How much do you craft?

[hicegetraenk]

Short and simple: How much do you / your players make use of the ability to craft (magic) items?

For me and my group crafting is something of a npc thingy. No one ever really bothered about taking feats like forge ring or craft wondrous item - even the wizard's free scribe scroll has never been used. Why? Because crafting consumes time none of us is willing to spend. Especially the "It takes 1 day / 1000 g to craft" bothers me. Is it just me or do you feel the same? Maybe you established certain modifications to the ruleset to speed the process up - I'd like to hear about them.
The other big issue is the XP cost. I don't get my head around the idea of sacrificing level progress for gear advantage, especially because usually the able crafters are able casters, where levels mean spells which directly translate into advantages.
Is magic item creation (by core ruleset) a niche action or am I just seeing things from a deluded point of view?

[Kudaku]

In 3.5 my parties very rarely used crafting options. The XP penalties made it very unappealing to us.

After transitioning to Pathfinder however, my players are much more willing to take advantage of these feats. Scribe Scroll is very popular, as is Craft Wondrous Items and Craft Rod. Brew Potion sees use if the class gets it as a bonus feat (alchemists).

Wands, staffs, rings and magical weapons tend to be bought and sold as before rather than crafted. I think Craft Arms & Armor is viable, but it's unfortunate that it's a feat that's primarily available to the spellcasters who gain very little from it.

[Diarmuid]

For me, the limiting factor is generally the time. I dont seem to create casters or other PC's who could really make use of the item crafting in the games that have downtime. More often than not the world still needs saving, or the princess will die, or blah blah if we dont keep pressing on towards our goals.

[Red Fel]

For me, the limiting factor is generally the time. I dont seem to create casters or other PC's who could really make use of the item crafting in the games that have downtime. More often than not the world still needs saving, or the princess will die, or blah blah if we dont keep pressing on towards our goals.

I think this is the key thing. In many campaigns, there simply isn't downtime for crafting. XP penalties and other crafting costs can be mitigated or offset, but time is time, and you don't always have it. I can think of maybe two campaigns I've been in which gave us the time to craft.

Personally, I don't like playing crafter classes. They tend to be feat-intensive as well as time-intensive, and I prefer to spend my feats becoming a melee beast. (But see my sig for a handbook that says you don't have to choose.)

[JohnnyCancer]

My group was playing Shackled City (a published adventure for 3.5) with Pathfinder rules. Because XP wasn't a limiting factor, we crafted extensively. First it was just my wizard doing the work, but we eventually took over a dungeon that had some features that allowed everyone to get in on the act. We ended up well above WBL and had the purely RP benefit of looking like a cohesive, uniformed team rather than a group of clowns who were dressed by a tornado in a thrift store.

[unseenmage]

I play crafters in my games. Sure they're not damage dealers but they know stuff about stuff. Thing about crafting, if you can make it you can generally UN-make it; which I tend to take advantage of when possible.

The time constraint thing can be a hassle for DMs though so I try to make it clear before play that I'm looking to craft.
Crafters tend to be better for the socioeconomic politics games more than the kick-in-the-door save-the-princess game. I agree with that.

[Psyren]

We're generally allowed to craft one item between sessions (aside from potions and some other consumables, we can make multiples of those). Our DM has been kind enough to provide artisans with the crafting feats so we don't have to take them, but all proposed items have an approval process. Custom/combined items are allowed but they may have a drawback added to them.