identify... but without 1-3 it's not enough to build a good character on.

On the other hand, the problem with allowing higher levels of spells is that it can act counter to the 'feel' of E6. Particularly since with caster level shenanigans you then can craft level 5 and 6 items with relative ease.

But is this so bad? An Artificer's schtick is making items. They should actually be good at it. But if you're making items with level 6 or even 7 effects then you might as well be playing normal D&D not E6.

Another really important question:
Is this based in Eberron or not?

Consider the Dragonmarks. Consider House Denneith (Mark of Sentinel). Oh? 99% of the people can't cast higher than 3rd level spells? And your Dragonmark gives you Lesser Globe of Invulnerability? Tasty.

Of course, if 4th level spells don't exist then House Denneith just got bumped from Uber to Stupor.

Character Creation

You are mad. MAD I say! (Multiple Attribute Dependency)
Your most important stat is Intelligence.
If you have access to higher level spells your second most important stat is Constitution
Your third most important stat is Wisdom.

If you want to make an item with a 5th level cleric spell requirement you need to have at least 15 wisdom. Example: using caster level tricks to give yourself a +1 and making that Ankh of Ascension for your buddy healbot 2k.

Max out UMD, Spellcraft and Decipher Scroll. Oh wait, you don't have Decipher Scroll, because the writers of the ECS were on a massive bender the whole time they were writing your class. Oops.

Feats: Versatile Spellcaster. Evil cackling optional.

Also, now is the correct time to take Nymph's Kiss out the back and execute it Reservoir Dog's style. Seriously. Get rid of that crap.


LEVEL 1 Crafting

Use your craft pool to make some scrolls. You get 20 points so you can attempt to craft 20 level 1 scrolls. Spend the money, and not on blasting spells either. Give ourself a Batman-like utility belt. You never know when Comprehend Languages will come in handy (for instance).

The DC to craft level 1 scrolls is 21. You get two attempts per scroll. This is important as your UMD doesn't actually need to be stellar. (And hey, it's only 12.5gp so go wild)

So for your UMD roll you have


+4 ranks of skill
+2 from charisma (because you ignored my advice on stats, it's okay, I forgive you, you will see the error of your ways soon enough)
+2 circumstance bonus from your Skill Enhancement infusion (naturally this does NOT stack with Nymph's Kiss)
+2 From Eagle's Splendour (yes, it's a 2nd level spell but you're versatile)
+2 for a masterwork tool of UMD


Total: +12

Okay, so now for each scroll you get two chances to beat a roll of an 8. That means out of the initial 20 level 1 scrolls you craft you will get 3.2 failures.

If that bothers you, take a Luck feat (well, not just any old luck feat, the one that lets you reroll skills is a good start).

What about Skill Focus(UMD) you say? Now you have to beat a 5 twice instead of beating 8 twice. That means you will only have 1.25 failures.

Skill Focus UMD saves you approximately 24 gold.

Now I don't know about you... but in terms of return on investment, 24 gold from a feat is kind of piss-poor if you will excusez-moi my francais.

By comparison the luck feat gives approximately the same number of successes, but has the beneficial side-effect of being actually useful in other situations.


Pro-tip. For almost all purposes infusions count as spells. Except when they don't. The simplest way I have come up with (which seems to actually work and be consistent with the drunken-monkey writers of Eberron pooped out) is to make the distinction between Spell Lists (what other people have) and the Infusion List (what you have). The reason this works is that the only time that Infusions aren't actually treated as spells is when the issue of whether or not something is on your spell list comes up (e.g. creating and using magic items).

This is why even though Artificers know Light, they don't get to use a wand of Light without using UMD, since Light isn't on their spell list... because they don't have a spell list.

LEVEL 1 'Spells'

Good
Identify - for free!
Armor Enhancement, Lesser - get creative, or just use defensive ones to stay alive
Skill Enhancement - with a feat or two (to give you 'training' in all skills you can be the skill monkey in the group, or you can help them out)
Weapon Augmentation, Personal - Bane is a popular choice, but unless you know you're going up against mono-racial foes (and remember, goblins ride wolves etc) you are probably better picking something that gives 1d6 or 1d8 all the time instead of say 2d6 40% of the time. But don't forget that bane also adds 2 to the enhancement bonus of the weapon, giving +2 to hit and +2 damage (in addition to the +2d6 damage)
Metamagic Scroll - use this to put Extend on your scrolls. You did take Extend right? It is a pre-requisite for Persistent after all.

Bad
Energy Alteration
Enhancement Alteration
Shield of Faith - but at least it is better than magic vestment
Natural Weapon Augmentation, Personal
Pending potion - might be useful later on when you can make potions
Indisputable Possession - some interesting tricks, but most likely not useful at this level
Magic Weapon - gives +1 enhancement bonus which is good for fighting incorporeal undead... but if you're fighting incorporeal undead at level 1 you have... issues. At least it gives a bonus at this level, unlike the AC equivalent.

Ugly
Magic Stone... because... you're fighting undead with an old-style rock biffing halfling?
Inflict Light Damage - why bother? Why waste a spell (sorry, 'infusion')?
Spell Storing Item (it's a trap! (You can't actually use it at level 1))
Magic Vestment (it's a trap! It doesn't do anything till you hit level 4!)
Ablative Armour - DR 5 vs a single attack, temporary hit points would be better, e.g. use Armor Enhancement, Lesser to put Heartening on a shield for 2x5 temp hit points

Dragonmarked/Eberron Only
Unbelievably Awesome (House Cannith Only)
Summon Marked Homunculus.
This above anything else (even the 1/4 price for Mithral/Adamantium Full Plate) is the best reason to be in House Cannith.
With a least Dragonmark your range of summons is limited (pick the Arbalester unless you like the furtive filcher or want to send someone a message)
This is by far the best low level summons in the game, and what really puts it over the top is that it lasts 1 hour instead of 1 round. The 'if you strike me down I will explode in your face for 1d6' is just gravy.

NB: you can summon a dead-baby wright and get 1 hour per night of 'free' crafting (you still have to pay costs etc). Unfortunately the dead-baby wright requires you to invest an hour showing it what you want done... so you have to get to level 2 for this option to be useful.

Meh
Entangling Dragonmark - usefulness depends entirely on whether the DM is throwing lots of opponents at you with Dragonmarks.



LEVEL 2 Crafting

You now have 40 points to spend from your craft pool. You have essentially 3 options:


Brew potions for other people on the team to use (not cure light wounds, please)
Make some more level 1 scrolls (get me an Infinite Scrollcase, stat!)
Make some level 2 scrolls


You might ask the question why wait till level 2 to make level 2 scrolls? The answer is in the bonuses.

The DC to craft level 2 scrolls is 22. You get two attempts per scroll. This is important since these are more expensive now. (Level 2 being six times more expensive than level 1)

So for your UMD roll you have


+5 ranks of skill
+2 for synergy from spellcraft
+2 from charisma (because you ignored my advice on stats, it's okay, I forgive you, you will see the error of your ways soon enough)
+3 circumstance bonus from your Skill Enhancement infusion (naturally this does NOT stack with Nymph's Kiss, oh, and at level 2 it is better than Nymph's Kiss)
+2 From Eagle's Splendour (yes, it's a 2nd level spell but you're versatile)
+2 for a masterwork tool of UMD


Total: +16

So we get two rolls needing to beat a 5.

Alternately if we Brew level 1 potions:


+5 ranks of skill
+2 from charisma (because you ignored my advice on stats, it's okay, I forgive you, you will see the error of your ways soon enough)
+3 circumstance bonus from your Skill Enhancement infusion (naturally this does NOT stack with Nymph's Kiss, oh, and at level 2 it is better than Nymph's Kiss)
+2 From Eagle's Splendour (yes, it's a 2nd level spell but you're versatile)
+2 for a masterwork tool of UMD


Total +14

So we get two rolls needing to beat a 6.

Looks pretty similar, right? Except that the level 2 spells start getting a lot better because now we can use spells like Knock and Guidance of the Avatar to make the thief (sorry, Rogue) in the party cry into his beer.



Pro-tip. Potions are actually worth considering because they don't require a UMD roll. Whereas our scrolls do require a UMD roll even though we were the ones that wrote them. Even if you make a scroll of an infusion you still need to use UMD to cast your own scroll (but you don't need to decipher it), because the infusion is not on your spell list... because you do not have a spell list.

