Craft Arms and Armor Ruling-Pathfinder

[ArendK]

So I'm building a character for kicks; a Dwarf fighter.

As part of the background, he's a well known weaponsmith. As he gains levels, I've got him queued to pick up the Master Craftsman Feat.

But here's my thought and query and I can't be certain. For determining what I can and can't make, I use my ranks in Craft (weapon) as my caster level. Which is fine.

Here's where things get sketchy for me.
Say I want to create his personal-uber hammer; ala Breunor Battlehammer (not fond of the character concept, but it works for reference).
I am 9th level; according to the text--


Creating a magic weapon has a special prerequisite:
The creator’s caster level must be at least three times the
enhancement bonus of the weapon. If an item has both an
enhancement bonus and a special ability, the higher of the
two caster level requirements must be met. A magic weapon
must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus to have any melee
or ranged special weapon abilities.

Ok; so I want to make a +3 Warhammer of Speed. I need to be 9th level for the +3 and Speed is a +3 bonus (with a CL of 7th). Do I need to be 16th level or 9th?
It reads like only 9 literally, and maybe I'm just over thinking it.
And for the other pre-requisite regarding the special abilities; Do I only add the +5 to the DC for not having access to the Haste pre-requisite to cast? That's it? Not even terribly optimized, the character is +17 to checks at 10th level. So all together, the DC would be 19 to make the Warhammer in question?

Also, while I'm on this tangent; As GM's, do they often allow players who start with Item Creation Feats to come into game with gear they made at X% off?

[MonochromeTiger]

So I'm building a character for kicks; a Dwarf fighter.

As part of the background, he's a well known weaponsmith. As he gains levels, I've got him queued to pick up the Master Craftsman Feat.

But here's my thought and query and I can't be certain. For determining what I can and can't make, I use my ranks in Craft (weapon) as my caster level. Which is fine.

assuming both "master crafstman" and "create magic arms and armor" feats were taken (sounds like you thought it out fairly clearly but it always pays to check) yes your ranks are your caster level in the craft you're using. if you didn't or someone who doesn't know those feats is looking, master craftsman is a feat required for non casters to count their craft ranks as caster levels for the sake of item creation feats.



Here's where things get sketchy for me.
Say I want to create his personal-uber hammer; ala Breunor Battlehammer (not fond of the character concept, but it works for reference).
I am 9th level; according to the text--



Ok; so I want to make a +3 Warhammer of Speed. I need to be 9th level for the +3 and Speed is a +3 bonus (with a CL of 7th). Do I need to be 16th level or 9th?
It reads like only 9 literally, and maybe I'm just over thinking it.
And for the other pre-requisite regarding the special abilities; Do I only add the +5 to the DC for not having access to the Haste pre-requisite to cast? That's it? Not even terribly optimized, the character is +17 to checks at 10th level. So all together, the DC would be 19 to make the Warhammer in question?

according to the text you quoted "the higher of the two must be selected" for the prerequisite ranks, the two are equal however with the caster level being 9, as far as I remember they don't stack for anything but actual item creation DC and material cost. DC for making it is 5+caster level (not sure I remember how enhancement bonus factors into that), and for the part about not having the spell, you can have a spellcaster who knows it aid in item creation or even use a magic item that casts the required spell

Also, while I'm on this tangent; As GM's, do they often allow players who start with Item Creation Feats to come into game with gear they made at X% off?[/QUOTE]

I've allowed that before, following all item creation rules for cost (materials with a cost of half the base price of the item expended in item creation, special materials vary costs, magic items still require rolls to see if they work or are cursed and of course the much higher cost for making them with a personal cost measurement of the sum of the base cost and all enhancement costs halved as per normal item creation).

[Zionara]

If you go the route with Master Cratfsman your rank in the selected skill is the important factor and you use that instead of level.
The fun bit when making Magical items is that you dont have to make it all in one go, you can make a +1 Warhammer, then a +2, then add speed, and finally upgrade it to a +3 Warhammer of Speed.
Therfore you dont add the difficulties together, but use the highest one for the final item, and thus you need 9 ranks to craft such an item. The difficulty is also based on the most difficult bit, (I believe), and that would be 'of Speed' thats CL7+5 so a sweet 12.
You could increase the casterlevel of the item so that it would only fail on a roll of 1, and improving the saves of the item incase of AOE attacks.

However it will cost 2 feats, half your skillpoints and it has a basecost of 72k. Thats 36k out of pocket.
That is your real problems, right there..
What you could do is to ask your GM for a quest that will let you gather items that can be used instead of gold, like 'feather from a griffin' or 'greased lightlning' or something that emulates speed and is hard/difficult to get hold of.

Master Craftsman

Your superior crafting skills allow you to create simple magic items.

Prerequisites: 5 ranks in any Craft or Profession skill.

Benefit: Choose one Craft or Profession skill in which you possess at least 5 ranks. You receive a +2 bonus on your chosen Craft or Profession skill. Ranks in your chosen skill count as your caster level for the purposes of qualifying for the Craft Magic Arms and Armor and Craft Wondrous Item feats. You can create magic items using these feats, substituting your ranks in the chosen skill for your total caster level. You must use the chosen skill for the check to create the item. The DC to create the item still increases for any necessary spell requirements (see the magic item creation rules in Magic Items). You cannot use this feat to create any spell-trigger or spell-activation item.

Normal: Only spellcasters can qualify for the Craft Magic Arms and Armor and Craft Wondrous Item feats.