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Jack_Simth
2008-04-20, 02:08 PM
Hey Fred? How the heck did you make that ring of Protection for me? There's no way you could cast the required Shield of Faith spell....

Well... there's ways around that....

Inventive Crafter
Requirements: Caster Level 6, any item creation feat
Benefit: When making any magic item that is not a spell-trigger or spell-completion item, you may ignore the spell requirements by adding drawbacks. For each required spell ignored, select one drawback from the following list; if you have a magical writing of the required spell (such as a scroll of the spell, or a copy of the spell in a Wizard's spellbook), the drawback has reduced severity (in parenthesis in most cases). Utilizing a magical writing in this manner does not use up the magical writing like crafting normally would, and the same magical writing can be used on each day of crafting. Not all options are available for all types of items, and you cannot select any one drawback more than once for a given item:

1) Increase material and XP costs by 20% (10%).
2) Increase Crafting time by 100% (50%)
3) When the item is activated, there is a 10% (5%) chance that nothing happens; this is only available for items that have to be specifically triggered by the user (such as Boots of Teleportation, or a Ring of Invisibility; you may not select this drawback for automatic items such as a Cloak of Resistance or a +1 Bane(Dragon) sword).
4) The item is temporary, and will run out in a year (two years); this is not available for items that get used up (such as Potions or a Brooch of Shielding), but only for normally permanent items (such as a Cloak of Resistance or a Helm of Teleportation).
5) The item requires a second item to be of any use; the second item takes up an item slot of the Crafter's choice and has no other benefit (so that Ring of Telekinesis might require you be wearing a particular shirt that uses up your Vest slot, or the Goggles of Night might require you wear a particular helmet). If you have a magical writing with the required spell, you can enchant the useless item with a property normally associated with that type of item with a 50% increase in cost (as though it were a secondary ability).
6) The item has half of the normal hardness and hit points (75%); this is only available for swords and shields.
7) The item only has 50% of the normal charges for the item (75%), round down; this is only available for items that either have a finite number of uses but can be used more than once (such as a Ring of the Ram or a Scarab of Protection, but not a Potion of Cure Light) or a limit on use per day that's above single-use (such as Boots of Teleportation or Boots of Speed, but not a Cape of the Monteback or a Circlet of Blasting).
8) The item has a 2% (1%) chance per use of exploding for 1d6 untyped damage per caster level of the item in a 20-foot radius spread every time it is invoked; this explosion destroys the item in the process. This is only available for normally permanent items that are specifically activated (such as a Cape of the Monteback or a Chime of Interruption, but not for a +3 Sword or a Feather Token).

Each drawback other than 1 or 2 (which do not affect the market price of the item) applied to an item reduces it's sale price by 20% (10%, for the reduced severity ones), but does not alter the cost of creation.

For example, Fred the Sorcerer wants to craft a Helm of Telepathy. He's got a captured spellbook with Suggestion in it, but he doesn't have access to Detect Thoughts at all. He's short on cash, so he tinkers with it for a lot longer than normal, and comes up with something; he spends 13,500 gp and 1,080 to craft it, but takes his time (option 1) for not having Detect Thoughts, but he's not quite careful enough when he's applying the Suggestion aspect, leaving it with a slight chance of blowing up every time it's used (option 8, magical writing available, so 1% chance of exploding for 5d6 damage in a 20 foot radius every time he uses it). If he ever decides to sell it, it's got a market price of 24,300 gp.

Normal: You must cast the spell requirements for each day of item crafting, or have someone collaborate who can cast the spell requirements.


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My own thoughts on balance:
1) Most magic items' balance comes from their costs to create - which this leaves primarily unchanged. It skips the inconvenience of casting the specifically required spells but adds other drawbacks.
2) A wizard can learn spells from scrolls, but this will not let a Wizard skip spell requirements for such - the Wizard must still be able to cast the spell to make a scroll or wand of it. This feat does not get around that.


