No Artificer - Help Design Spell

[Stront]

Our party has recently come into possession of a college and I would like to start warding it as the group wizard. I would like to use Permanency to throw down some Alarm spells and the like but don't want to burn through my personal experience to do so.

Would a spell designed to sacrifice magical items to harness their XP value (much like an artificer ability) be realistic to design? I would think the first major difference would be the XP value earned would have to be used within 1 hour/per caster level or it is lost forever. Also, the item has to be attuned to you - meaning in your possession for at least 24 hours before you can sacrifice it.

Is there an item or spell already out there that does this? Any other thoughts on how such a spell could work and what level it would be?

[Yuki Akuma]

Artificers can't use XP gathered from magic items to pay for spell XP components, so this wouldn't be the same as the Artificer ability.

Just use a Thought Bottle (Complete Arcane). It costs 500xp to use but 'saves' your current xp total (minus the 500 xp).

[Stront]

Artificers can't use XP gathered from magic items to pay for spell XP components, so this wouldn't be the same as the Artificer ability.

Just use a Thought Bottle (Complete Arcane). It costs 500xp to use but 'saves' your current xp total (minus the 500 xp).

So I could drop 500 XP; burn a ton of XP losing a level in the process and then use the Thought Bottle to return me to where I started - 500 XP? :smallconfused:

[TuggyNE]

So I could drop 500 XP; burn a ton of XP losing a level in the process and then use the Thought Bottle to return me to where I started - 500 XP? :smallconfused:

Or, stack multiple Thought Bottles and repeat the process for diminishing returns at the cost of only 500 XP total. (I.e., store, store, store, store, craft, craft, craft, restore, craft....)

[Kelb_Panthera]

So I could drop 500 XP; burn a ton of XP losing a level in the process and then use the Thought Bottle to return me to where I started - 500 XP? :smallconfused:

Almost. You can't deliberately lose a level through crafting or casting spells with XP components. You could bottom out for your current level and then use the bottle, though, or you could bottom out for your current level, have something hit you with a negative level, forgoe the save to prevent actual level loss and then bottom out that level, rinse and repeat until finished, then use the thought bottle to go back to the level you started at.

If you try to do this in a game, however, wear a helmet to protect yourself from DMG's with ballistic trajectories 'cause this is some serious cheese.

[Matticussama]

The Thought Bottle is a pretty cheesy item when used for crafting. Your DM will probably be much more lenient if you try to create a spell that mimics the Artificer's ability in some way. You might want to make less efficient compared to the Artificer, just so 1 spell cannot completely make the class obsolete, but still used to benefit you.

I don't know what level you are, but a spell like that should probably be 7th level or higher. As long as there are clear limits on the spell and its abilities so it doesn't break the game, your DM should be willing to work on the concept with you.

[Kelb_Panthera]

You could see about aquiring a supply of either agony or ambrosia. They're special substances described in BoVD and BoED, respectively, that are worth 3xp per dose for any purpose other than leveling. Ambrosia can probably be bought on the open market but agony, being a drug, is probably only available on the black-market in most places.

If you want to really go darkside on this, you can use BoVD's sacrifice rules and get dark craft xp (amount varies by skill check) that way or you could maybe try buying some soul-shell larvae (10xp each) off of some demon or devil in the planar market or otherwise rounding the boogers up from the lower planes.

If you're not comfortable using your own XP there're a number of options. Of course, XP is a river so all of these are largely unnecessary unless you're going to be doing a metric crap ton of activity that burns XP. Once you're a level behind you're supposed to get around 20%-ish more XP for a given challenge than the rest of the party. This is more than enough to cover most needs.

[TiaC]

Get hit with a negative level. Your XP total drops to the midpoint between the two levels. Craft things until you can't put off a Restoration any longer. Get a Restoration to return to your original XP total.

[Stront]

I was hoping to create a spell around level 6 that could let me destroy a magical item I am attuned to (having possession for a set time like days or a week) for example.

The second stipulation is the experience gleaned from the item destroyed must be used in a set number of hours or so. Maybe within one hour per caster level or something similar. This would prevent it for being used to make most magical items and would really only be useful for something like a permanency spell.

I think the Thought Bottle would get me beaten by the DM including every other PC in the group.

['Able' Xanthis]

Thought Bottle cheese is pretty tame compared to some things, but it can get out of hand in quantities more than one.

On a side note the spell looks like it would check out, and seems to be missing some of the larger pitfalls. Your DM may wish to have you place stricter stipulations on Metamagicing this, but other than that I see no huge exploits.

[weckar]

This would prevent it for being used to make most magical items and would really only be useful for something like a permanency spell.
Or Wish. Wish.