So, I've been thinking about ways to crunch down on crafting items, as there have been several threads of late detailing how slow or clunky the crafting system is, so I'd prefer to create a Wizard of sorts who can craft very effectively (i.e. craft fast and have the high enough skill bonuses to do so).
For this purpose, let's presume he's not going to be directly associated with Combat (not technically accurate, but irrelevant, though he will have access to spells for fulfilling those pre-requisites). Let's also presume PFS Standards (such as 20 point buy, 2 traits, all that fun stuff). Here's a rough draft of what I can expect him to accomplish:
Human Wizard - Foresight School(?) (Valet Familiar)
Strength - 7
Dexterity - 8
Constitution - 10
Wisdom - 9
Intelligence - 20 (18 + 2)
Charisma - 16
Traits - Hedge Magician, Unblemished Barrel(?)
Feats (* = Bonus)
1. Racial Heritage (Dwarf)*, Scribe Scroll*, Cooperative Crafting
3. Craft Wondrous Item
5. Arcane Builder (Wondrous Items)*, Craft Magic Arms and Armor
7. Forge Ring
9. Craft Rod
10. Arcane Builder (Weapons)*
11. Craft Staff
13. Craft Wand
15. Arcane Builder (Armor)*, Brew Potion
17. Skill Focus (Spellcraft)
19. Prodigy (Craft [Weapons], Craft [Armor])
20. Immortality (because why not?)
Skills: 2 (base) + 5 (Int) + 1 (Human) = 8 Skill Points/level
Favored Class Bonus: 2 Skill Points, 18 Dwarf FCB (4 CWI, 4 CMA&A, 4 FR, 3 Craft Rod, 3 Craft Staff).
Spellcraft MAX
Craft (Weapons) MAX
Craft (Armor) MAX
Craft (Ring) MAX
Craft (Bow) MAX
Craft (Traps) MAX
Craft (Alchemy) MAX
Use Magic Device MAX
Appraise 1
Perception 1 (because why not?)
So, starting out by 2nd level, he will have access to all forms of generic crafting. His bonus will be 2 + 3 + 5 = 10 to each of these crafts (plus Appraise); Craft (Weapons) and Craft (Alchemy) will be 1 higher because of the trait. UMD will be at 8. Put 1 point into Perception, just because. Each level, the Crafts (as well as UMD) will increase by 1.
Fast-foward it to, say, 12th level. At this point, he can create any sort of item except Wands and Potions (they're kind of meh anyway), i.e. any permanent item you're planning to make. We're looking at approximately 12 + 3 + 7 = +22 to the craft check.
For crafting, I thought about doing the Foresight school, based on this power here:
At the beginning of your turn, you may, as a free action, roll a single d20. At any point before your next turn, you may use the result of this roll as the result of any d20 roll you are required to make. If you do not use the d20 result before your next turn, it is lost. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
From what I read, you can roll a D20 to determine a result before you have to actually make the craft check. This means that you can choose to either take this roll when you make the crafting check, or you can just roll again and accept that result (although it might be worse). If I'm wrong and it doesn't work that way, then it'd be best to stick to the generic Divination school, as the Diviner's Fortune ability is pretty powerful, being able to add up to +10 to the crafting check is really nice.
Next comes the more difficult part: Configuring important magic items to craft with, your total results, and how long it would take to craft a given item. So here's some of the basics this character will probably have:
Goggles of Elvenkind. This provides a +5 Competence bonus to identifying items via Spellcraft. Not exactly gamebreaking, but this can help with identifying some of those extremely powerful Endgame items. They are 8,500 gold in price.
Assisting Gloves. For those days your familiar is dead, on sabbatical, absolutely hates your guts, or for whatever reason you can't get a helper, these gloves will provide you with an Aid Another bonus that you couldn't normally receive. 180 gold in price, but also disposable.
Gloves of Shaping. These strange pair of gloves priced at 10,000 gold, according to its description, allows you to carve metal (not Adamantine, sorry) as if it were wood. Who said steel (or even Mithril) bows couldn't be possible?
Miser's Mask. This helm, priced at 3,000 gold, provides a +5 bonus to the Appraise skill to determine gems.
Bracers of Steadiness. These wrists priced at 2,000 gold and provide a +5 Competence Bonus to the check if it is done with a Take 20. Not the greatest, but when you're a crafting lord with all of this time in the world...
Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone provides +1 Competence Bonus to Skill Checks. Priced at 30,000 Gold.
Luckstone provides +1 Luck Bonus to Skill Checks. Priced at 20,000 Gold.
Lord's Banner of Victory provides a +2 Morale Bonus to Skill Checks as long as it's mounted and in plain view. A great decorative piece, but is an expensive 75,000 Gold.
Traveler's Anytool(s) count as Masterwork Tools for associated Crafts. Costing 250 each, they provide a +2 Bonus to relevant Craft checks (meaning a +2 Bonus to every Craft check is plausible as long as you have them configured properly). This can feasibly apply to Spellcraft as well, and for simplicity purposes, let's presume it does.
Cauldron of Brewing provides a +5 Competence Bonus to Craft (Alchemy) checks, and costs 3,000 Gold.
Obvious Headbands that provide +6 to Intelligence and Charisma (for UMD), and Manuals which provide +5 to Intelligence and Charisma.
Amazing Tools of Manufacture is a 12,000 Gold item that applies a +4 Circumstance bonus to a specific Craft check (determined at creation), and allows the creation of 2,000 gold's worth of mundane items in a matter of 1 hour. A must-have for every craft, and it's suggested to carry at least 2 of each generic type.
That's about all I could skim from the hardcovers; feel free to link more if I missed any.
An Alchemy check receives an extra +4 Competence bonus, as well as a +1 Trait Bonus, putting it at a whopping 48.
Magical Armor checks are made at +51, due to Arcane Builder. Magical Swords are made at +53, due to Arcane Builder and Trait.
If Valet Familiar found ways to increase its Aid Another for Skill Checks, the Aid Another bonuses via Cooperative Crafting would be amplified even further, though it can certainly become a crafter in its own right, as it shares the same crafting feats as Bob.
The most difficult (and probably most inaccurate) part is determining the crafting time for each subject. This is also where our FCB comes in. Normally, I'd try to put as much into the Dwarf FCB as much as possible, but I would be forced to apply it to Scribe Scroll, meaning I cannot feasibly select it for 1st and 2nd level, and you cannot retrain FCBs...anyway...
Mundane: This is perhaps the most complicated, as you have to calculate in silver, not gold, the price at which you progress, and is personally not recommended to start with for sanity's sake. Thankfully, this is solved with the Amazing Tools of Manufacture, which give us a guaranteed 2,000 Gold crafting within 1 hour, assuming we're doing this on a more constant basis (and we run out of Fabricate spells). Additonally, the Fabricate spell can allow the crafting of basic items into a matter of 6 seconds, such as Full Plate, Bows, etc. as long as the materials are provided. You could even create Metal Bows through this process as long as you have the Gloves of Shaping.
Magical: 1,000 (base) + 600-800 (FCB) X 2 (+5 DC Hastily Crafted) X 2 (Cooperative Crafting). This means we can create 4,000 Gold's worth of Magic per day normally, but if we factor in our FCB, which applies to Weapons and Armor, Wondrous Items, Rings, Staves, and Rods we're looking at 6,400 gold (Staves and Rods) or 7,200 gold (other stuff). We also know that Arcane Builder improves our overall crafting speed by 25% with the selected items, which means we can create ~9,000 gold's worth of armor, weapons, and wondrous items per day.
So, a basic Boots of Speed at CL 20 (for 20 rounds of Haste), assuming no actual pre-requisites are met and you wish to rush, requires a DC 35 check, and it's done in 3 days. With a ~+40 into Spellcraft, even rolling a 1 does not result in failure. Taking 10 puts us at ~50 for the check, meaning you could take up to 3 more failed pre-requisites before having to actually roll for it.
Similarly, crafting Full Plate requires a DC 19 check to accomplish properly. By 1st level, you could take 10 and safely craft Full Plate in standard time, which would make the Fighters and Paladins cry.
That concludes my synopsis and input. If anyone else has anything to add or critique, please feel free to post a suggestion.
**EDIT** Provided band-aid to wall-of-text syndrome post was plagued with. Better, but not cured.
The foresight/prescience ability specifies before the end of your next turn. As such, many GMs will say it doesn't work on a check spanning the work of several hours. Can I suggest Arcanamirium Crafter instead? +2 on all crafting checks and a free item creation feat, plus you don't have to deal with an opposition school.
