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Twisted shroud
2008-04-26, 08:32 PM
Do any of you take any feats like scribe scroll or craft wonderous item? I just think they seem to be a waste of a feat and xp. However I want to see if there are any other opinions on these feats. Please post your thoughts.

Crow
2008-04-26, 08:35 PM
I have players who take Craft Wonderous Item, and Brew Potion. Scribe Scroll is usually free with the wizard.

But I also don't have "Magic Shoppes" in my games. That pretty much makes those feats valuable as hell.

Jack_Simth
2008-04-26, 08:45 PM
Do any of you take any feats like scribe scroll or craft wonderous item? I just think they seem to be a waste of a feat and xp. However I want to see if there are any other opinions on these feats. Please post your thoughts.
Definitely - they're rather valuable.

The XP you catch up on without too much hassle - you're going to be a level behind for a single session every now and again, but when you're a level behind, you get XP faster. The XP cost doesn't matter, in the long run.

You spend gold Crafting... but it is half as much as you'd spend buying it outright. You can have twice the equipment when you go adventuring this way. A +4 Cloak of Resistance instead of +3; a +6 Headband of Intellect/Peripat of Wisdom instead of +4; +7 Bracers of Armor rather than +5, and so on.

You can technically craft while on adventure - when you run out of daily resources and call a rest, you need 8 hours sleep, an hour to prepare spells, but as you generally call a rest after less than an hour in a dungeon, you've got quite a lot of time for other stuff - like Crafting, which takes 8 hours a day. Rest up, and you have a new wand of Cure Light Wounds (assuming you brought some supplies with you to do it...).

Ye Oldde Magjickque Shoppe Inc., isn't available in all campaigns - when it's not, Crafting is the only sure-fire way to get exactly what you want.

TheDright
2008-04-27, 12:42 AM
Not every magic shop (if there is a magic shop) will have all of the items that the party wants. Sure, you could probably find some +1 or +2 armor with a little bit of work, but +5 armor probably isn't going to be on every shop shelf, due to high cost and caster requirements. Some are just obscure, so no one (except a PC) would have any use for it.

TheOOB
2008-04-27, 01:45 AM
Scribe scroll is useful, your wizard and cleric can't possibly prepare every spell that they might need every day. Spells such as comprehend languages, knock, and spider climb all make great scrolls. As do spells like teleport, dimension door, and invisibility which you might need at a moment's notice and can't risk being caught without. Plus a few scrolls can help make your UMD rogue feel a little more useful.

Craft wonderous item is downright amazing. There are tons of wonderous items, many of which are exceeding powerful and useful, and most of which don't use an equiptment slot. This feat allows you the ability to pretty much do whatever you can. You get more from this one feat then almost any other.

Craft Magical Arms and Armor I never found much use for. Unless your GM is really stingy about handing out the magic weapons (which ruins what little game balance there is) all the people who need magic weapons will have them.

Craft rod and forge ring are a little to limited for my taste.

Wands are okay...I guess. Most spells you would want to be able to cast 50 times require a saving throw, which makes them kinda useless as wands, but they do have some benefit, especially if you have a UMD rogue. Staves on the other hand rock hard.

As for potions, I could take them or leave them...usually leave them. Aside from a few healing potions, most spells are better cast by the caster then ingested by a non caster. Sure it's nice having a few potions of invisibility and expeditous retreat for those dangerous situations, but potions are all low level and you can usually find them for sale in most settings.

Crow
2008-04-27, 03:47 AM
Brew Potion is nice for "Healers" who aren't healers by trade at low levels. Druids for example, or if your group is really hard up, Bards. Both those classes probably have something else they want to do with their spell slots. Even clerics to some degree.

Brewing some potions and distributing them amongst the group between adventures is a nice option. You can also brew up some decent low-level buff potions so the group can buff themselves as well. That way, you can go ahead and dominate while they waste time buffing, instead of the other way around!


"Hey, I need a heal!"
"Heal your damn self, slacker."

Suropej
2008-04-27, 12:07 PM
You can use the crafter feats to make your own "special" items too.

As long as the DM approves what you want to do and you have "appropriate" spells you can make anything you want. In the Races of the Dragon there's a refridgerator-type item that preserves perishable foodstuffs.

I'd take that as a go-ahead to start designing my own items of whatever I want.

Chronos
2008-04-27, 01:08 PM
Remember that only one character in the party needs any particular feat. For instance, if the wizard has Craft Wand, he can collaborate with the cleric to create wands of Cure Light Wounds. So a little featage can go a long way.

nargbop
2008-04-27, 01:28 PM
The only one worth taking IMO is Craft Wondrous Item. There's an enormous array of body slots to fill as well as UNSLOTTED items, allowing you and your friends to have all sorts of nice helpful magical effects on.
CWI is still very limiting compared to other feats like Spell Focus or Natural Spell; take it if it makes sense in your campaign. I took it for my current character because I'd be in a safe city for most of the game time (WRONG, the game was about the end of the world but I didn't know it), and now I scramble to put three days together at an appropriate forge. My DM goes with flexible rules on crafting and leaves magical forges which make it cheaper hidden in ruins.

mostlyharmful
2008-04-27, 02:56 PM
Just noticed that there's two crafting feats threads active and this is the big one so I'll toss my 2CPs onto here as well

My high level NPC casters usually take Craft Rod, all my casters do. Metarods are just too good not to and I always use the houserule that if you made it or someone in the group made it then only its cost to craft counts against WBL, that alone makes crafting a viable build choice.
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