House rules for magic item creation

[tedcahill2]

Straightforward request, do you use the core rules for magic Item creation? Or have or do you have House rules that you use?

I've played games where the party agrees to pool some XP from each encounter for item creation use. Other times we just allow the caster to use the XP of the character requesting the item.

[Darth Ultron]

Houserules:


Mundane Magic Item Crafting: At 3rd level all non spellcasting classes gain the Create Magic Item Ability. This ability allows them to take magic item creation feats. They may pick one at 3rd level and one more every three levels. Magic item creation is essentially unchanged from the way a spell caster does it. Except that the spell need not be cast by them, or they can drain the spell from a scroll or magic item(destroying the item in the posses).



Magic Item Creation

All magic items need three components: Mundane, Rare and Exotic.
*The mundane component is simply the physical form of the object. It must be made out of special materials to hold the magic.
*The rare component is something that locks the magic effect into the item. This is most often a creature part, but can be any physical thing.
*The exotic component is not physical thing, it is a process. It is what needs to be done to finish the item. It is a process of what to do at a set time and maybe place.

As the caster level increases, so does the hardness of the components. A 5CL item might only need oak wood, but a 10CL item might need 100 year old oak wood, and a 15CL item might need 100 year old oak wood that has been struck by lightning. A rare component that is a creature part is must be from a creature of HD at least equal to the CL. After 10 CL, many items get extreme rare components, such as a daisy steeped on by a dragon at midnight. Proses get harder as CL's go up. At 5CL the item might just have to be made at night. 10 CL on a high mountain in the winter, and 15CL and above often have a exact location like the ''Fire Pit of Doom''.

Some components are set, but most change depending on the time. A character must research what components are needed, or otherwise gain the information. Or optionally, the character can simply self experiment to know the right components. A set of components only remains valid for roughly three months, then they will change.

A Knowledge(Arcane or Divine, as appropriate) check can be made anywhere the character can do research, with a DC of 10, plus the caster level of the item. Divination magic can also be used. Self Experimentation requires a full hour with the component in question, and a primary spellcasting ability check of 10 plus the caster level of the item(Mundanes use whatever ability of Int, Wis or Chr is highest). Each component, mundane, race and exotic must be checks separately.

[Khedrac]

The main house-rule we use is that anyone can supply the xp for an item - so when making items specifically for a party member they pay the xp cost.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Standard rules plus this (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060526a) for my table.

[weckar]

Other than that the Artificer's 'Retain Essence' ability is made available as a feat (prereq: at least 1 Craft Feat) and that the Artificer himself gets to pick any Craft feat for which they have the simulated caster level (rather than the set list)... I guess we play it mostly by the book.

[Fizban]

Standard Magic Item Compendium (gp and xp paid up front, one day at a time, one item at a time, no special ability required for collaboration), plus any contributor can pay xp for crafting-this effectively means the non-caster shows up to dump xp on the first day and is clear after that, and a bit more:

Potions of Cure spells use 15gp instead of 50gp to determine their price. Potions worth 100gp or less may be brewed in 1 hour, and 1st level potions at CL 1st may be brewed in vats at 1,000gp per day.
Scrolls worth 100gp or less may also be scribed in 1 hour.
Staves must have a minimum of two spells and one of them must cost 1 charge per use.
Scepters (LEoF) are allowed to have a single spell at 2 charges per use if desired (allowing one to effectively craft a 25 charge spell trigger item)

DMG2 bonding rituals also exist, I'd probably change one or two and want to add some more if a player showed interest, and they're useful as a tool for managing loot dis-acquisition even if players don't want to use them.

I do like the article Kelb linked, an effective 20% discount if you pay the xp yourself when commissioning an item. Useful if your players need a bit more fluidity but don't have the right crafting feats. Not as important if you're using bonding rituals since the ritual is cheaper and usually faster, aside from producing a non-transferable effect.

[Pugwampy]

I use my own rules . To me its the time factor and exp loss in the book rules that spoil your fun .

Half the gold for components
Must know the spell or close enough
Takes one session or in session if for some reason DM allows ingame downtime .
Must have the feat .
no XP loss

I am bit picky on spell descriptions . I would skip the permanent spell .

Take a lvl 1 someone who has the feat and knows mage armour spell . I would allow that he could make an up to +4 magic armour per session assuming he can afford it .

Something like magic weapon I would only allow him to be able to make a +1 magic weapon until he learns greater magic weapon spell .

If crafter wants a say +1 lightning sword . I would require a +2 item components price . A shocking grasp and magic weapon spells .


I think thats rather reasonable . I take burning feats very serious and if you burnt a feat for create magic weapon / armour I expect you to have fun and profit from it . It wont hurt me since no player could afford to craft a magic +4 fullplate at level one.

[Buufreak]

My games tend to have little down time, so I'm a fan of crafting points from UA to help speed things up.

[Telok]

I had one in one game where crafting cost no xp but had other requirements. There was one special ingredient plus another ingredient per... 5000 gp value? But the value of the ingredient counted towards the cost. Then you had to ritually burn silver to seal the magic in, the cost was half the value of the item. Then a craft skill check with a decent, non-trivial (unless you sank some decent resources into skill boosters), DC. This applied to permanent magic items, not stuff that ran out of charges. The upshot was that magic items (not counting potions, scrolls, wands, and the like) cost about 50% more and looted magic was more important.

My next setting I'm playing around with removing the xp costs again, keeping a decent craft check and one special ingredient, and the Permanency spell is on all lists and is required to seal the magic in. Add in that no item can be made at a caster level less than the level of the feat that makes it, so all rings are CL 12+ and such. And since a magic apocalypse in the past made the whole world slightly wild magic there's a 01% chance of a surge when casting 5th level spells.