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View Full Version : Siberys Dragonmark of Making: Are they serious?



Tokiko Mima
2008-05-05, 02:19 AM
I was reading Eberron regarding Dragonmark Feats and their various powers. They are referred to several times as being SLA's but in one instance bafflingly described as being cast as a sorcerer spell.

My confusion is over the Siberys Mark of Making, which is basically true creation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/spells/trueCreation.htm) as an Spell-Like Ability (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#spellLikeAbilities). Normally none of the dragonmark powers are too fantastic, but this one strikes me as rather unbalanced. The balance on True Creation creating fantastically valuable items or materials is that it costs the items XP value in gold pieces to cast and takes 10 minutes to cast.

However, SLA's require no components and cost no XP. They can all generally be used with just a standard action. Therefore there's nothing stopping an individual with 2 levels in the Heir of Siberys (Mark of Making) PrC from creating ultramassive dragonshards, diamonds, bricks of gold/platinum, uranium, or whatever raw material strikes them as being valuable at the moment at no cost to themselves.

So, is there a trick to Dragonmarks, like Warlock invocations (that despite being treated as SLA's, require somatic and XP components and can take longer than a standard action to cast?) Otherwise I suggest anyone in Eberron get into the Artificer 12/ Heir of Siberys 2 game before the Eberron economy implodes.

The_Snark
2008-05-05, 02:41 AM
Spell-like abilities take the same amount of time to complete as the spell emulated does, unless something notes otherwise. In fact, it's the opposite of what you described—spell-like abilities follow the spell emulated, whereas warlock invocations are always standard actions unless the invocation (not the spell emulated) says otherwise.

As to the economy issue? You are correct, and the errata for the ECS states that the True Creation ability requires the heir to pay the appropriate XP cost anyway. Sadly, this makes Heir of Siberys rather unattractive for Canniths, but there you go.