Also rather than Skill Focus & Prodigy, get Defiant Luck and Inexplicable Luck. 1/day abilities are perfect for use when crafting.
> 1,000 (base) + 600-800 (FCB) X 2 (+5 DC Hastily Crafted) X 2 (Cooperative Crafting).
If you aren't crafting in your personal demiplane with a double time speed, you are doing something wrong(Or I misunderstand how a double timespeed works). So it's not 3 days for boots of speed, it's 1.5, at least as far as anyone on the material plane is concerned.
> 1,000 (base) + 600-800 (FCB) X 2 (+5 DC Hastily Crafted) X 2 (Cooperative Crafting).
If you aren't crafting in your personal demiplane with a double time speed, you are doing something wrong(Or I misunderstand how a double timespeed works). So it's not 3 days for boots of speed, it's 1.5, at least as far as anyone on the material plane is concerned.
Was only considering the base amount. I'm sure there are other factors, which is why I asked for any input to increase the crafting amount or speed at which I can craft. I didn't really consider the Greater Demiplane, so thanks for that, though this will only be available by endgame. And to be technical, CL 20 Boots of Speed are 24,000 Gold. With being able to craft 9,000 Gold/day for Wondrous Items, I'd have it done in 2.67 days, but you are only ever allowed to work on one item per day as per the crafting rules. (It's stupid, but such is the way of balance.)
@ avr: I'm presuming you're referring to this. The bonus feat helps, but the +2 only applies if I use a Metamagic feat to create the item, which, unless it's a Rod, won't really apply.
Just as well, the Diviner's Fortune only lasts one round, so I don't think that would help, meaning this would replace it.
The Luck feats are a sound idea, since they just apply to the check (and don't have a time span), and with the bonus feat I'd receive, I could still keep the Skill Focus (Spellcraft), and I can still fill the higher level spell slots with the lower level spells, such as Fabricate, Masterwork Transformation, etc. The raw Craft skills are simply for non-magical items, i.e. Composite Bows, Full Plate, Breastplate, Greatswords, etc. that I create with those spells, all in a manner of 6 seconds.
The downside is that they only apply to one check, and one check only, which means it's only good when creating expensive magic items (which isn't a bad thing, since they can get pretty damn expensive).
Yeah, that's the IP-stripped version. My bad on missing the metamagic requirement.
By way of apology, a quick search on magic items using spellcraft found these:
Blackwick Cauldron - mass produce potions
Armillary amulet - +5 spellcraft competence bonus without conditions
Altar of Nethys - +2 spellcraft circumstance bonus, if you have a home base to do your crafting at.
If third party material is in use, than the Artisan is awesome.
For either an Artisan or a Wizard, third party has Fast Item Creation, Efficient Crafter, Craft Anywhere, and Frugal Crafting. There's also Craft Woundrous Creature for those biological crafters.
Instead of Hedge Magician, might I suggest Spark of Cr action?
Keep yourself buffed with Heroism for your workhours.
At 10min/level is can easily be kept up continously for 8 hours a day, if you memorize several of them. Or get a lesser extend rod if you dont have enough slots yet.
What are the craft skills for? Making the base items to be enchanted? For magic crafting, you can substitute spellcraft for any of those.
Yes, the standard craft skills are for making mundane items. Spellcraft allows for enchanting armor and weapons, but they require a template (i.e. the actual armor or weapon) to enchant with. The only way to make those is with the respective Craft check, and the concept of the Crafting Wizard is the ability to do it all, and do it all well.
@ AVR: Thanks for those item links. Although not exactly primary resources, they are Paizo-related, so that's always good, and they provide some very neat benefits.
@ Azten: I'd prefer not to use third party materials. It's not so much that third party is bad, this is more about being able to do so within the bounds of Paizo-specific sources.
Thanks for the Spark of Creation suggestion though, that'll help.
@ Avoron: Link to the Cyclops Helm? I might be able to use that over the Miser's Mask if it's good enough.
@ Guru-Meditation: A Lord's Banner of Victory provides that very same bonus constantly, especially when you have it framed as a picture in the main hall of your crafting facility (which means it constitutes as a constant bonus while you can see it). It is very pricy though (75,000 gold), so in the levels before that, it's nice to have a similar and much cheaper alternative.
As an aside, is there any other trait that I can use for crafting that's not Magic besides Unblemished Barrel for Craft (Alchemy) and Craft (Weapons)?
