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I need a clarification on a particular line from page 14 in the Jade Regent Player's Handbook. You can give a gift or an insult to an NPC once per character level Which does this mean? 1) You can give only one gift or insult total per character level.
I have my first character who is going to be spending time crafting and I have to admit that the crafting rules are making my brain melt. I've got most of it in place (the calculation of costs, etc), but there's one thing nagging at me: Caster level. I've always understood the minimum CL to make these things as "minimum level for YOUR CHARACTER to cast the spell." It gives Wizards an edge as creators, since they are the fastest to gain spell levels. But then while looking through items, I started to doubt that. For instance, let's look at the Winged Boots. They are command-word activated boots that give the user 5 minutes of Fly up to 3 times per day. They are 16000G to buy, 8000G to make. Based on the fact that the user gets 5 minutes of Fly, it seems that would correspond to the minimum caster level for Fly, a 5th-level Wizard. Now let's say we wanted to create a nearly identical item; let's call them Gloves of Fly. Going by the item creation prices, a command-word item is 1800 GP * Clvl * slvl. For a Wizard casting Fly, this is 27000. By reducing it to 3 uses per day, we multiply the cost by (3/5). Doing so, we get 16200 GP. This is in the ballpark for the buy cost listed for the boots, so the creation cost would be 8,100 GP. Close enough. Anyway, now let's consider a Sorcerer and Magus. Wizards get 3rd level spells at 5th level. They can create the gloves for 8100 G.
This means that it is 1620 G more expensive for a Sorcerer to make this minimum-level item, and 3240 G more expensive for a Magus. The only difference is that when activated, the Wizard's gloves last 5 minutes, the Sorcerer's gloves last 6 minutes, and the Magus' gloves last 7 minutes. My question: Can casters create items using a spell below their class' minimum CL for the spell if it is still equal to or greater than the minimum CL for any class to cast the spell? In other words, can a Sorcerer or Magus create these nearly-identical gloves at the minimum level of 5, giving them 5 minutes of use for each activation? If not, why not? Presumably Sorcerers and Magi can create the Winged Boots for the listed effects and 8000 G pricetag. To say they can create the Winged Boots (CL5) but not the Gloves of Fly (CL5) seems to do nothing other than limit player creativity--I'm not going to spend thousands of extra gold for a barely-better item when the CRB already has the item for far less than what I'd pay for it otherwise. I hope this all makes sense. I'm practically losing my mind over these crafting rules. I need someone to weigh in on this so I can stop obsessing about it.
I did a few searches and found no thread on the topic, so forgive me if this has already been addressed. I'm specifically curious about what one can do while maintaining a spell with a duration of "Concentration." For your typical caster, this is fairly straight-forward: They cast the spell and maintain it every round as a standard action. When they want to cast something else, they dismiss it. So let's establish what CAN be done while concentrating. Since it only costs a standard action, presumably the character can use their move and swift actions as they please so long as their actions don't cause them to fail a concentration check. So they definitely can 5-foot step or move their full move distance. Can they draw a weapon? Can they reload a light crossbow? Can they drink a potion? Now, if they can do one or all of those things, can they make Attacks of Opportunity (assuming they're equipped to do so and have the opportunity)? If not, why not? The text on concentration only dictates that a caster must spend a standard action each round to maintain his concentration, and that he cannot cast any spell while maintaining the first spell. There doesn't seem to be anything I can find that stipulates the caster cannot make attacks of opportunity. If a caster CAN make Attacks of Opportunity while maintaining concentration, where does this leave the Magus? Since the Magus can cast spells that normally take 1 Standard Action as a part of Spell Combat, does that mean that a Magus can maintain concentration while making a full attack? If not, why not? This has come up in our games and I've scoured the CRB and UM looking for an answer, but have come up empty-handed. Thoughts?
Looking at the Unarmed Fighter Archetype in Ultimate Combat, I came across an ability I wasn't sure I was reading right. Tough Guy (Ex): At 3rd level, an unarmed fighter gains DR/— equal to half his fighter level against nonlethal damage or damage taken while he is grappled. If successful, both you and the target gain the grappled condition (see the Appendices). Does this mean that the Unarmed Fighter has DR any time that he has his mitts on someone? That is to say, does he gain DR when he initiates a grapple, or is it only when he is the recipient of a grapple? If it's the former, as I'm reading it, that's a pretty compelling reason to give this archetype a try, no? |
