Item Creation and Upgrading

[Bloodgruve]

Hey Playgrounders,

I have a question about upgrading item properties. I've got a player who wants to upgrade currently magical items.

1. For example, He has a Longsword +1. How does he go about adding Flaming to it and what would be the cost of doing so?

2. Can you add more properties to a Wonderous item. For example could you take Boots of Speed and add the Levitation property to them like Boots of Levitation? What would it cost to do so?

3. Do you need any Craft skill to 'Craft Wonderous Item' or do you just need the prerequisites for the item creation, do you make any creation rolls or checks? For example, what would you need if you wanted to give a Cloak of Elven Kind a Resistance enchantment, just the feat or would you need a Tailoring skill check or something?

Much appreciated,

Blood~

[Kudaku]

Are you playing Pathfinder or 3.5 D&D?

[Bloodgruve]

Sorry,

Its a 3.P game. No XP cost for item creation, the party levels up together. So basically PF crafting.

Thanks,

Blood~

[TuggyNE]

1. For example, He has a Longsword +1. How does he go about adding Flaming to it and what would be the cost of doing so?

The total value is now equivalent to a +2 longsword, and you pay the cost and take the time proportional to the difference between the old and new values. In this case, that's 6000gp.


2. Can you add more properties to a Wonderous item. For example could you take Boots of Speed and add the Levitation property to them like Boots of Levitation? What would it cost to do so?

Generally, yes, but I don't feel like looking up PF's exact rules right now. So I assume it's similar to 3.5 Core's "50% surcharge on all but most expensive component".


3. Do you need any Craft skill to 'Craft Wonderous Item' or do you just need the prerequisites for the item creation, do you make any creation rolls or checks? For example, what would you need if you wanted to give a Cloak of Elven Kind a Resistance enchantment, just the feat or would you need a Tailoring skill check or something?

You only need Craft checks if you're skipping some of the spell prerequisites, and I think you'd need a feat for that anyway. If you're creating magic items in the usual way, spells and all, there are no checks at all.

[Kudaku]

The reason why I ask if it was PF or 3.5 is because they handle crafting a little differently - Pathfinder bases crafting magic items on Spellcraft (or Craft, with a specific feat) skill checks. Tuggy's reply assumes 3.5 crafting, which doesn't require skill checks. That said, let's dive into the questions.


1. For example, He has a Longsword +1. How does he go about adding Flaming to it and what would be the cost of doing so?

Whenever you " straight upgrade" an item, ie take it from +1 to +2, you pay the difference in cost between the two items. A +1 longsword would cost 2315 gp, a +1 flaming longsword would cost 8315 GP. The difference is 6000 gp, so the player would pay whoever is doing the work 6000 GP and it would take six days to upgrade the sword.

If he is doing the upgrade himself, you do the same math but you use the crafting rules instead. IE the price would be 50% of the difference in price, require Craft Magical Weapons and Armor, and the creator would have to make a spellcraft check.


2. Can you add more properties to a Wonderous item. For example could you take Boots of Speed and add the Levitation property to them like Boots of Levitation? What would it cost to do so?

The general rule here is that if the item occupies a specific slot on the body (gloves, bracers, boots etc) the cost of adding any additional ability to that item increases by 50%. So boots of speed cost 12 000 GP, adding the ability from boots of levitation would cost an additional (7500 * 1,5) 11 250 GP. The Levitating boots of Speed would cost a total of 23 250 GP.

It should be noted that Pathfinder has specifically put in place some limitations I'm going to call "item affinity" - basically certain bonuses go to a certain slot and only appear in that slot. For instance strength, dexterity and constitution primarily come in belt form while intelligence, wisdom and charisma primarily come in headband form. This is done to try and keep magical items "fresh" and offer more interesting options instead of having players immediately fill their item slots with the +4 strength gloves, +4 dexterity bracers, and +4 constitution belt, for example. While you can certainly choose to ignore these limitations and let your players craft whatever they want I figured I'd make a note of it so you're aware that there is a reason why PF removed the gauntlets of ogre power etc.


