Item Creation Blues (3.5)

[Caxton]

Hi everyone! After the unfortunate death of my cleric, I have decided to play an Artificer. Can anyone explain the item creation mechanic to me? The DMG is confusing me and my numbers don't make sense. Should wands be so much more expensive than armors? Any illumination that you can provide would be much appreciated!

[Matticussama]

Which particular aspect of item creation is it that you're having trouble with, or is it just the overall process? As far as the comparative cost of wands v.s shields, it depends entirely upon what spells you're putting in the wand v.s how high the enhancements are on your shield. For example, a +1 shield is going to be much cheaper than a Wand of Stoneskin.

As far as the numbers and creating magic items, lets use the chart on the SRD for an easy reference point ( http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm )

Starting with Wands, they cost 375 gp × the level of the spell × the level of the caster for a new wand that starts with 50 charges. In addition to this, any spell with a costly material component or XP requirements it adds to the price. For material components, it is the cost of the component x50; for XP it is the XP x 5GP to the cost.

So let's use Stoneskin as an example. The base cost is 10,500GP; 375 x 4 (it is a 4th level spell) x 7 (minimum caster level to cast 4th level spells). Stoneskin also has a material component cost of 250GP per casting, so you take 250GP x 50 for an added price of 12,500GP. Thus, the total cost to create a wand of Stoneskin is 23,000GP.


As far as shields go, they are a lot easier to price. You look at the chart for enhancement bonuses ( http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicArmor.htm ). That lists the base prices for armor and shield enhancements. When crafting magic items, you pay 1/2 of the base price listed for existing items. So if you want to create a +2 shield, it costs 2,000GP (1/2 the 4,000 base price). plus the cost of the mastercraft shield. If you want to create a +2 arrow deflecting shield (which is also a +2 enhancement bonus), it costs the same as a +4 shield; 16,000GP base price as indicated on the chart, so 8,000 when making it yourself. If you want to add a property that doesn't have a specific enhancement bonus assigned to it, then you add it on separately. So you could add in Acid Resistance (18,000GP) for a flat +9,000; again, since you're making it yourself you pay 1/2 the base price.


Maybe these examples help, maybe they don't. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

[Caxton]

I am mainly confused about determining the xp costs of stuff like rings and staffs. Is it always 1/25 of the gp price? Your post was very helpful thanks alot.

Also how do you determine the UMD DC for emulating a spell?

[Matticussama]

XP cost for all magic item creation is always 1/25 of the base price regardless of item.

Staff prices work similarly to wands. It costs 375 gp × the level of the highest-level spell × the level of the caster. When adding a second spell to a staff, you add 75% of the value of the next most costly ability (281.25 gp × the level of the spell × the level of the caster) to that original total. For any additional spells added to the staff, you pay one-half of the value of any other abilities (187.5 gp × the level of the spell × the level of the caster). You have to pay the % in order of the highest spell level; so if you create a staff with a 9th level spell, and 8th level spell, a 7th level spell, and a 6th level spell, the 9th would be at full cost (375x9xCL), the 8th level spell would be at (281.25x8xCL), and the 7th and 6th would both be at (187.5x spell level x CL)

Rings are... different. Do your best to follow the pricing on the Estimating Magic Item Gold Piece Values chart ( http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm ) It can get confusing. The D&D books don't always follow its own rules depending upon the item (especially the more distant the supplemental book is from the DMG), but it usually stays pretty close.

So for example, say you want a ring that gives you Blink when you issue a command word (like the Ring of Blinking in the DMG). You use the "Command Word" entry, which is Spell level × caster level × 1,800 gp. For Blink, that would be 3 (spell level) x 5 (minimum level needed to cast blink) x 1,800 for a result of 27,000GP. This is the market value; you divide that in half when determining the cost in materials, and pay 1/25 of that base cost in XP. So to craft a Rink of Blinking, you'd pay 13,500 GP in materials and 1,080 XP.

[Mnemnosyne]

This is the market value; you divide that in half when determining the cost in materials, and pay 1/25 of that base cost in XP.The numbers in your example are correct, but this sentence is worded a bit confusingly (to me, at least) because it sounds like you're saying you divide the market price in half, then pay 1/25th of the result in xp, when you're really saying 1/25th of the market price in xp.

So to clarify just in case that sounded confusing to anyone else:
GP Cost: Market Price * 0.5
XP Cost: Market Price * 0.04

As far as the UMD check, that's simple. The check is DC 20 + caster level of the spell. So if you're emulating a first level spell, it's DC 21. If you're emulating a 9th level spell, it's DC 37.

...unless you find a class that can cast that spell with a lower caster level, in which case it's the lowest caster level you can find the spell at.

For instance, an Ex-Cleric 5/Ur-Priest 9 without Practiced Spellcaster can cast 9th level cleric spells at caster level 9, so you could use this fact to mimic 9th level cleric spells with a DC 29 check.

Finding the class where the spell can be cast at the lowest caster level can help a lot with items where the caster level of the spell is irrelevant, or where you don't really need a higher caster level. For example, a 9th level cleric spell as a scroll normally costs 3,825 gp market price because minimum caster level is 17 when a cleric casts gate. But, since Ur-Priests have 9th level cleric casting and can do it with a CL of 9, you can cut market price of that scroll down to 2,025 gp, because you're only doing 25 * 9 * 9 instead of 25 * 9 * 17.

Consolidated List of "Bargain Bin" Spells for Artificers (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=12661.0) is a useful resource too. Make sure you save the page, cause BG is going to be deleted soon.

[Matticussama]

Sorry about the strange phrasing, it was really late when I wrote that. Thanks for clarifying the XP part.