Ultimate crafter

[lorddrake]

If you were to make the ultimate crafter. Capable of doing all kinds of magic items in a Gestalt lvl20 game, what would he be?

I mean. Half the build will be artificer 20, and the other half? Is there anything sweet I don't know that would help beautifully?

And about feat choices?

NOTE: one thing you need to know about this guy is that he doesn't have to be able to survive fights. The character guesses he won't be participating in any fights at all. He just wants to stay on his nice pretty house making items and sending constructs to gather magic items for him to salvage.

[JoeYounger]

If you were to make the ultimate crafter. Capable of doing all kinds of magic items in a Gestalt lvl20 game, what would he be?

I mean. Half the build will be artificer 20, and the other half? Is there anything sweet I don't know that would help beautifully?

And about feat choices?

NOTE: one thing you need to know about this guy is that he doesn't have to be able to survive fights. The character guesses he won't be participating in any fights at all. He just wants to stay on his nice pretty house making items and sending constructs to gather magic items for him to salvage.

Well, its hard to get much better than artificer 20. The only thing left for you are feats to help, and that's attainable from any class. Maybe the master class if you wanted to be crafting magic and mundane stuff.

But honestly, artificer 20 coupled with the total cost reduction handbook in the bg boards, and you're crafting wonderous items for like 3% of book value.

For feat selection, google dnd toolshop and search "artisan" there are a slew of feats that give you a 25% discount on gold, time, xp or all of the above. Also, depending on your dm you might take mercantile background for the once a month discount and apply it to magic raws to help more.

[Human Paragon 3]

Make the other side wizard or archivist. Wizard gets bonus feats which can be used for metamagic and crafting, plus wizard casting. Archivists can add any spell to their list, so you can always meet crafting requirements if you're clever enough.

[lorddrake]

Well, its hard to get much better than artificer 20. The only thing left for you are feats to help, and that's attainable from any class. Maybe the master class if you wanted to be crafting magic and mundane stuff.

But honestly, artificer 20 coupled with the total cost reduction handbook in the bg boards, and you're crafting wonderous items for like 3% of book value.

For feat selection, google dnd toolshop and search "artisan" there are a slew of feats that give you a 25% discount on gold, time, xp or all of the above. Also, depending on your dm you might take mercantile background for the once a month discount and apply it to magic raws to help more.

I'm the DM. I was just planning a NPC. That's why he doesn't mind not fighting and likes staying home.

[Seth62]

ARTIFICER lv.20 PSIFICER (magic of ebberon) lv. 20

with this anything is possible

[Psyren]

Psionic Artificer//Warlock can craft any item in the game; yes, even that one.

[JoeYounger]

Are you playing 3.p.? If you are the race should be boggle, its on the pfsrd. Has a racial feat that let's it craft items without the item creation feat for +5 dc.

And in pf you can ignore other prerequisites by adding another 5 dc.

But yeah, if you're not a boggle I'd go warlock like psyren said

[gkathellar]

Psionic Artificier 20 / Commoner 20, for dual Crafting and Craft (Basketweaving) optimization.

[Psyren]

Psionic Artificier 20 / Commoner 20, for dual Crafting and Craft (Basketweaving) optimization.

Note that you do in fact need Warlock on the other side; there are items that even Psionic Artificers cannot make.

[gkathellar]

Pshh. All that pales before the Basketweaving might of a full commoner.

[Darth_Versity]

Needs Battlesmith to get a serious increase in CL for crafting.

[Kantolin]

Isn't a... uh, Casting Class 5 / Ironsoul Forgemaster 10 / Battlesmith 5 able to have a base caster level of like 35 50 for creating magic items?

That at least has to mean something. :P

Edit: I obviously don't know how to math.

[Psyren]

Isn't a... uh, Casting Class 5 / Ironsoul Forgemaster 10 / Battlesmith 5 able to have a base caster level of like 35 for creating magic items?

