A question about magic item crafting.

[Lanitril]

A friend and I are in a small spat about magic item crafting rules, specifically rings, but I imagine it applies to all other magic items also.

Alright. So. The alchemist in my group says he's thinking of taking the crafting feat to make rings at next level, level nine. Fine with me. He was talking about wanting to make a ring of wizardry. Took a look at the page. It has a caster level of 11. Woah woah woah. I said. You don't meet that requirement.

He pointed out kindly to me that technically, it isn't listed as a requirement, and if it were, it would only be a plus five to the check. Now, I didn't agree with that. What I thought was more in line, was to make each caster level he didn't meet, count as a separate requirement. Since he would be two off, it would be another +10, not +5 to the difficulty check. That would be a total of 5+11, since that's the level of the ring,+5 since he doesn't have the spell,+10 since he's two caster levels off. Total of 31.

An alchemist level nine, with spellcraft maxed out, would have a +12 already, and this particular one has a +5 from INT. +17 total. He'd have to roll a 14 or higher to craft this ring. Sounded fair to me. After all, to have the spell Limited wish in the first place, you'd have to be a level 13 wizard, not a level 9 alchemist.

What he argued, and I'm linking him to this post so he can more faithfully tell his side of the argument, is that it should only be 5+11+5. Total of 21. Because caster level eleventh isn't listed in the requirements. Basically, he'd have to roll a 4 or higher. Didn't sound right to me.

To further argue it, I pointed out that a ring of three wishes, certainly one of the more powerful rings out there, with a caster level of 20, would only be 5+20+5. A total of thirty under his logic. Thirty five if we count caster level as a requirement only once. Roll a thirteen or higher, and he can craft it at level nine? Not what I figured. I figured, eleven levels off? +55 to what he has to roll. It should be completely and utterly impossible for a level nine character to create a ring of three wishes at all. Now that's not what he wanted to craft, but I think exemplifies why his logic is wrong.

So, I come to the forums for whatever the official rules might be. Since I couldn't find them. Shortly, you'll have his side. He'll post it himself.

Editing to say he says he will post to this when he has the time. I don't recall his username, but I'm sure he'll make it clear who he is.

[bhh39]

http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9n8m

says that caster level is not a requirement. You can of course house rule what you like, but your solution seems to break down when you're talking about other types of crafting, such as metamagic rods which are all CL 17.

[MagiMaster]

There have been a ton of threads about this. They really need to rename the item's CL. It has almost nothing to do with the creator's CL. The item's CL only effects the DC to create and dispel an item most of the time.

The things you actually need are in the requirements line. Look at a spell storing item. It actually says you need a caster level there. Everything but the feat itself can be bypassed with a +5 to the DC. So yes, a ring of three wishes is not actually that difficult to craft.

So why doesn't everyone make one at level 7? Money. It costs 97,500 to make one. It also takes 120 days (best case), which may or may not be doable in a given campaign.

Basically, time and money are the limiting factors, not the DC.

Now, this is the rules forum, so that's RAW (and according to the FAQ, RAI). If you want to houserule it, adjusting the DC increase based on the spell you're bypassing is probably a good start.

Edit: Oh yeah. You can take a 10 on the spellcraft check, so there's basically no chance of failure unless you're really pushing it.