Magic Item Creation DC

[Kadar]

I have one quick question about magic item creation.

As per pg 112 in the core rulebook:
"Successfully creating a magic item requires a Spellcraft check with a DC equal to 10 + the item's caster level"

Yet on pg 548 I see:
"The DC to create a magic item is 5 + the caster level for the item."

I looked, and maybe I didn't look in the right place, but couldn't seem to find any definitive answer to this. Has this been errata'd? Or am I missing something?

A +5 may not seem like much, but when you throw in another +5 for being below CL for the item and/or for spell requirements and other random things, it starts to add up.

[Kais86]

Sure it stacks up pretty fast, but you shouldn't expect to make really powerful items at low levels. For example: the lowest item in the book is CL3 which means it's a 8 DC to craft it, let's say it's a potion and you have no flask or reagents, that's +10 DC assuming it only has one reagent and you know the spell required, that's a 18 DC to craft it. Now say your character is level 3, you have 3 ranks in alchemy and it's a class skill, so with no modifier from intelligence you have a +6 which means you have to roll a 12 or higher to make the item, from functionally thin air and the desire to do it.

You should try to have every prerequisite for any item you make, otherwise it gets silly fast, which is appropriate, be glad they even allow us to make things without the actual parts to do it.

[Kadar]

Kais86 wrote:

Sure it stacks up pretty fast, but you shouldn't expect to make really powerful items at low levels. For example: the lowest item in the book is CL3 which means it's a 8 DC to craft it, let's say it's a potion and you have no flask or reagents, that's +10 DC assuming it only has one reagent and you know the spell required, that's a 18 DC to craft it. Now say your character is level 3, you have 3 ranks in alchemy and it's a class skill, so with no modifier from intelligence you have a +6 which means you have to roll a 12 or higher to make the item, from functionally thin air and the desire to do it.

You should try to have every prerequisite for any item you make, otherwise it gets silly fast, which is appropriate, be glad they even allow us to make things without the actual parts to do it.

Understood, and it is nice to be able to make things without actually knowing how, but there seems to be a discrepancy of the two DCs as stated in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.

One says 5+CL, while the other says 10+CL, any idea why?

[Kais86]

Kadar wrote:

Understood, and it is nice to be able to make things without actually knowing how, but there seems to be a discrepancy of the two DCs as stated in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.

One says 5+CL, while the other says 10+CL, any idea why?

That's for if you don't have the appropriate skill, like say crafting a bow would require Craft: Bows. Literally the same as it's explained under the the item creation portion on page 548. Since you don't have the skill it increases the DC by 5.

[DM_Blake]

This question comes up a lot. It needs to be added to FAQ so everyone who reads this may want to click it.

Jason Bulmahn gave a pseudo-official response a long time ago and I'm not aware that anything more official has been said since.

Here is the link.

In short, the correct DC is 5, not 10.