Help understanding Magic Item Creation.


Advice


I plan on playing a Scarred Witch Doctor in an upcoming campaign, and we will be starting at level 6.

At 5th level the Scarred Witch Doctor can add magical abilities to her mask as if she had "Craft Wondrous Item." I understand everything up to here, but this is where I get confused.

So, let us say that I want to add the ability to cast Mage Armor on demand to my Fetish Mask. So, use activated or continuous Mage Armor would cost me Spell level × caster level × 2,000 gp with the cost multiplied by 1.5 due to the spell's duration of 1 hour/level.

Now, how do I determine my Caster Level for this spell? Do I choose it? Mage Armor is a 1st level spell, and as a witch I have access to those from level 1. Would that mean continuous mage armor would cost me 3k?

Is it my current level, that would be 12k gp...which doesn't make sense to me since Mage Armor is a first level spell and I am creating a continuous magic item. Mage Armor only improves in duration as time passes, so the difference between a 1st level caster and a 6th level caster is just wasted money.

I ask because I know that you can create Wands of a lower caster level than you personally cast the spell at, so I was wondering if that was true of any crafting or specifically wands.

I am honestly kind of clueless and trying to figure out how to use my class ability effectively. Any help is appreciated.


ShroudedInLight wrote:
how do I determine my Caster Level for this spell?

You may pick any number from the minimum required to actually cast that spell to your current Caster Level.


Thank you! That isn't spelled out very clearly but I was hoping that was the case.

Now I just need to figure out the best things to add to my fetish mask!

Grand Lodge

Mage Armor, if your GM is paying attention, wouldn't be a good option, as he will set the price for a continuous Mage Armor effect to 16,000, or a cost to craft of 8,000, as it would be functionally identical to Bracers of Armor +4.

Better option, really, is to actually go to the list of Wondrous Magic Items, and see what would be useful from that list, that would be appropriate for applying to your mask.


Meh, at a solid level you can leave the at-will part and go for something like 2-3/d to cut the cost. With an hour per level 10-15 hours a day should be enough to cover most adventuring time and you won't be going into the continuous territory

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