So Much To Craft, So Little Time

[Afgncaap5]

tl;dr version: Level 9 artificer seeks inspiration for what to craft over two weeks, already has a Dedicated Wright, Quill of Scribing, something that'll make potions daily, access to the Research Assistant Spell and no practical limit on gold costs.

Regular version: So, my DM has just told me that he plans to kill us all is perfectly fine with every single request I've made about a two week period where my artificer will be away from the rest of the party. I've been trying to figure out what I think are the best things to craft during my two week period. I've already got a sizable list of options, but was wondering if there are any "must have" items that I'm missing.

Gold is no object (apparently returning to my hometown has given me some access to the family laboratories), and super-rare things like adamantium and blue ice are available "within reason" since the family seems to think that I have the potential to accidentally make some big exploitable magical breakthroughs due to a family curse (he told me this as I was just about to ask if an Artificer's Dump might be around to help cut costs). The DM's given the okay for the Research Assistant spell to double all my magical crafting time (though I'm willing to shell out some of my own XP to put it into a Spell Storing Item.) He's not given the okay for Pathfinder's "2 hours for Scrolls and Potions of 250 gp or less" rule, but for the whole campaign I've not spent XP on magic items, so my only real cost is time.

In addition to Research Assistant, I already have a Quill of Scribing and will finish my Dedicated Wright on the first day. He's also approved my design of a "Brewer's Bansai", a tree that grows fruit that acts as potions which will be the second thing made. Even though the Quill of Scribing description says that it can only be activated once per day, he's letting Research Assistant give it two days' worth of crafting even if one thing scroll finishes and there are still at least four hours left in the day to start another thing. So, in this two weeks I should be able to get four weeks' worth of "potions", four weeks' worth of spell scrolls, four weeks' worth of "other" magic items, and two weeks' worth of alchemical crafting.

I'm level 9, and this is the first pit stop I've had to really focus on crafting a lot so most of the party members don't have magical weaponry yet. The campaign has already been undead-focused (though not undead exclusive) so far, with a likely conflict coming with Atropus (I've been trying to act as if my character doesn't know as much about Atropus as I do.)

I've already got a few things on the drawing board... the Brewer's Bansai, lots of eggshell dust bombs, finally getting some armor/weaponry/shielding that's at least magical without me having to use an action point, a wand of Death Ward, etc.... but if anyone's got any suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em.

[Somensjev]

you could always spend a bit over 1.5 thousand, and get a wizard to cast genesis for you? then you could get all the items you need/want/can create, without a time limit, since you could have time in that world be something insane like 10,000 years inside that plane, for each second out of it

this probably doesnt help much for what you really want to make, but it may help if you're too restricted on time

[Malroth]

i think the going rate for a personal custom designed dimension would be more than a +2 sword regardless of the NPC spellcaster services guide.

[Arael666]

where can I find the Research Assistant Spell?

[Afgncaap5]

Dragon Magazine #342 page 55. Only a very specific prestige class gets it, likely as a gift from Boccob himself, but as Boccob doesn't exist in the campaign world in question and the society in question would revere someone much like him and since these particular Artificers are more mystical than technical the DM is allowing its use. It has some other handy effects apart from doubling the speed of your magic item creation, such as halving the time required for Legend Lore or Identify, etc. And since the spell casts days per caster level instead of hours or just a single day, a single casting can help to finish up a good amount of work.

While poking elsewhere around the Internet for more on this, I found a handy guide for essential magic items that put magic things into categories based on what they do (Flight, Daze Protection, Initiative, etc.) along with their price, book, and a few notes about their ease of use. It's a handy guide. (For instance, it recommended Armor Spikes given the Warning ability for a +5 on Initiative so that your primary weapon wouldn't need it. It's a good idea in theory, but the list pointed out that the technical wording says "Held" instead of "Wielded", so it'd be up to DM discretion.)

[Zanos]

i think the going rate for a personal custom designed dimension would be more than a +2 sword regardless of the NPC spellcaster services guide.
It is, because genesis costs 5k exp to cast, and therefore costs 26530 gp if you could ask a caster for it, which you can't. Spells with a cost of over 3kgp are unavailable without DM permission.

[Afgncaap5]

More to the point, 17th level wizards aren't exactly common in this world.(Plus, while I know that I've got two weeks before the next big story event, my character doesn't. My two-week timeline chart actually has two or three days after that cutoff point to represent work that might not finish right about then in case my dedicated wright or quill of scribing still have time to work on things while I'm otherwise occupied by the story. Also, since the artificer's in the town are interested in what I can do with resources (and less in what I can go out and pay a wizard to do for me with their treasure vaults), wizardry's likely not in the spirit of what they were looking for. Though I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask.)