Sorcerer Spider's page

The belt EITHER increases the stat to 18 OR gives +2 on the stat - and I think the other benefits are at least interesting

and the slippers, well they can be used more often but not as often in a single go, so depending on the circumstances i would say they are usually better (the new ones)

Well blow me down. I actually never saw that. Been using it wrong for years.

I won't lie. I'm a huge fan of how wondrous and magic items were such a huge ubiquitous part of 1st ed. Belts, headbands and so on were bread and butter to most characters. If you needed an item to make a character fit an idea, there was likely an item to do that.

And... I can't help but notice all the non-consumable magic items in the playtest kinda suck. They either are completely underpowered for their supposed "item level" or plainly don't provide any real benefit for when you'd likely afford or be given one in the game. Price is also a huge hurdle for them.

For example, let's look at a good old belt. Any stat-improving belt is super expensive. Granted, they now adjust your stat to be an 18, but odds are if you wanted a belt to boost a key stat, this is pretty useless. I guess it helps multiclass characters, but again, odds are you picked favorable stats for that already.

Another favorite of mine are the Slippers of Spider Climb. Being Spider-Man is fun, even if they're now a little pricey. But unlike before, the slippers don't just work all the time. Nope. They work for 1 minute every 10 minutes. I can understand wanting to limit 2.5D and 3D movement, but considering they weren't that helpful in 1st ed combat, why limit them here? Better hope Cloak of Arachnida makes it in the final 2nd ed and has an upgraded version like Cloak of the Bat does.

Lastly is the complete lack of custom magic items. You just straight up can't make anything custom. That really sucks.

So, under the crafting rules, you must spend at least 4 days crafting an item of your level, with a day less for every level you exceed the item's level.

IF you want to finish the item right away after those days, you need to spend the remaining half of the item's market price; making crafting it cost the SAME as buying it! (which kinda makes this option suck)

OR you can spend additional days crafting, reducing the remaining price by an SP value equal to what a character of your level and proficiency can do in a day. BUT... That means you're reducing a cost frequently measured in GP by SP, you know, 1/10th the value you're trying to reduce. Mind you that consumables don't quite have this issue, since they're usually priced in SP anyway.

BUT... If you're crafting pretty much anything over 100gp and you're level 15 or less, you'll be working on it for a while. Making it really undesirable to do this.

Particularly in the case of most of the formerly "Wondrous Items" which cost 1000s of gp, you've basically retired that character. What started as a simple crafting project has now become a doctorate degree level life's work (if you're trying to actually save any money by crafting).

Again, I feel the need to point out that many of these formerly "Wondrous Items" need a high LV to even be able to craft them, but aren't particularly useful by that point, let alone enticing to wait that long for them.

Yes, a 15th level character can make a 4000gp item in a month or less (if their craft proficiency is high), but does a 15th level character even need what they made by then? Meanwhile a 7th level character spends nearly a whole year making even a 1000gp item! And forget about doing anything so ambitious before lv7.

Again, you could just spend the remaining money to finish right away, but that really completely ruins the whole point of crafting if you're just going to end up paying market price anyway.

Strike this post. I misread the table. Formulas are priced in SP, not GP.

Ok, so if I've read the rules correctly, you can buy a Formula of any item level at any character level (provided you have money) but can only craft an item of your character level or lower.

So the problem is this: (just as an example)
Ring of Climbing costs 1750gp and is a 12th lv item
Its formula would cost 1000gp
Crafting needs half the market cost of 1750gp as 875gp

SO if you only needed the one, it'd be a full 125gp MORE than just buying one at market price.

And this seems to be a common problem with crafting anything in the playtest; nevermind that you need to also be a Lv12 character to even craft it in the first place, which would likely mean climbing should be the least of your character concerns.

Another example:
Cloak of the Bat costs 660gp and is a 9th lv item
Its formula would cost 350gp
Crafting needs half the market cost of 660gp as 330gp
Which again means that crafting only one costs 20gp MORE than marketprice.

And again, a 9th level character would probably have far more easy means of temporary flight.

Another issue is that crafting requires you to spend at least 4 days to "prepare" to craft an item equal to your level, with 1 less day for every level you are higher than what you're making.

BUT if you want to finish the item right away at the end of those days, you spend THE REMAINDER of the item's market cost. Meaning you've spent exactly what you would to straight up just buy one from a store... Except you also had to buy that Formula! So, you spent MORE.

OR you can continue to work on the item and reduce the remaining half of the item's market cost by the value of SP your character would make in progress on crafting the item per day, up to only the half you already spent... Except you also had to buy the Formula! Which, as shown above still means you spent MORE than just buying one from a store.

(Nevermind that most of the "good" magic items can only be crafted at a level higher than when it'd be fun to have them, making them provide negligible benefit.)

Forgive me for reviving a franken-thread, but I thought it might be better than making what would be a duplicate question.

My question is about the prerequisite for Arcane Deed: Flamboyant Arcana. (WARNING: Logic argument follows)

Flamboyant Arcana gives you Opportune Parry & Riposte and even goes so far as to restate the fact that if you have at least 1 panache remaining after spending the point for the parry, you get a free riposte as an immediate action.

Flamboyant Arcana, by itself, makes ZERO mention that you are not considered to have "at least 1 panache remaining". As said above, it actually even restates the bonus effect of Opportune Parry & Riposte (in the Arcana's own entry, no less), which requires that you do have that panache remaining.

AND, remember, it's the prerequisite for Arcane Deed. Which means you get access to a deed with a bonus effect dependent on your remaining pool points BEFORE a later deed-granting arcana says you are not considered to have pool points remaining for deeds with additional effect requiring remaining pool points.

Meaning if you only ever took Flamboyant Arcana, you'd never-ever know about this problem until someone says "Nah-uh! You can't do that!". So my question is... Can't you? Since, you know, the restriction comes in a later arcana?

If you do not take Arcane Deed, which imposes a restriction, are you in fact considered to have pool points remaining for Flamboyant Arcana's Opportune Parry & Riposte?

As Flamboyant Arcana by itself does not make any mention of such a restriction.