wrecan's page

I've just gone through the new release, and although I've noticed a lot of changes and additions, I didn't notice that many if any of the changes were suggestions brought up in the threads on these boards, except, perhaps, the return of Skill Points.

Of course, I haven't meticulously combed through the boards, so I'm sure I missed stuff.

So I put it to the community. What differences between the two releases were first suggested here on the boards?

Note: The pages listed in the title only reference the fact that, for now, the Craft skill and Item Creation Feats are unchanged. I'd like to change them.

I have always felt that limiting magic item creation to spell casters was an inappropriate and unbalancing limitation. There is plenty of mythological basis for people who do not cast spells to manufacture magic items. For example, Regin, the smith in the saga of Sigurd the dragon slayer, makes for Sigurd a magic sword. The idea of a dwarven smith manufacturing wondrous items is almost iconic.

I also believe such a rule is unbalancing. It gives spellcasters the ability to obtain certain valuable items for 7/10ths the price (since 1 XP = 5 gp under most translations, the requirement of 50% of the base price plus 1/25th the price in XP, really translates to about a 30% discount). To make it possible for any character to manufacture magic items I propose the following rules changes.

1. Eliminate Item Creation Feats. The following feats are eliminated: Brew Potion, Craft Magic Arms And Armor, Craft Rod, Craft Staff, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item, Forge Ring, Scribe Scroll.

2. Item Creation Skills. The following new Craft skills are available: Craft (ringsmithing), Craft (rodsmithing), Craft (staffsmithing), Craft (wandsmithing), Craft (wondersmithing), which allow the craftsman to manufacture the indicated category of magic item. In addition, Craft (alchemy), Craft (armorsmithing), Craft (scribing) and Craft (weaponsmithing) allow characters to make Potions, Magic Armor, Scrolls and Magic Arms, respectively. Craft (alchemy) no longer requires the ability to cast arcane spells for proficiency. These skills are collectively known as “Item Creation Skills.” Except as provided below, they operate like any other Craft skill. There is no level requirement for obtaining proficiency in any of these skills.

3. Wizards. Note that wizards remain the best magic item crafters because Craft remains modified by one’s Intelligence bonus. Rather than the Scribe Scroll Item Creation Feat, wizards obtain a bonus proficiency in Craft (scribing) at first level. At fifth, tenth, fifteenth and twentieth level, a wizard may take either a metamagic feat, Spell Mastery, Skill Focus in any Item Creation Skill, or a bonus proficiency in any Item Creation Skill.

4. Skill DCs. Count the number of digits in the price of a magic item as set forth in gold pieces. The DC for crafting a magic item is 25 + 5/digit. I.e., a 50 gp potion requires a DC 25 crafting check. The DC will never exceed 55. It is assumed that the craftsman is always taking 20, particularly since there is no way to speed to slow down magic item crafting times. Here is a quick guide to Item Creation Skill DCs.
DC Item Price (gp)
25 1-9 (are there any magic items this cheap?!)
30 10-99
35 100-999
40 1,000-9,999
45 10,000-99,999
50 100,000-999,999
55 1,000,000+
Artifacts cannot be crafted. They are unique items whose manufacture cannot be replicated.

5. Components. Before enchanting the item, the crafter must have available three components: the masterwork component, the material component and the XP component.

Masterwork Component: Most magic items begin as nonmagical masterwork versions of the item. The crafter need not make this component, and can manufacture, purchase or otherwise obtain the nonmagic masterwork version of the item. One-shot items like potions, scrolls, elixirs and feather tokens do not require a masterwork component.

Material Component. To manufacture the item, the crafter must have available rare materials with a value equal to half the market price of the item (less the market price of any masterwork component). The DM decides how easy it is to obtain the material components for any given magic item. These items are expended during the crafting process.

XP Component. XP equal to 1/25th the market price of the item as expressed in gold pieces must be contributed. Often, the craftsman contributes the XP, but any volunteer can contribute their own. Often, adventurers commissioning items will volunteer their own XP (and obtain a price discount equal to 5 gp per XP contributed). The XP donor must be present for the entire crafting process. (There are rumors of necromancers who can forcibly take XP from people through a blood sacrifice.)

6. Skill Bonuses. Only individuals trained in the specific Item Creation Skill may use Aid Other, and Aid Other bonuses do not stack for purposes of Item Creation Skills. Masterwork artisan’s tools specific for that Craft grant a +2 enhancement bonus. Magical artisan’s tools may be manufactured to grant even high enhancement bonuses (up to +6).

7. Crafting Time. Crafting the item requires days equal to one-thousandth the price of the item expressed in gold pieces (rounded down, but never less than one full day). The craftsman must work no less and no more than eight uninterrupted hours per day and cannot work on more than one item at a time. The crafting days need not be consecutive, but the XP donor must be present for each day of crafting. This time cannot be reduced, even by increasing the Craft DC.

Are the folks coordinating the Pathfinder effort interested in rules for resolving social encounters? I know one of the complaints with 4th edition (and to an extent, 3rd) is that it focuses too much on combat and not enough on other forms of encounters. Another problem with 3rd is the "diplomancer" issue in which any social encounter is going to be resolved by the one PC with the highest Diplomacy + Cha (or, rarely, Intimidate + Cha).

I have been using a variant system for social encounters which allows both complex social interaction without a lot of complex rules. I think I could translate these rules pretty easily into Pathfinder, but I wanted ot see if there was a lot of interest in such a project. Not everybody wants dice to interfere in "roleplaying" (though I think my system is there to enhance the roleplay and make it less likely to be resolved by DM fiat).

What are people's opinions?