I'm currently having a debate with a player: How high level he needs to be to make a speed weapon. The DMG listed CL for Speed weapons is 7, but it's a +3 bonus. There's the rule that in order to make an enhancement bonus the creator must be three times the bonus he wishes to instill into the item. My player says that the +3 price bonus stacks with the +1 required for any magic item, so he would have to be 12th level to make a +1 speed weapon. I say that the +3 is just a price bonus and not an actual enhancement bonus. The wizard is 8th level. I don't think the +1 required bonus and the +3 price bonus stack, thus he should be able to make it. Opinions?
I'm currently having a debate with a player: How high level he needs to be to make a speed weapon. The DMG listed CL for Speed weapons is 7, but it's a +3 bonus. There's the rule that in order to make an enhancement bonus the creator must be three times the bonus he wishes to instill into the item. My player says that the +3 price bonus stacks with the +1 required for any magic item, so he would have to be 12th level to make a +1 speed weapon. I say that the +3 is just a price bonus and not an actual enhancement bonus. The wizard is 8th level. I don't think the +1 required bonus and the +3 price bonus stack, thus he should be able to make it. Opinions?
I have to say I am leaning away from the CL 7. No other weapon in the DMG has a +3 cost but the +4 are way up there in their CL requirement. This seems like a CL set at the ability to cast a spell- haste. The reason a speed wpn his much higher +# than most is because it is using a round/level spell with unlimited use. I am not even sure how your character has amassed 16,000+ gp to start creating such an item.
Have you checked the errata to see if this changed? Not that I trust errata so much but there could have been a change.
You are the DM so you are supported in your opinion. Since this is a core book perhaps you can split the difference and say 9th or 10th level. Would you and your player be willing to agree on that?
Well, I think it's more of an all-or-nothing thing for he and I. The wording was just a bit ambiguous about this matter, enough to allow room for debate. The way the campaign played out, they were in a port, and he found a swash-buckler type that already had his weapon enchanted with frost, and he added speed to it. They had amassed a huge amount of money over several levels from selling items from town to town, but never having a big enough GP limit in any place to buy something really good. So, that's how he had the funds.
And, you are right; this is the only example of where the CL of the item would make it lower than the standard 3X rule in the DMG that we could find. I stuck with my opinion and he made the item, but it took such a huge amount of downtime that it cost them some advantages in the story line since they were busy for so long making items.
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I stuck with my opinion and he made the item, but it took such a huge amount of downtime that it cost them some advantages in the story line since they were busy for so long making items.
You calculated the caster level correctly. The caster level requirement is 3X the enhancement bonus, or the minimum caster level of the special ability, whichever is higher. See page 286 of the DMG (3.5).
If you check wizards site, under rules of the game, Making Magic Items, Part 4, They give a specific example.
This snipit is from that article:
"To create a +2 keen longsword, a character must have a caster level of at least 10th, which is the higher of the two prerequisites. This item would be priced as a +3 magic weapon, but the caster level prerequisite is still 10th, not 9th (as it would be if the weapon's actual enhancement bonus was +3)."