That at least has to mean something. :P

50 actually:

Casting class 5 = 5
IF 10 = 30 (10*3)
Bs 5 = 15 (5*3)

Total: 5 + 30 + 15 = 50

Arguably, Practiced Spellcaster should add another +4 (since neither IF nor Bs advance spellcasting) but you're already at risk of catching a DMG upside the head as it is.

[Yorae]

I would definitely try to meet the requirements for Master Arcane Artisan once you hit 20+.


Boggle

Yeah, but... then you have to be a boggle. Who really wants to be a greased-up little imp? =p

[Morph Bark]

Note that you do in fact need Warlock on the other side; there are items that even Psionic Artificers cannot make.

Which ones?

If so, take enough levels in Warlock to get to that class ability and for the rest take maybe 1st-level in Rogue or Scout, and push in levels of Fleshwarper somehow.

[Psyren]

Which ones?

MiC pg. 232:

"Many of the items in this book can also be created by a character with the appropriate psionic item creation feat.
...
The prerequisites of some items, such as the eldritch blast required for gauntlets of eldritch energy, have no psionic equivalent, and so cannot be created by a psionic character without the aid of a character who does meet the requirement."

Basically - a PsiArt can mimic a power with UPD, and MiC lets you use powers to satisfy spell requisites. But for items whose prerequisites don't have an applicable power, the PsiArt cannot craft them.


If so, take enough levels in Warlock to get to that class ability and for the rest take maybe 1st-level in Rogue or Scout, and push in levels of Fleshwarper somehow.

Indeed, you only need 11 levels of Warlock - the rest can be anything. 2 levels of Chameleon for the floating feat are a great idea, at least until you get all the ones you need from Artificer. (Then you can craft yourself an item of Psyreform and redo your character.)

Also, PsiArt gives you UPD while Warlock gives you UMD (transparency doesn't cover skills, so you'll need both.)

[Kantolin]

Obviously I don't know what a math is, heh.


Arguably, Practiced Spellcaster should add another +4 (since neither IF nor Bs advance spellcasting) but you're already at risk of catching a DMG upside the head as it is.

Actually, would it really result in DMG-to-face? I mean, I know things like paying money can be optimized, but generally speaking the major limitation on 'what you can craft' involves your money, not your caster level, right?

Especially when you're staring at epic equipment and the rather ludicrous price tags associated therewith. Although being able to actually make the A&E's sword of the solars would be kinda neat. ^_^

[Morph Bark]

If this weren't a noncombatant NPC, I would suggest Warlock 11/Hellfire Warlock 3/Binder 1/Something 5. :smalltongue:

[lorddrake]

You guys are quite remarkable. I asked for a build capable of being a decent crafter and you found monsters capable of having a proper caster level of 50 and other capable of creating, anything...

I always amaze myself reading this forum.

[Kantolin]

^_^ I was impressed by Ironsoul forgemaster itself - it just, by itself, gets you a CL of 30 for crafting through the ten levels of the prestige class.

No shenanigans required. Battlesmith and starting with a caster class are icing on the cake.

It is then almost certainly worse than an artificer 20, as a note (Especially if you mix them; ironsoul forgemaster wants incarnate or totemist). But it does have a big caster level for crafting stuff. :P

[kestrel404]

My favorite super-crafter build only needs 12 levels. In gestalt, it's ridiculously effective.

Base (Or Side A, in this case):
Factotum 1/Bloodline (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) 3/Factotum +1/Chameleon 7

Chameleon gives you a floating feat that you can re-choose each day, so you can choose which crafting feat you want every day. You can also use that feat to get any spell you might need into for crafting into your spellbook. And because the Chameleon's effective caster level is Chameleon level *2 (a formula!) your bloodline levels stack with chameleon levels, giving you CL 20 at level 12 - allowing you to literally craft ANYTHING.

