Item Creation Mage

[BobChuck]

I'm going to be playing in a Kingmaker campaign starting in the next few weeks, and I'm trying to decide what to play. One concept I've always liked, but never really been able to do effectively, is a character focused on item creation. Kingmaker is such that I will likely have many opportunities to create items; also, apparently magic items are somewhat difficult to get a hold of, so being able to make them would be highly valuable.

I'm looking for some build advice, suggestions, or ideas. Not fully-fleshed out stats so much as "wizard is good, get transmutation and avoid brew potion' or the like.

[Jikuu]

I suggest, for roleplaying purposes, focusing on one type of item creation. For example, one NPC in my game is a conjurer who focuses on craft (stonecarving) and makes statues. That kind of idea.

For Kingmaker specifically, you'll want to think about your kingdom. There are rules for selling magic items for build points (BP) in order to expand and improve your kingdom. The magic items in question have to be 4,000 gp or higher. If you have this in mind, you may want to focus on wondrous items or arms and armor rather than potions or scrolls.

If you're going with being a spellcaster rather than a mundane crafter using the Master Craftsman feat, I would probably suggests wands or staves to improve your spellcasting utility or improve other spellcasters with you.

Hope this helps!

[James Thomas]

I've gone this route for wizard. Here's my personal take:
Scribe scroll - Use it often to collect spells you won't ordinarily want for combat, but are valuable to have handy (mount, levitate, tiny hut, dispel magic, etc.)
Craft Wand - This is great to get at level 5 when you are able to store commonly used spells so you can prepare other spells for the day.
Craft Wondrous Item - Take this at level 3. It's worth it to be able to make cloaks of resistance, pearls of power, and other valuable elixirs and items for you and your party. Well worth it!
Craft Ring - Not worth it in my opinion. Many useful rings are actually made with Divine magic or require you to be very high level to craft them and so don't make a useful call in most cases.
Craft Rod - Similar to Craft Ring, this has limited uses at great cost and only at high level.
Craft Staff - Same here.
Craft Arms and Armor - Useful for getting those magic weapons and armor that your party might be missing from the treasure they collect. Ask the other characters and see if they think it's warranted.

Fellow Posters: Please do me the courtesy of not tearing my opinions above apart. The man asked for advice and I bravely offered mine. Share your own if you have any ideas.

[Ughbash]

While it is less useful now since if you do not know a spell for a prereq you can take a -5, the enchanter was the one area where a Mystic Theurge could shine.

HE was able to create both Arcane and divine items, and with Practiced spell caster (at least on one side) or the trait that gives +2 to your spell casting level not to exceed your HD) for crafting purposes your level is not too adversely affected.

IF your GM allows 3.5 classes you MAY want to consider druid over cleric to set yourself up for Arcane Heirophant.

With a dual caster you will suffer pretty much your entire build, but enchanting is one of the ways you can still contribute. You are actually MORE effective in down time then in uptime.

If you go this route, FOCUS on it.....
Scribe scroll FREE as first level wizard (I prefer non specialty for enchanter though not as needed now).
Level 1 Skill Focus Spell craft.
Level 3 Craft wonderous
Level 5 Craft Arms Armor
Level 7 Craft Wands or Ring
Level 9 Craft Rod
Level 11 Craft Wand or Ring or Staff
Level 13 Craft Whatever is left.

Keep your Spellcraft maxxed and at least 1 additional knowledge to provide use to the party. Focus on your INT as most important stat, you can make items later to boost your wisdom so you can get by with a 13 starting wisdom.

Try not to use spells that allow Saving throws (especially with the divine side) so your low Wis will not hurt on DC's.

Mystic Thurge takes you to 16, I think Kingmaker ends around there anyways. IF not and if Arcane Heirophant (dual casting class) is nto available pick either the Arcane side or the divine side to finish up with (I would recommend arcane since your prime stat was int).

On 20 point buy I would say
Str 10
Dex 12 2 points
Con 12 2 points

Int 19 13 points +2 racial.
Wis 13 3 points
Cha 10 0 points

Human or Half Elven... Hmm Half elven might be good as it reflects your dual nature.

Hmm Half elven lets you use both Cleric and Wizard as favored classes so even better... And you can use your free Skill Focus as Spellcraft. Maybe picking up Magical Aptitude as your other feat.

For traits (assuming you get two) Magical Knack (+2 on caster level as long as it does not go higher then your HD) and any other trait that you feel fits.

And sorry I guess I went a little bit over on the "genral idea" not a whole character.

You WILL lag behind for quite a while during play, so if you like to "compete" with the other players for who is best this is not optimal, but it can be a fun character if the GM gives you downtime and sufficient wealth to do some enchanting.

At 7th level when you take your first level of Mystic Thurge you should have a spellcraft of 7 (skill ranks) +5 (stat) + 3 (class skill) +3( skill focus) +2 ( Magical Aptitude) for + 20 Spellcraft.

[DM_Blake]

James Thomas wrote:

Fellow Posters: Please do me the courtesy of not tearing my opinions above apart. The man asked for advice and I bravely offered mine. Share your own if you have any ideas.

Part of offering advice is sharing my opinions, but another part is offering counterpoint where I disagree with advice that has gone before. It doesn't mean that such a disagreement is "tearing your opinions apart", but it doesn't seem fair for me to keep my mouth shut when I can offer a counterpoint that the OP should be allowed to evaluate.

As such, I do disagree with your point about many useful rings/rods/staves made with divine magic or requiring you to be high level to create them.

First of all, almost nothing requires you to be high level. Weapons and armor, as well as related wondrous items like Bracers of Armor or Amulet of Mighty Fists, have level "requirements". Nothing else, or at least almost nothing else (I can't think of anything at all) has level requirements.

Just because the item has a caster level listed doesn't mean that is a requirement to create the item. In fact, James Jacobs has explicitly said it doesn't mean that, and that caster level is only a "requirement" when, and only when, the "Requirements" section of the item's description lists the caster level.

Second, remember that a mage can create divine rings (etc.) even without the spell. All the needs is a cleric frend to stop by once a day and cast the spell, or he can get it from a wand or something similar, or he can craft the item without casting the spell at all by simply adding 5 to the DC (which means the DC would still be low enough that he can automatically succeed just by taking-10 on the roll). So this isn't really too much of a concern.

And since there are lots of good rings, rods, and staves, it's awfully limiting to exclude those from a dedicated item crafter's inventory over such a trivial (non-issue) concern.

And yes, I agree with all your remaining points. In fact, my wizard is considering taking Craft Wondrous Item just so he can whip up a bunch of level 1 pearls of power, just so he never runs out of Magic Missile spells. Heck, for a mere 7,500 GP my wizard can have 15 extra Magic Missile spells ready to go every day, all cast at 9th level (my current level). That's the same price it would cost me to craft two wands with a total of 100 charges - one really good week of adventure and those wands could be all used up, but the pearls of power are never used up.