Item Creation

[KainMalice]

Recently I was invited into a party that is doing the Carrion Crown module. I actually own these modules, and have read a majority of the first one, and a little bit of the second one. I was suggested to play as an Arcane Spellcaster for my group because it currently has a Paladin, Druid, and Ranger. I will be coming into the game at the beginning of Trial of the Beast since they just finished Haunting of Harrowstone. Anyway, I decided to do something out of the norm for me, and play a Wizard. I normally play Sorcerers. Anyway, I have a few cool ideas in mind for my Wizard, but most of this will involve item creation stuff. I have looked over some of the other modules in the set, and most of it seems to be very much a rushed experience. Like I know that in Trial of the Beast, you only have like 3 days to get the beast out of jail. Just seems like this could be a problem since I an wanting to focus a small bit of my character towards this. I would really love to make a Shield Guardian at some point. What do you guys think about this. Is it completely unviable, or is it possible that my DM could work something out for me?

[Trinite]

Tell your DM what you want to do. The plot as-written has virtually no downtime once the second chapter starts, but it's quite possible for him to adjust things so that you've got some time off for crafting.

[Toadkiller Dog]

If I were your DM, I'd say what I said to my players - if you take Item Creation feats, you won't get much out of them. Maybe an item or two here and there, but without any serious modifications to the plot, crafting Golems is out of the question.

[MeridiaCreative]

One of my PCs is a wizard, and is hell-bent on crafting items. He's figured out that he can basically craft anything he needs to (including an entire phylactery) in a day or so once he can afford to create his own demiplane*, but until then he's not really going to bother. Of course, his plan requires everyone else in the party to get Cooperative Crafting, and from the sound of it, a creative interpretation of said feat. I've told him that crafting beyond potions and scrolls kinda isn't gonna happen, regardless of his crazy plans.

*Thing your GM shouldn't let you do:

Slow time plane, plus six friends with Cooperative Crafting gets you the ability to craft 128k worth of items in one Golarion day. That relies on a literal interpretation of the word "double" in the description of the feat, and it might be different in Pathfinder, but the assumption in 3.5 was that anything that said "double" actually meant "+100% of the base value". With the more conservative interpretation, he needs 59 friends to pull the same trick. If everyone in the party takes leadership, and all of their cohorts and followers have that feat, it might work.

That said, if he can convince the cleric and the sorceror to both take item creation feats and CC, he can make most "normal" items pretty darn quickly, ie +2 weapons or +3 armor in 1 day without the demiplane tomfoolery.

If you want to go the crafting route, talk to your GM and the druid's player, since they'd be spending several of their precious feats on it. There are cheap golems that you could make into shield guardians in about two weeks with help from the druid. Presumably if you use the rules for crafting on the road, you could get one of these done in two months (with the druid helping) while adventuring, but that might require some further wackiness, like taking your entire stock of reagents, equipment, and cadaver parts with you on the road.

[magnuskn]

Seriously, by the time a caster can create his own demiplane, the campaign should be over or close to.

Thankfully I finally found a way to make PF item crafting not as broken as it currently is. Just make item creation costs equal to ( or close to, I use 95% ) sales prices, presto. Solves the whole "unbalances campaigns" aspect immediately and makes the feats more of a "I want to control what items I get" idea than a "I want to control what item I get and throw the whole WBL idea completely out of whack" thing.

As a compensation, doubling item creation speed or making it possible to quarter the time required by taking another +5 on the Spellcraft DC seems a good idea.

[Toadkiller Dog]

MeridiaCreative wrote:

One of my PCs is a wizard, and is hell-bent on crafting items. He's figured out that he can basically craft anything he needs to (including an entire phylactery) in a day or so once he can afford to create his own demiplane*, but until then he's not really going to bother. Of course, his plan requires everyone else in the party to get Cooperative Crafting, and from the sound of it, a creative interpretation of said feat. I've told him that crafting beyond potions and scrolls kinda isn't gonna happen, regardless of his crazy plans.

** spoiler omitted **

Does he realize that every member of the party who's not a spellcaster will need to spend THREE feats and 5 skill ranks to pull that off? First, 5 skill ranks to qualify for Master Craftsman, and then with that he can take Item Creation Feats and then he can take Cooperative Crafting. Whereas, the spellcaster would need *only* two.

Not to mention that, from the description of Create Demiplane, only the Greater version could give it the timeless trait, and Greater Create Demiplane is 9th lvl spell.

[MurphysParadox]

I gave Kendra the Cooperative Crafting and associated creation feats to match the Wizard. Said he gets an assistant when he's in town. Between that, spending +5 to speed it up, and that +25% arcane discovery thing, he can do about 3500g a day in town. However, when traveling without Kendra, he's only got about 625g a night.

I ensure they get a few days extra of down time now and then (like 5 days after the trial), but so far it has been good. He wants a ring of sustenance to get the 'while adventuring' value to 1250g. It really isnt all that much; lets them get a few of the common wondrous items out of the way quickly but the big stuff still takes a long time.

[MeridiaCreative]

Toadkiller: Yes, he does. He's decided on simulacra instead. As for the scroll, he's not super worried about the caster level check.

Why he's not worried about ANYTHING:

The player is dead set on making himself a lich, and is pretty convinced that the rest of the party (all but one of whom are spellcasters) will see the benefit of this plan and want to become liches themselves. *facepalm* I can't wait to see what happens when he finds out about the Carrion Crown.