[3.5] Feats/PrC for Item Creation

[Irreverent Fool]

I'm back and begging for more help!

I'm playing an eighth-level human wizard in a 3.5 game. To make a long story short, I've taken nothing but item creation feats so far. The DM is running the game mostly core, but she's open to outside material as long as it's run by her first. So far she hasn't vetoed anything so as long as something isn't incredibly cheesy I don't think there will be any problems.

I'm looking for suggestions for a PrC and/or feats for Item Creation. Feats so far are as follows:

{table]1(B) |Scribe Scroll
1(H)| Extraordinary Artisan
1| Legendary Artisan
3| Craft Wondrous Item
5(B)| Craft Magic Arms & Armor
6| Craft Construct[/table]

I'm not interested in any of the core item creation feats beyond what he's got so far except for Forge Ring, which my character can't take until level 12.

Any official books (Including Dragon magazine) are fair game.

At this point, there is little reason to continue advancing as a wizard as my character. He doesn't use a familiar and the bonus feats at 10, 15, and 20 don't seem like enough incentive to avoid PrCing out, but if I can't find a suitable 'artisan' PrC, I'll probably keep him as a straight wizard.

Any help is appreciated. My web searches haven't been very fruitful. If anyone knows of a full index with brief descriptions of PrCs (and feats) I'm sure I'm not the only one who would very appreciative. (Crystal Keep is missing several of the later books)

obnoxious
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[Saph]

The Forgotten Realms Player's Guide has the Magical Artisan feat, which gives a nice boost to one item creation feat (only one, though). Also it's FR-specific and you've got a bunch of Eberron stuff, don't know if that's an issue.

There are very few crafting PrCs. Effigy Master is the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

- Saph

[Asheram]

If you wanted a pure crafter, then I'm surprised that you're not playing an Artificer.

But anyhow, for a prestige class, note that I haven't played this, but I myself have been interested in the "Effigy Master" form Complete Arcane, p30.
A class that specialises in creating animal robots.

If you can get your DM to... *coughs* modify the designs a little.. then we have all the fun.

((an entire bee swarm that gives con damage.. muhahahaha.))

[Irreverent Fool]

I suppose I should have mentioned that setting-specific feats/PrCs aren't an issue either. Thanks for the Magical Artisan feat reference, Saph. I always forget to look through the FR books. I only have Crystal Keep's index on hand at the moment. Does it reduce all costs by 25% or only one of XP or gold? In either case, do you think it would stack with Legendary/Extraordinary Artisan feats which together reduce the XP and gold costs of all item creation by 25%? I wonder about this because Portal Master specifically says its reduction cannot stack with Magical Artisan.

As for not playing an Artificer, non-core classes weren't available to us initially as the DM was familiarizing herself with the system a bit more or I probably would have.

I had looked at Effigy Master, but I'm kind of on the fence about it. My character can already make effigies with the Craft Construct feat and have burned feat slots on (useful) prerequisites, so the 'you can make them without the relevant feats' feature (which really seems to be the primary appeal) is pretty much useless. Combined with the loss of a caster level... well, like I said -- I'm on the fence. Do you think the bonuses to the effigies are worth the cost?

obnoxious
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[Saph]

Magical Artisan just says it reduces 'costs' by 25%, IIRC. The most reasonable interpretation of that is to say that it reduces XP and gold, but not time. That makes it roughly on par with the Eberron feats.

I don't think there's any official ruling on how Magical Artisan interacts with Legendary/Extraordinary Artisan, since both come from different settings and thus the designers probably assumed no-one would have both. Depending on how you do the maths you can say it decreases XP and gold costs by 50%, or 43.75%. The second is probably more accurate, but makes for much more awkward arithmatic.

To be honest, Effigy Master isn't that great, but the fact is that really aren't any particularly good crafting PrC's out there, full stop. The crafter wizard I used to play just took Loremaster. You have to spend a feat on Skill Focus, but you get that feat back shortly afterwards, and the addition of Use Magic Device to your skill list makes you much better at using items.

- Saph

[Irreverent Fool]

Magical Artisan just says it reduces 'costs' by 25%, IIRC. The most reasonable interpretation of that is to say that it reduces XP and gold, but not time. That makes it roughly on par with the Eberron feats.

I don't think there's any official ruling on how Magical Artisan interacts with Legendary/Extraordinary Artisan, since both come from different settings and thus the designers probably assumed no-one would have both. Depending on how you do the maths you can say it decreases XP and gold costs by 50%, or 43.75%. The second is probably more accurate, but makes for much more awkward arithmatic.

I suppose the non-interaction makes sense. I think I'll just avoid that one then and save everyone the trouble. My character gets a roughly equal usage out of all his creation feats anyway (though getting 43.75% off of crafting some particularly powerful items would be pretty nice).

To be honest, Effigy Master isn't that great, but the fact is that really aren't any particularly good crafting PrC's out there, full stop. The crafter wizard I used to play just took Loremaster. You have to spend a feat on Skill Focus, but you get that feat back shortly afterwards, and the addition of Use Magic Device to your skill list makes you much better at using items.

- Saph

Well that's a shame. I was hoping there were a number that had simply slipped past my notice.

obnoxious
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[Irreverent Fool]

Posting twice in a row! Shame on me!

I came across the Maester from Complete Arcane page 57. It's supposed to be gnome-only and does lose a spell progression at its first level but it gains two bonus crafting feats (which would be one over the straight wizard) and the ability to craft things in half the time as well as the ability to identify items without having to scrounge up pearls or use spell slots.

...one feat, fast crafting and identify...

Meh. Nevermind

obnoxious
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[zagan]

I'm not sure that's the angle you want to go but renegade mastermaker from magic of eberron p82 could interest you.
At 10th level you become a warforged and you probably already qualifie. The prereq are, humanoide type, 8 rank in craft(armorsmithing, blacksmithing, gemcuting or sculting), Craft Magic Arms & Armor and Craft Wondrous Item.
But you lose two caster level.

edit: Forget an interesting feat for you; craft contingent spell from complete arcane page 77