In gestalt, at level 20, here's a good full-build:
Factotumeleon//Warlock with a Major Devil bloodline

Factotum 7/Chameleon 10/Bloodline 3//Warlock 15/Binder 1/Hellfire Warlock 3/Factotum +1

Your EB does 9d6 + 12d6 hellfire, while you've got naberius bound to regen con. Your Chameleon caster level is 26! Factotum 8 lets you take 2 standard actions at need in combat.

[Psyren]

(Especially if you mix them; ironsoul forgemaster wants incarnate or totemist)

No it doesn't; all you need is a feat (or two, depending on how you read it.) You could enter the class as a Dwarf Artificer 5 if you wanted.

[Morph Bark]

My favorite super-crafter build only needs 12 levels. In gestalt, it's ridiculously effective.

Base (Or Side A, in this case):
Factotum 1/Bloodline (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) 3/Factotum +1/Chameleon 7

Chameleon gives you a floating feat that you can re-choose each day, so you can choose which crafting feat you want every day. You can also use that feat to get any spell you might need into for crafting into your spellbook. And because the Chameleon's effective caster level is Chameleon level *2 (a formula!) your bloodline levels stack with chameleon levels, giving you CL 20 at level 12 - allowing you to literally craft ANYTHING.

In gestalt, at level 20, here's a good full-build:
Factotumeleon//Warlock with a Major Devil bloodline

Factotum 7/Chameleon 10/Bloodline 3//Warlock 15/Binder 1/Hellfire Warlock 3/Factotum +1

Your EB does 9d6 + 12d6 hellfire, while you've got naberius bound to regen con. Your Chameleon caster level is 26! Factotum 8 lets you take 2 standard actions at need in combat.

Note that you really do need Warlock, because the Chameleon cannot craft everything as he does not gain access to spells of level 7-9.

Hence why it's better to just take Psionic Artificer on that side.

[Kantolin]

No it doesn't; all you need is a feat (or two, depending on how you read it.) You could enter the class as a Dwarf Artificer 5 if you wanted.

I didn't mean 'need incarnum class to get in'. I meant 'wants you to have an incarnum class', as that way it has something to advance, otherwise it's not advancing anything at +9/10. Thus if you lack incarnate or totemist (Or I suppose soulborn), you're not advancing anything for those nine levels and are thus pretty useless.

So while you could go Casting Class 5 / Ironsoul 10, the result of this would be 'casts like a level 5 caster and has BAB worse than medium... but can craft really well!' :P Whereas if you go even Casting Class 4 / Incarnate or Totemist 1 / Ironsoul 10, you then have 10 levels of meldshaping at least.

(Unless there's something about ironsoul that I'm missing)

[Psyren]

The thing is, Incarnum is very modular; the main benefit to the system comes from the Chakra binds, which you will get from IF even without starting as a meldshaper. You can acquire any other soulmelds you want from feats, or even eschew soulmelds entirely and bind your super-high-CL magic items to your chakras instead, using the rules on page 108.

[Big Fau]

The thing is, Incarnum is very modular; the main benefit to the system comes from the Chakra binds, which you will get from IF even without starting as a meldshaper. You can acquire any other soulmelds you want from feats, or even eschew soulmelds entirely and bind your super-high-CL magic items to your chakras instead, using the rules on page 108.

Doing so means you miss out on essentia though, which really helps to have.

[Psyren]

Doing so means you miss out on essentia though, which really helps to have.

Not if you're binding magic items instead of soulmelds to your chakras, as those don't use essentia.

(Unless you're specifically crafting items that use essentiasdfghjkl)

[kestrel404]

Note that you really do need Warlock, because the Chameleon cannot craft everything as he does not gain access to spells of level 7-9.

Hence why it's better to just take Psionic Artificer on that side.

For an NPC that's true. However, when making a character I always considder combat potential, and the combo of bloodline levels + hellfire warlock is just too good to pass up.

[deuxhero]

Psionic Artificer//Warlock can craft any item in the game; yes, even that one.

How does he craft an artifact?

[Psyren]

How does he craft an artifact?

I didn't really have to spell out that artifacts are still out of reach, did I?

(Though I suppose he could become a god.)