Pro-pro-tip. If you are going to make an expensive wondrous item when you hit level 3 then you might want to 'burn' a scroll or two on getting a high skill bonus for your emulation roll(s).

Pro-pro-pro-tip. At this point you will have noticed that Skill Focus (UMD) is simply an extremely poor substitute for the much bigger sticks for 'hitting the skill problem' we have access to, all of which are much cheaper than wasting a feat. (Oh yes, and the luck feat is still just as good for crafting and better everywhere else)


LEVEL 3 Crafting

You now have 60 points to spend from your craft pool. You have craft wondrous item. Make yourself a Necklace of Fireballs.

Necklace of Fireballs is interesting. Market price is 150gp per d6 of damage. Contrast with a Wand of Fireballs. The level 5 Wand of Fireballs costs 3x5x750gp for 50 shots. Or 15x3 gp (that is, 45gp) per d6 of damage.

So you want to have one... but you don't want to invest too much in it. The only advantages the Necklace has is that (a) you can't make wands yet and (b) you can get some really big fireballs (10d6) for the 'nuke from orbit' option should you so desire.

NB: Magic Item Compendium has some equivalents in other damage flavours, but they are slot less, so cost a lot more per dice of damage (see page 187).

Okay, I admit it, this is more by way of showing off how much damage you can (theoretically) do at level 3 than a practical suggestion.

From a practical point of view you should consider making an item that grants a competence bonus to UMD. Since UMD rolls fail on a 1, you can stop when you need a 2 or higher to succeed.

Option for breaking combat: make an item of at will Summon Marked Homunculus.

Option for breaking the economy: make an item of at will Unseen Crafter.

Basically, pretty much anything you make which is an at will effect is game-breaking.

Option for actually getting a Persist in play: make a scroll of Metamagic Item, cast it on a wand, use the wand on yourself (can only Persist stuff on yourself). Unfortunately at this stage we can't make wands yet, but this is early entry to 'the big toys' if you are that way inclined. You could also in theory make an item of 1/day Metamagic Item...



LEVEL 2 'Spells'

Good
Various stat enhancements - bull's, bear's eagle's etc
Armor Enhancement - get creative, or just use defensive ones to stay alive (see also: Healing, Greater - p12 MIC)
Weapon Augmentation, Lesser - share the Bane loving with your friends. If you have 'colleagues' instead of friends, put this on your Arbalester - +9 to hit and 1d8+2d6+2 damage
Unseen Crafter - good if you can rack up the bonuses, bad if it only counts your ranks and int bonus.

Bad
Chill/Heat Metal - pretty good damage over time, most combats likely won't last long enough for it to matter
Toughen Construct - adds some AC , this is okay if you are the construct in question.
Align Weapon - depends on mix of enemies the DM throws at you.
Elemental prod - too situational
Lucky Blade - suffers from too much not being Weapon Augmentation

Ugly
Reinforce construct - terrible compared with Armor Enhancement (Healing, Greater). If you already cast Healing, Greater on them, you couldn't stack a second one, but even Armour Enhancement (Healing) is better.

Dragonmarked/Eberron Only
Ignite Dragonmark - if you get this off before the House Denneith dude gets off his "globe of screw you very much" then you will be laughing. Does 1d6/level and shuts down the targets mark.
Ray of Retaliation - simply superb. An infusion that can be cast as an interrupt? Yes please. Enjoy the look on your DM's face the first time you bounce the anti-proton beam back onto his pet blaster.

[Black_Zawisza]

Thanks for the help, Alienist! One thing, though...why have a high Wisdom score for crafting Cleric spell-based items when you can just emulate one with UMD?

[Madcrafter]

You don't need wisdom at all, UMD solves all problems (which makes charisma your third, or more likely second priority stat).

[NineThePuma]

Thanks for the help, Alienist! One thing, though...why have a high Wisdom score for crafting Cleric spell-based items when you can just emulate one with UMD?


Emulate an Ability Score

To cast a spell from a scroll, you need a high score in the appropriate ability (Intelligence for wizard spells, Wisdom for divine spells, or Charisma for sorcerer or bard spells). Your effective ability score (appropriate to the class you’re emulating when you try to cast the spell from the scroll) is your Use Magic Device check result minus 15. If you already have a high enough score in the appropriate ability, you don’t need to make this check.

