boosting caster level of magic items

[the_tick_rules]

There is an item in the magic item compendium called boots of big stepping. Amongst it's benefits is boosting caster level of all teleportation spells by 2. If you also had the helm of teleportation would the boots raise it's caster level from 9 to 11? Also if you had the orange ioun stone would it boost all caster levels of magic items by 1?

[Venger]

Boots of big stepping gives you +2 cl on spells you cast with the [teleportation] descriptor. The orange ioun stone boosts your cl with all spells so it would stack. Neither of them boosts the cl of an item like the helm of teleportation because you are not casting the spell, the item is.

[the_tick_rules]

speaking of the boots of big stepping i noticed on the actual item description it says three times per day, the table at the end says once per day. I have the errata and it isn't resolved there, anyone know which is accurate.

[Psyren]

Typically, boosting your caster level doesn't affect the caster level of spells you cast from items, because those have a fixed CL at the time of creation. An exception to this is staves, which allow you to use your caster level instead of the stave's caster level if yours is higher.

[Telonius]

speaking of the boots of big stepping i noticed on the actual item description it says three times per day, the table at the end says once per day. I have the errata and it isn't resolved there, anyone know which is accurate.

Text trumps table, so 3/day would be the ruling (absent any errata).

[Venger]

Typically, boosting your caster level doesn't affect the caster level of spells you cast from items, because those have a fixed CL at the time of creation. An exception to this is staves, which allow you to use your caster level instead of the stave's caster level if yours is higher.

Do staves do that too? I thought only runestaves worked that way. Then again, after playing this game for 11 years, I've still never gotten a staff as loot, and they're too expensive to buy.

[Psyren]

Do staves do that too? I thought only runestaves worked that way. Then again, after playing this game for 11 years, I've still never gotten a staff as loot, and they're too expensive to buy.

Yep. SRD:

"Staffs use the wielder's ability score and relevant feats to set the DC for saves against their spells. Unlike with other sorts of magic items, the wielder can use his caster level when activating the power of a staff if it's higher than the caster level of the staff. This means that staffs are far more potent in the hands of a powerful spellcaster."

EDIT: Typo

[Venger]

Good to know. Pity they're so overpriced for what you get.

[Psyren]

In Pathfinder they're rechargeable, making them much more useful to supplement your loadout.

[Crake]

In Pathfinder they're rechargeable, making them much more useful to supplement your loadout.

Oh nice, I never knew that about pathfinder staves. I might adopt that change for my games, seems pretty useful, I like mechanics that let you bank up resources that you don't use in any given day.

[Falontani]

The core staves are yes, way too expensive. But the price to make a staff is the same as the price to make a wand if you only load one spell into it. So... A staff of magic missile technically costs the same as a wand of magic missile, but your dm will probably require you to craft it using your actual caster level rather than the minimum caster level like wands usually start with.
750 gold for 50 charges of magic missile that scale to your cl is a great price!

I think the best way is to make the minimum cl be the cl requirement of craft staff, or the spell, whichever is higher.

[Vaern]

The core staves are yes, way too expensive. But the price to make a staff is the same as the price to make a wand if you only load one spell into it. So... A staff of magic missile technically costs the same as a wand of magic missile, but your dm will probably require you to craft it using your actual caster level rather than the minimum caster level like wands usually start with.
750 gold for 50 charges of magic missile that scale to your cl is a great price!

I think the best way is to make the minimum cl be the cl requirement of craft staff, or the spell, whichever is higher.
Don't forget about the base cost of the masterwork staff, so 1050. You can also make it cost multiple charges to significantly cut the cost of the spell.

I think the main reason people think attracted are underpowered is because of their description. Spell A (1 charge) . Spell B (2 charges) . Nowhere in the description of staves in the magic items section, until you get to the bit about creating custom magic items, does it ever mention that staves have a pool of 50 charges to use amongst all of their spells and that the charges listed in their description are the cost to cast that particular spell from the staff.
My group once found a staff of healing that we thought was kind of useless, and we just left in the stockpile of loot on our ship for weeks in lieu of a wand of cure light wounds until I happened to be perusing the magic item creation rules one day and found out how staves actually work.

[Asmotherion]

You can, however, at any time you create an item, boost it to your maximum caster level (including temporary bonuses). This does affect the item's price, but is a great way to produce items via Wish.