I realise that arcane bond is an ability that is under intense discussion. And to be fair, it seems to be well queried. The ability is a yet quite vague and powerful, but that's why we have these forums, to sort this out.
My main question is of balance. It's good to see that in beta the power's been scaled back, so it's only double the gp value that you put into it instead of quadruple. But even double is worth sitting up and taking notice of. Why wouldn't any character take a 1 level dip in wizard? It simply means that their item of choice is now gets its abilities half price. That'll always be worth 1 level in my books.
Now, to compensate I suggest a cap on the item's gp value. Perhaps a character is only allowed to put an amount of gp into enchanting the item equal to their wizard level, or some such. So for example at wizard level 10, the item's total value cannot exceed 20 000 gp. This means that you still get the half price item, but it's not going to mean that you are swinging around a 32 000 gp sword at lvl 6.
If I understood correctly, the bond lets you enchant the item as if you had the crafting feats required, but you must still meet the other requirements (CL, spell knowledge, etc). So the thing does not become so overpowered, a non-spellcaster with just 1 level of wizard won't be able to enchant anything (unless he finds a power with CL 1).
What the rules do not specify is whether you may use the focus half-price to enchant with levels from another class, say, a Cleric 6 / Wizard 1. You could decide that the focus reduction only works by items enchanted with Wizard CL (makes sense, as the bond is based on the character's attunement to the item as a wizard). It seems simpler than creating a math formula for capping gp price.
Actually, yeah, that makes sense.
Thanks for that.