To emulate a 1st level cleric spell with UMD, you need to make a DC 16 check. It's not hard, per se, but it's an additional check.

[Alienist]

Thanks for the help, Alienist! One thing, though...why have a high Wisdom score for crafting Cleric spell-based items when you can just emulate one with UMD?

That is certainly a reasonable extrapolation of what you can do with UMD, but not strictly RAW.

I've been looking at the sourcebooks to try to see where I got the idea that emulating a spell counts as casting it (presumably the stat requirement then flows from that), or if there is something else that requires the same level of wisdom as though you were casting a spell of level N.

I haven't found it yet, but I have found some other interesting stuff. In particular, in the FAQ (page 60, in red) it states that Artificer scrolls do not have an attribute requirement, unlike normal scrolls. Hence you don't need to emulate an attribute in order to use the scroll. Fascinating.

So it looks like I picked up the idea that you require 10+spell level in wisdom for divine spells from the Artificer's Handbook:



One possible reason to boost this up is if you are going to be using a lot of Divine magic. Anything that requires a divine spell of a certain level to be cast will also require an underlying Wisdom score of 10 + Spell level. While you can fake a high Wisdom with with some difficulty with your UMD check (subtract 15 from your UMD check to get your emulated ability score), by the time you can actually make this check at a high enough level to be useful, you are generally better off with a stat boosting item or infusion. Generally, this isn't a problem with Arcane magic, because you will have a high Intelligence anyway, but it could be a problem with Wisdom, depending on how often you think you will run into it. Generally though, with only so many ability score choices, you're better off leaving this one fairly low, but definitely non-negative.


If that is wrong, mea culpa. (Mea gusta? Mea badda anyway)

I agree that you don't need it too high, (especially in E6) but it is still handy to have, probably more so than charisma (you're going to throw so much else at the UMD check that more or less cha is just a blip on the radar anyway).

That might not be the case if you don't have access to 4th (and higher) spells, but in that case I don't see it as worthwhile playing an Artificer.

Also note that as an Artificer you have access to Owl's Wisdom which pumps it up significantly (+4). So the minimum wisdom you'd want to truck around with normally is 11. But, there are some really nifty second level cleric spells (Guidance of the OMGITDOESWHAT?atar for instance) that you might want to get your hands on early while your UMD is still too low to hit 27s regularly, and at those levels you may not be trucking around with enough slots to do everything you want with second level infusions and also to cast Owl's Wisdom, so I suggest a minimum 12 wisdom just to be safe.

[Coidzor]

Hashed out the limitations you'll be working under with the DM?

Like, for instance, do stat boosting items exist? As some hard liners ban them due to a reference to a higher CL in their item description.

[Black_Zawisza]

Hashed out the limitations you'll be working under with the DM?

Like, for instance, do stat boosting items exist? As some hard liners ban them due to a reference to a higher CL in their item description.
They don't exist (or rare enough that they don't for all practical purposes), but I can craft some, yeah!

EDIT: Also, I'm a little fuzzy on the item crafting rules, especially for artificers. Does the Handy Haversack's caster level of 9 mean I can't possibly create one in E6? :smalleek:

[CyMage]

Don't emulate a cleric when crafting divine items. Emulate an archivist, just avoid spells that call on Wisdom such as Spiritual Weapon, unless your DM is willing to allow using Int instead.

[CyMage]

They don't exist (or rare enough that they don't for all practical purposes), but I can craft some, yeah!

EDIT: Also, I'm a little fuzzy on the item crafting rules, especially for artificers. Does the Handy Haversack's caster level of 9 mean I can't possibly create one in E6? :smalleek:

The CL of 9 is the minimum caster level needed to cast Secret Chest, the required spell for the item. I'd say if you can boost your CL up to 7, then create a scroll of Secret Chest to cast when creating the HHH, you should be able to do it.

[Siosilvar]

To emulate a 1st level cleric spell with UMD, you need to make a DC 16 check. It's not hard, per se, but it's an additional check.

DC 26, actually. 26 - 15 = 11 wis, the minimum to cast a 1st level spell.

[Fouredged Sword]

There are lots of items that boost caster level for a single casting. That is all you need to craft something. It adds to the cost of building, but I think the last thread on this issue caped the CL in the upper teens somewhere before we ran out of boosts.

