Artificer Choice Questions

[Morof Stonehands]

I have a few questions regarding artificers, which I will be playing in our campaign next.

What I would like to do with him is be a super crafter (kinda the point of them right). But I will be leaning towards lots of spell items, and charges/day items. Think along the lines of online RPGs where you carry tons of 1 shot items that you put on, use, then switch to another, "clickies" per say. I will also be making regular items that the party and I need, weapons and armors and wands, etc.

So some questions:

1. I found the Ironsoul Forgemaster from Magic of Incarnum. He would be great for those clickies, with the super boosted CL. But can those items be made from weapons and would that caster level even apply to a spell put into a weapon like that? Example of what I'm thinking: Spell from Kalamar Campaign Setting lets you throw a grappled person 5ft/ caster level, no max. Make that into a 1/day on gauntlets, throw somebody 150ft. Possible?

1a. Would the gauntlets need to be made into +1 gauntlets first, or could they just have the spell put into them?

1b. What about other items, made from weapons? Can I craft a sword but have the hilt be a rod of empowerment? What would I need for that? Can a net be turned into a Heward's Fortifying Bedroll (Hammock)?

2. Is that even worth it? or would be an pure 20 artificer be more useful?

Thanks for your help!

[SliceandDiceKid]

Straight arti for item crafting. Hard to go wrong there if you're just crafting. Grab the item crafting feats.

Metamagics on weapons? Don't think you can do that. That's pretty much what rods are for. I'd think if you wanted to, you'd have to house rule it, but it'd require craft rod and would cost a LOT more money and XP to combine those.

Just take quick draw to switch weapon for rod.

[Lightlawbliss]

something to keep in mind is that 5 uses/day of an on-command is the same cost as at-will on-command. Also, you should check with your dm on how (s)he feels about custom items.

[Diarmuid]

Another big thing to consider is that until you can get a homonculus or dedicated wright (assuming your DM allows those), crafting items takes a lot of downtime. I havent played in many games where sporadic downtime is something the whole group is happy to tolerate.

[Deophaun]

Another big thing to consider is that until you can get a homonculus or dedicated wright (assuming your DM allows those), crafting items takes a lot of downtime. I havent played in many games where sporadic downtime is something the whole group is happy to tolerate.
Very true. If you can convince your DM, I recommend using the Craft Point system in Unearthed Arcana.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Getting a whole bunch of spells at useful CL on use/day items is prohibitively expensive. If you want to be effective you'll pretty much have to resort to wands or scrolls.

To clarify: A single 1st level spell from a wand has a base cost of 15gp. The same spell from a 1/day item costs 360gp. For the cost of that 1/day 1st level spell you get more than half a wand.
You'll spend hundreds of thousands of gold on getting the same spell capacity as a sorcerer if you rely on use/day items. The sorcerer can spend his WBL on items and still cast better than you though.

To be effective you need either a high CL, high save DCs, or both.

CL and can be boosted by paying more gold. Taking Cannith Wand Adept, Reckless Wand Wielder, Enhance Item and Wand Mastery boosts CL and DC both.
Being a dedicated wandslinger is still horribly expensive if you actually use all those feats because a lot of them take additional charges. It's also very effective if build properly.

The other option is to pick spells that function well at low CL and have no save. You'll save money and feats but it'll cut heavily into your effectiveness and versatility.
You'll pretty much be a heavily gimped Sorcerer though so i wouldn't suggest it unless your group is low-op and you like the flavor.