Solid piece of equipment. With the addition of the Armillary Amulet that replaces the Miser's Mask? Sold.
You must make an appropriate Craft check to fabricate articles requiring a high degree of craftsmanship.
So if I'm making something that takes months, if not years to craft, such as Full Plate or a high Strength Bow, I'm sure a Craft check will be required.
The DC for masterwork is 20 and any other Craft check will be at most 18 or 19. With one point, Int of +4, and masterwork tools, you can take ten. Edit: So you need one point if your DM makes you roll the check at all. With the Cyclops helm, you can spend your Auto-20 on that skill check if you really need to.You must make an appropriate Craft check to fabricate articles requiring a high degree of craftsmanship.So if I'm making something that takes months, if not years to craft, such as Full Plate or a high Strength Bow, I'm sure a Craft check will be required.
It'd make more sense to automatically assume you want to speed the process (because let's face it, mundane crafting is usually very damn slow, since you have to calculate in silver instead of gold, which I don't understand that rule at all), so we're looking at DC 25 to be the maximum. Sure, I could only spend 5 points in each basic craft and just assume that taking 10 would suffice, but even if I did that, I'd have 11 Skill Points/level by the time I hit the endgame. Since this character is built for nothing but crafting, I don't possibly see what else I could spend those skill points on. With the 3 additional skill points due to Headbands, quite frankly I'm sure I can spare Appraise, Profession (Merchant), and Perform (Sales Pitch). (The last one was a joke, but you get the idea.)
The DC for masterwork is 20 and any other Craft check will be at most 18 or 19. With one point, Int of +4, and masterwork tools, you can take ten. Edit: So you need one point if your DM makes you roll the check at all. With the Cyclops helm, you can spend your Auto-20 on that skill check if you really need to.You must make an appropriate Craft check to fabricate articles requiring a high degree of craftsmanship.So if I'm making something that takes months, if not years to craft, such as Full Plate or a high Strength Bow, I'm sure a Craft check will be required.It'd make more sense to automatically assume you want to speed the process (because let's face it, mundane crafting is usually very damn slow, since you have to calculate in silver instead of gold, which I don't understand that rule at all), so we're looking at DC 25 to be the maximum. Sure, I could only spend 5 points in each basic craft and just assume that taking 10 would suffice, but even if I did that, I'd have 11 Skill Points/level by the time I hit the endgame. Since this character is built for nothing but crafting, I don't possibly see what else I could spend those skill points on. With the 3 additional skill points due to Headbands, quite frankly I'm sure I can spare Appraise, Profession (Merchant), and Perform (Sales Pitch). (The last one was a joke, but you get the idea.)
I probably wouldn't get so tied up in skill points to craft skills given for the low cost of 2,000 gp you can get your maximum ranks in any skill you need by just keeping multiple Headbands of Vast Intelligence. You may want to have one or two key craft skills maxed out naturally like alchemy or something like poisonmaking so you can immediately process a monster carcass during an adventure.
It just takes 24 hours to let your weaponsmithing or tanning or sculpting Headband to attune before your PC can craft (or Fabricate craft at 9th level) like a professional. Those 11 skillpoints per level at the higher levels are better spent on skills you'll get more utility out of during an adventure....and they'll disappear quick if you max out Perception, UMD, Linguistics, Sense Motive, and the knowledge skills with a smattering leftover for a few others.
Granted, if retraining is allowed in your campaign you can reassign skill points after you obtain enough money to have more than one +2 Intelligence Headband. However, after you gain access to Fabricate and also have access to Teleport I'd recommend that you self-edit to keep the game balance from getting skewed. It is very easy to make some very expensive items via fabricate crafting (for one-third the material cost) and then turn around and sell the master crafted items for 50% (using teleport to tap into multiple metro's gp limits). Or if you fail to that temptation, use the extra money to pay for things that are 'off board' from the game itself (beyond supplying your pc with a few additional Headbands and skill enhancement items or maybe research) like castle building, charity, anything in the downtime activities section from the ultimate campaign.
- Altar of Irori: +3 untyped bonus for any skill check for which the worshiper takes 10.
- 1st level "helpful" Halfling (let's call him Igor): +4 Aid Another.
- 3rd level Human with the Bestow Luck feat: +8 untyped bonus to a d20 roll.
- Alchemical Candle Wax infused with AEther: +1 Caster Level.