Also, they are expensive, but scrolls of anyspell are really useful if you can get your caster level up enough to create them.

[Alienist]

There are lots of items that boost caster level for a single casting. That is all you need to craft something. It adds to the cost of building, but I think the last thread on this issue caped the CL in the upper teens somewhere before we ran out of boosts.

Also, they are expensive, but scrolls of anyspell are really useful if you can get your caster level up enough to create them.

Most of the caster level boosting mechanisms are dubious at best. If I remember correctly one of the more popular ones was from d20 modern? Other ones are, for instance, drinking the juice of diseased people. Yummy.

Most of the others require you to already be caster level 12+ (the tattoo), which creates a chicken and egg scenario. E.g. you can't boost your caster level unless your caster level is already boosted.

Or for many of them, if using a strict interpretation wouldn't apply to crafting, or would only apply to certain limited items.

Before you object, keep in mind that demanding to be allowed to do abusive things simply because WoTC got coked up and printed it in some obscure source doesn't fly with a lot of DMs especially once you start breaking the system.

Breaking the game at caster level 12

Here's our end game point, what we are shooting for:

1) Persist metamagic feat
2) Apply the persist metamagic to a staff with the appropriate infusion (Metamagic Item, 3rd level)
3) Cast Unfettered Heroism from the staff
4) Use Wand Surge to cast spells from Charged Spell Trigger items (wands and staves)

Requirements that may require saving throw vs DMG for half damage:
You get a caster level of 12 and then take Craft Staff feat.

Allegedly (I can't find it) there is a Fighter Bonus Feat that grants an action point. If so, then you could make a Wand of Heroics... as Heroics is a second level spell it would obviate the need for Craft Staff and all that. However, if we used the Wand Surge from above, we'd then be spending an action point to gain an action point... which seems... pointless (sic).

Note: I prefer the third level infusion that adds metamagic to the other ways of adding metamagic to the wand/staff, since most of them require spending extra charges. Extra charges = more money and xp. Additionally, depending on whether the DM plays with the errata'd Artificer table you might not get the level 6-7 way of doing it anyway.

If you are going to spend extra charges though, consider the use of Power Surge. It costs XP equal to 5xlevel of highest spell in item. Whereas the cost in XP for a charge in a level 1 Wand is 750gp / 50gp / 25xp = 0.6xp

Cost in XP per charge
{table=head]Spell Level|Wand|Power Surge 1|Power Surge 2|Power Surge 3
1|0.6|5|2.5|1.666
2|3.6|10|5|3.333
3|9.0|15|7.5|5
4|16.8|20|10|6.666
[/table]

(Power Surge gives you one extra charge per 5 caster levels. So for the Power Surge 3 column you'd have to be running at least caster level 15)



Anyway, that's just an example, and a not especially interesting one at that.

But because of that sort of thing, that is why I suggest using the Ankh as a 'gateway drug' for caster level increases - at least for crafting. Your clericular buddy will love you long time for it, and the DM may be lulled into a false sense of "this isn't too bad".

Other things you should do once your DM allows you to emulate fifth level spells is to make a bunch of bags of holding, handy haversacks, efficient quivers and (for yourself anyway) an infinite scroll case.

Again, the other players will love you, the DM will think "hey, this isn't too bad" and may be open to other suggestions...

Now, finally, there IS a way of increasing caster level which is accessible to characters without using other caster level boosts, is from a much less dodgy source than most others, and it is persistable. But that is why you need a high CON.


Don't emulate a cleric when crafting divine items. Emulate an archivist, just avoid spells that call on Wisdom such as Spiritual Weapon, unless your DM is willing to allow using Int instead.

Is that how it works? It sounds reasonable but unless you're emulating a Sorcerer-only spell (there are a few) it doesn't seem strictly RAW.

My impression (and I could be wrong) is that you emulate the spell, not the class that casts the spell?

I think another way around it during crafting might be to cast the spell from a wand or scroll, or have your buddy the cleric cast it for you (on the promise of getting an Ankh sometime in the distant future :smallbiggrin: )


There are lots of items that boost caster level for a single casting. That is all you need to craft something. It adds to the cost of building, but I think the last thread on this issue caped the CL in the upper teens somewhere before we ran out of boosts.