3. Do you need any Craft skill to 'Craft Wonderous Item' or do you just need the prerequisites for the item creation, do you make any creation rolls or checks? For example, what would you need if you wanted to give a Cloak of Elven Kind a Resistance enchantment, just the feat or would you need a Tailoring skill check or something?

Crafting magical items is handled with Spellcraft checks. The DC is 5 + caster level of the item + 5 for every requirement you do not fulfill on the item. The Cloak of Elvenkind (hereafter referred to as CoE) is a good example so I'll use that as an... Example:

The CoE has two requirements and a Caster Level of 3. The requirements are:
1. The Invisibility Spell
2. Creator must be an elf

The creator must have access to the Craft Wondrous Item feat (this is a requirement that must be filled to qualify for crafting, and an exception to the +5 for every requirement you do no fulfill). The creator must also have 1250 GP available.

If the creator is an elf wizard who has access to the invisibility spell the Spellcraft DC to make this cloak is 8 (5+CL (3) = 8).
If the creator instead was a human wizard with access to the invisibility spell, he can still make the item but since he doesn't fulfill the Elf requirement it's harder to make. His Spellcraft DC would be 13 (5+CL (3) + 5 (not an elf) = 13).

If the creator was a human sorcerer who does not have access to the invisibility spell his Spellcraft DC would be 18 (5+CL (3) + 5 (not an elf) + 5 (no invisibility spell).

You wanted to add Resistance to a CoE. The price of Resistance goes up by 50% since Cloak is a body slot (shoulders), so the price of the Resistance quality would be 1500 (1000 *1,5). Add that to the Cloak of Elvenkind and we wind up with a price tag of 4 000 GP.

Finally, I wanted to mention something that might be relevant to your interests: Pathfinder has a feat called Master Craftsman (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/master-craftsman---final), which lets you craft magical weapons, armor and wondrous items despite not being a spellcaster or having a caster level. Instead you substitute your rank in your crafting skill for CL, which means you can have nonmagical characters make magical equipment. This is an option if you want to make a dwarven fighter who works in the smith and creates magical weapons when he's not out adventuring.

[TuggyNE]

Hmm, I didn't realize there was a Spellcraft check in all cases. Ah well.


If he is doing the upgrade himself, you do the same math but you use the crafting rules instead.

Although it takes just as long.

[Bloodgruve]

Great info here guys, much appreciated.

Learning a few new things here..

Kudaku,

So say a 7th level Bard has Craft Wonderous Item.

He wants to craft Amulet of the Planes, CL15, 120,000GP

All he needs is the 60K GP, 60 Days and a Spellcraft DC roll of 5+15(CL)+5(Planeshift)= 20? And he can make it even if he's not lvl 15 nor has Planeshift?

Thanks,

Blood~

[Kudaku]

Great info here guys, much appreciated.

Learning a few new things here..

Happy to help :smallsmile:


So say a 7th level Bard has Craft Wonderous Item.

He wants to craft Amulet of the Planes, CL15, 120,000GP

All he needs is the 60K GP, 60 Days and a Spellcraft DC roll of 5+15(CL)+5(Planeshift)= 20? And he can make it even if he's not lvl 15 nor has Planeshift?

Actually the DC would be 25 - the DC is 5 +15 (CL) +5 (no access to Planeshift). Otherwise, yes.

the Spellcraft DC is specifically designed to be easy to pull off in general, while still high enough that people who try to make things wildly out of their skill range can wind up failing completely or even making things you really didn't plan for since failing the DC means you wasted the money and failing the DC by more than 5 means you make a cursed item.

For instance a Bard with 10 intelligence and 7 ranks in Spellcraft has a spellcraft modifier of +10, he has a low chance of successfully making that amulet (needing to roll a 15 or higher) and a decent chance (needing to roll a 5 or lower) of making a cursed amulet instead.

The real balancer for crafting magical items is the gold cost and the time required. The skill check is mostly there to explain how cursed items are made and keep people from vastly overreaching when crafting.

[Bloodgruve]

Very good, great info and its much appreciated.

Think I need to put some ranks into my Math skill...

Blood~

[Kudaku]

Happy to help, feel free to send me a PM if you have any more questions :smallsmile: