AimlessSage
2014-01-06, 05:45 PM
SO i have recently been running a leadership paladin who's cohort is a crafting wizard. (Took to feat for the cohort as we badly needed a wizard) and i have a counter argument to Treantmonk's anti-crafting dogma. Mr.Spock(wizards name) gives a discount of 25% off on all magic item's he produces and waylays his own share he would of presumably of received under the stipulation the party must purchase from him anything he can provide. We recently came into some serious cash after clearing a dungeon and have gained +25,000gp each fixing our gold curve as we had been somewhat stiffed on the curve.
With four people in the party that makes for about 100,000g that we found. Now lets assume in the course of spending each player spends about 10% of their gold on misc things. Beer, bribes, mundane cost, etc.
leaving 90,000 g that will be spent improving characters. Because of Mr.Spock's Discount and contract with everyone will use him for their item purchasing needs exclusively <ring,wonderous,Weapons/armor> so all 90,000 will go to him. due to the discount every person in the party receives ~33% increase to their gold purchasing power, increasing the party ability to "buy off problems" substantially. Spock has the trait Hedge magician so he ends up with ~47,300gp .
Notice that the amount he ends up with is nearly two shares worth of gold which he will effectively double, as he only has to pay materials for his own gear, giving him the purchasing power of ~95,000 in magic gear at listed price.
So, in effect; Spock's crafting increases the gold utility of the entire party dramatically, turning the 100k into approximately 215k worth of magical items.
Another comparison to make, is a Treantmonk-Wizard would of gained 22,500g (after mundane spending) as a normal share. The amount gained for being Item Crafting wizard is 24,800 ABOVE the normal share, which is only 200g shy of a lv 5 Pearl of Power.
I'v never personally found feats particularly dire for wizards, and as a generalization spell-casters. They are by no means useless, and some are downright critical depending on your build, but i find the bulk of my ability comes from my class abilities and not feats when im running a caster. Given the opportunities provided i feel it would not be amiss to state that you can surpass the utility of many feats via intelligent item purchases. I would also note that you can still run Item Crafting wizards as "god-wizards".
Lastly i will leave you with this Staff Hack.
"The materials cost is subsumed in the cost of creation: 400 gp × the level of the highest-level spell × the level of the caster, plus 75% of the value of the next most costly ability (300 gp × the level of the spell × the level of the caster), plus 1/2 the value of any other abilities (200 gp × the level of the spell × the level of the caster). Staves are always fully charged (10 charges) when created.
If desired, a spell can be placed into the staff at less than the normal cost, but then activating that particular spell drains additional charges from the staff. Divide the cost of the spell by the number of charges it consumes to determine its final price. Note that this does not change the order in which the spells are priced (the highest level spell is still priced first, even if it requires more than one charge to activate). The caster level of all spells in a staff must be the same, and no staff can have a caster level of less than 8th, even if all the spells in the staff are low-level spells." -PFSRD
1)Pick a spell below your highest level slot you wish to spam.
2)Pick two spells of your highest level slot (Thematically similar is a bonus)
3)Of the two higher spells, set them to cost 10 charges for each use.
4)Because of the way staff prices are calculated, based upon SPELL LEVEL, you will have a staff that cost a bit over 1/2 the normal price. You will not be able to use the higher level spells, but you can spam the lower level ones, and just charge it up on your down time.
Example:Aimless Sage's Boomstick.
Spells: CL=8 (minimum staff CL)
Firefall <4th> *400 * 8 * 1/10(charges) =1280g
Boneshatter <4th> * 300 * 8 * 1/10 (charges)= 960g
Fireball<3rd> * 200 * 8 = 4800
=======
Total cost for 10x Fireballs @ CL (rechargeable) =7040g
For comparison :
Staff of just Fireball: 3rd*400g*CL 8 = 9600
Wand(Fireball) @ Cl 8, 10 charges = 3600g
With four people in the party that makes for about 100,000g that we found. Now lets assume in the course of spending each player spends about 10% of their gold on misc things. Beer, bribes, mundane cost, etc.
leaving 90,000 g that will be spent improving characters. Because of Mr.Spock's Discount and contract with everyone will use him for their item purchasing needs exclusively <ring,wonderous,Weapons/armor> so all 90,000 will go to him. due to the discount every person in the party receives ~33% increase to their gold purchasing power, increasing the party ability to "buy off problems" substantially. Spock has the trait Hedge magician so he ends up with ~47,300gp .
Notice that the amount he ends up with is nearly two shares worth of gold which he will effectively double, as he only has to pay materials for his own gear, giving him the purchasing power of ~95,000 in magic gear at listed price.
So, in effect; Spock's crafting increases the gold utility of the entire party dramatically, turning the 100k into approximately 215k worth of magical items.
Another comparison to make, is a Treantmonk-Wizard would of gained 22,500g (after mundane spending) as a normal share. The amount gained for being Item Crafting wizard is 24,800 ABOVE the normal share, which is only 200g shy of a lv 5 Pearl of Power.
I'v never personally found feats particularly dire for wizards, and as a generalization spell-casters. They are by no means useless, and some are downright critical depending on your build, but i find the bulk of my ability comes from my class abilities and not feats when im running a caster. Given the opportunities provided i feel it would not be amiss to state that you can surpass the utility of many feats via intelligent item purchases. I would also note that you can still run Item Crafting wizards as "god-wizards".
Lastly i will leave you with this Staff Hack.
"The materials cost is subsumed in the cost of creation: 400 gp × the level of the highest-level spell × the level of the caster, plus 75% of the value of the next most costly ability (300 gp × the level of the spell × the level of the caster), plus 1/2 the value of any other abilities (200 gp × the level of the spell × the level of the caster). Staves are always fully charged (10 charges) when created.
If desired, a spell can be placed into the staff at less than the normal cost, but then activating that particular spell drains additional charges from the staff. Divide the cost of the spell by the number of charges it consumes to determine its final price. Note that this does not change the order in which the spells are priced (the highest level spell is still priced first, even if it requires more than one charge to activate). The caster level of all spells in a staff must be the same, and no staff can have a caster level of less than 8th, even if all the spells in the staff are low-level spells." -PFSRD
1)Pick a spell below your highest level slot you wish to spam.
2)Pick two spells of your highest level slot (Thematically similar is a bonus)
3)Of the two higher spells, set them to cost 10 charges for each use.
4)Because of the way staff prices are calculated, based upon SPELL LEVEL, you will have a staff that cost a bit over 1/2 the normal price. You will not be able to use the higher level spells, but you can spam the lower level ones, and just charge it up on your down time.
Example:Aimless Sage's Boomstick.
Spells: CL=8 (minimum staff CL)
Firefall <4th> *400 * 8 * 1/10(charges) =1280g
Boneshatter <4th> * 300 * 8 * 1/10 (charges)= 960g
Fireball<3rd> * 200 * 8 = 4800
=======
Total cost for 10x Fireballs @ CL (rechargeable) =7040g
For comparison :
Staff of just Fireball: 3rd*400g*CL 8 = 9600
Wand(Fireball) @ Cl 8, 10 charges = 3600g