Also, they are expensive, but scrolls of anyspell are really useful if you can get your caster level up enough to create them.

A couple of nitpicks.

Casting is not the same as crafting, hence some of the caster level boosts may not work if your DM is shy about interpreting RAW broadly, especially if they are specific to spell casting. E.g. Spell Enhancer, various domain powers and feats.

Strictly speaking, Anyspell doesn't cast a spell per se, it allows you to put a 1-2 level wizard spell that you read out of a spell book (or scroll) into your 3rd level domain spell slot. Artificers don't have 3rd level domain spell slots...

You could make a Wand of Anyspell, hand it to your buddy the cleric and have him do it, but you wouldn't be able to craft the scroll for him, since your scrolls are neither arcane nor divine.

[Alienist]

EDIT: Also, I'm a little fuzzy on the item crafting rules, especially for artificers. Does the Handy Haversack's caster level of 9 mean I can't possibly create one in E6?


The CL of 9 is the minimum caster level needed to cast Secret Chest, the required spell for the item. I'd say if you can boost your CL up to 7, then create a scroll of Secret Chest to cast when creating the HHH, you should be able to do it.

Crafting. Aye aye aye. If I were a rich man...

Though hast truly opened a bag of worm holding. :D

The problem is that no other class requires a spreadsheet to determine their use of their base features.

In any case, let me start by clearing up a misapprehension. The CL listed on items is NOT a pre-requisite. It plays two roles for an artificer.

#1 it determines how hard the item is to disenchant
#2 for items based on spells it determines the effect of the spell (how long it lasts, how many dice of damage it does etc)

for custom items there is also:

#3 it determines how much the item will cost. Higher CL = more expensive

You can voluntarily change the caster level. Now normally the caster level cannot drop below the maximum of the minimum level of the spells that make up the proper prerequisites of the item. Confused? I know I am.

Here's an example:



Moderate conjuration and transmutation; CL 8th; Craft Wondrous Item, fear, summon monster V, control water, creator must be a triton or get construction aid from a triton; Price 15,100 gp; Weight 2 lb.


(I have taken the liberty of bolding the pre-requisites)

We would expect the caster level on this bad boy to be 9, because:
Fear is a fourth level spell.
Summon Monster V is a fifth level spell.
Control Water is a fourth level spell.

Out of those, the maximum is the fifth level spell.
The minimum caster level to cast fifth level spells is 9.

Okay, so WoTC screwed this one up. Summon Monster V requires 9 instead of 8. But hey, what does it mean really? Not much in this case. Anyway, that's the normal thing.

Note that CL plays an additional role for artificers:

#4 it determines the DC of your UMD roll

In this case it means that the DC to make a horn of tritons is 28 instead of 29. Woohoo.

Unfortunately Artificers are special. You get an effective +2 adjustment to your caster level for the purpose of emulating requirements only. This is good, but it mucks up the calculations. Consider the Scroll of Fireball that the 3rd level Artificer makes on p32 of ECS.

Base cost is the same as a caster level five scroll, e.g. 375gp. But the spell only does 3d6 points of damage, and if it could be dispelled it would be dispelled at caster level three. If it had a duration of rounds/level it would only last three rounds, not five (etc). Once you get to level five of course, you can make a normal level five scroll of fireballs, that costs the same (375gp) but does 5d6 damage instead of 3d6.

This has some funky effects sometimes.
Example: at level 3 you could make a scroll of Magic Vestment (3rd level cleric spell, so requires caster level 5), but it wouldn't do anything, because the actual caster level is 3, and the vestment enhances your AC bonus by caster level divided by four. Oops. :smallredface:

Now, the eagle eyed will have noticed two things about the Horn of Tritons. Firstly, Fear is not just a fourth level spell, sometimes it is a third level spell (specifically if you are a Bard). So, if you make a Wand of Fear you have two choices, make it as a third level bard spell, or make it as a fourth level (Sor/Wiz) spell.

Anyway, you might expect a big cost savings, since 3rd level Wands normally cost 11,250gp and fourth level Wands normally cost 21,000gp.

However, when we are taking the spell from the Bard (or Paladin or Ranger) lists, we must take into account the caster level of that appropriate class. And Bards don't get third level spells until they hit level seven. So the cost isn't 3x5x750, it is 3x7x750 or 15,750gp.