Anyone else have any thoughts on the balance of this feat?


Original feat Text:
Inventive Crafter
Requirements: Caster Level 6, any two item creation feats, Spellcraft 9 ranks
Benefit: When making any magic item that is not a spell-trigger or spell-completion item, you may ignore the spell requirements by doubling the crafting time. If you have magical writings on hand that match the spell requirements, you only increase the crafting time by 50 percent, rather than doubling it (this does not use up magical writings, such as scrolls). You still must meet any other requirements, and pay the standard gold and xp costs. For example, if Fred wanted to make a +2 Cloak of Resistance, but did not know the Resistance spell, with this feat, Fred could spend 8 days, rather than the normal 4, to craft it. If he has a scroll of Resistance handy, he could do so in six. He could not, however, craft a Wand of Resistance (as that is a spell-trigger item).
Normal: You must cast the spell requirements for each day of item crafting, or have someone collaborate who can cast the spell requirements.

Eighth_Seraph
2008-04-20, 02:58 PM
I like it; especially valuable to sorcerers that are willing to spend three feats on item creation. I'm still haven't decided if two item creation feats is too much, but I definitely like the idea.

Jack_Simth
2008-04-20, 03:07 PM
I like it; especially valuable to sorcerers that are willing to spend three feats on item creation. I'm still haven't decided if two item creation feats is too much, but I definitely like the idea.
That was my main inspiration, yes; it's also useful for Wizards, Clerics, and Druids, as there are items that require spells not on their lists, but it is designed primarily for Sorcerers who want to make a major investment in crafting. Hence making the requirement target 6th level, rather than 5th.

dman11235
2008-04-20, 03:12 PM
Hey, I have a sorcerer that might want to take it, and he's specialized in blasting. Heavy MM feat blasting (oh yeah, Incantatrix).

watsyurname529
2008-04-20, 03:38 PM
Okay, I definately like the idea of the feat and it is written quite well. First if you have the scroll of the required spell, you can craft the item like normal, as it says in the DMG p.282 "...take the form of spells that must be known by the item's creator (although access through another magic item or spell caster is allowed)" i.e. Scrolls could work.

That being said, you probably could allow the prereq of only one item creation feat although I might make the item cost a slight bit more (around 10%) in either XP or GP if only one prereq is used, you'd probably have to play test it.

Anyway, I do like the feat.

Jack_Simth
2008-04-20, 04:15 PM
Okay, I definately like the idea of the feat and it is written quite well. First if you have the scroll of the required spell, you can craft the item like normal, as it says in the DMG p.282 "...take the form of spells that must be known by the item's creator (although access through another magic item or spell caster is allowed)" i.e. Scrolls could work.

By default, scrolls (or wand/staff charges) can work - but there's a catch; you expend one casting for each day of crafting. So that Cloak of Resistance +2 (4,000 gp -> 4 days to craft) would require four scrolls of Resistance. This isn't much of a problem for items such as a Cloak of Resistance, but when you get to items that require higher level spells (such as a Portable Hole and Plane Shift), you end up spending more on the scrolls than you would on the item (a Clerical Plane Shift is a 5th level spell - scroll markets for 1,125 gp - and you need 20 of them; a Portable Hole costs 20,000 gp, market; when you tack on crafting materials, you spend a bit over 30,000 gp to make a 20,000 gp item).

My homebrew feat gives a few more options:
If you can't find the spell, you can still make it, it just takes twice as long.
If you can only find one copy of the spell, you can still make it, it just takes 50% longer than normal.


That being said, you probably could allow the prereq of only one item creation feat although I might make the item cost a slight bit more (around 10%) in either XP or GP if only one prereq is used, you'd probably have to play test it.

But you agree, at least, that as it stands, it's useful, and something you'd look at, but it's not an overpowered no-brainer when available?

If so, then I've at least hit the right ballpark.

Edit: Still, it is thematic... perhaps selectable issues...


Anyway, I do like the feat.
Good to hear.