The second thing our eagle eyed reporter at the scene of the crime may have noticed, is that the Horn of the Tritons is one of the few magic items that has a racial pre-requisite. Not to worry. On p32, two paragraphs up from Bonus Feat: we find this little beauty:



An Artificer can also make UMD checks to emulate non-spell requirements, including alignment and race, using the normal DCs for the skill. He cannot emulate skill or feat requirements, however, including item creation feat prerequisites.


So we look at UMD, and see that there are a bunch of things it can do:
{table=head]Task|Use Magic Device DC
Activate blindly|25
Decipher a written spell|25 + spell level
Use a scroll|20 + caster level
Use a wand|20
Emulate a class feature|20
Emulate an ability score|See text
Emulate a race|25
Emulate an alignment|30
[/table]

The good news is that the DC to emulate a Triton is only 25, as compared to the DC of 28 to emulate the other requirements.

So, why is this a problem? Because the WoTC documentation is written by a bunch of monkeys on crack perhaps? The above paragraph explicitly mentions alignment and race. It explicitly excludes skills and feats, but UMD cannot emulate those anyway. The problem is: what about ability scores and class features?

Essentially, the Artificer is confusing and badly written. You're going to have a "it doesn't say it can vs it doesn't say it can't discussion" at some point in the near future, I virtually guarantee it.

Here's another example.

The first paragraph of the Item Creation section on p32 states "The Artificer must make a successful UMD check to emulate each spell normally required to make the item." Then in the second paragraph it says that the Artificer must make a successful check for each prerequisite for each item that he makes.

Snap test to see if you are paying attention: assuming he succeeds on each of them, how many UMD rolls does the Artificer need to make to create the Horn of Tritons?

Anyway I suggest that you don't dive too far down the rabbit hole of item creation. Try to make some simplifying assumptions. Don't try to cram on too much. Yes, the Artificer's handbook says you can get the item cost down to 3% (personally I'm not convinced that all the bonuses stack the way they say, some of them seem mutually exclusive). But do you really want the headache of computing it all? Not to mention the headache of being whacked with the ban-hammer by the DM?

Here's my rule of thumb for UMD:
Max out your ranks in it, and then get another +10 from other sources (excluding Cha).

What does this get you?
At level 1 with a 14 charisma you would have 16 added to your rolls. Enough to fairly easily make DC 23 rolls, which is the biggest you can do at that level.
At level 6 with a 14 charisma you would have 21 added to your rolls. Enough to easily make DC 27 rolls, which is the highest you need to go to make items with caster level 7 (fourth level spells).

Why stop there? Well, for starters there's no shortage of interesting items you can make with a 'suggested' CL 8 or lower. Make a bunch of those first, and then once you've mastered the system you can move on to the game breaking stuff.

Another rule of thumb would be to just get it to the point where you make UMD DC 20 rolls automatically (except on a 1, sometimes, because UMD is funky like that).

Stuff to boost UMD at low levels:

List includes but is not limited to:

Skill enhancement infusion
Help from others
Masterwork item
Synergies (scrolls only)


Also Eagle's Splendour (lvl 2 infusion), and other skill boosting spells.


Why 20? Because that is what you need to activate a wand. So you need +17 at level 6, because you get +2 for activating the item because you have the crafting feat for that item (this is either untyped or an 'artisan' bonus depending on who you talk to).

More math crap:

So...
Level 6 and we have 9 ranks. We don't want to be casting spells to boost our skill in the middle of combat (loss of action economy), so we have to make up the extra 8 from somewhere else:

Circlet of Persusasion: +3 competence bonus
Masterwork Tools: +2 circumstance bonus

Note that competence bonuses don't stack, but circumstance bonuses do. For the masterwork tool, fluff them as your standard steam-punk tinker's goggles, or an apron with mithril threads to prevent getting zapped with magical discharge, or special gloves or something like that.

If we have a Charisma of 14 (gives +2), we need to make up one last measly point. A cloak of charisma will do it. Hooray!

So we're auto making 18s on creation rolls. Slap on some Masterwork Artisan's tools +2, Skill Enhancement infusion (it's a circumstance bonus so it stacks) +5, and now we're auto-making 27s during item creation. Double hooray!