Custom Magic Item Creation

[Utopian]

One of my players picked up the Craft Wondrous Item Feat and is asking about custom magic items. Specifically, the 30% discount for creating items with class/alignment restrictions. I'm a little leery of saying yes this is okay in my campaign, what's to keep him from crafting a Paladin Only Belt of Giant's Strength for his buddy at an additional 30% off?

[blackbloodtroll]

Custom Magic items are entirely GM fiat. The "rules" themselves for custom magic items are noted as guidelines.

[Utopian]

So I've got rule 0 to fall back on... but if I say yes he can craft custom magic items i'm opening a whole can of worms. How nutty can players with wealth/gear above their level get?

[Bobson]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Custom Magic items are entirely GM fiat. The "rules" themselves for custom magic items are noted as guidelines.

This. The assumption you need to operate under is that the magic item section supplies A) blueprints for a number of items, and B) rules for the GM to devise new blueprints. Players can only create things for which the blueprints exist.

[MagiMaster]

Let the player make whatever they want, but it's up to you to set the price. The class/alignment restrictions in particular should only apply to the market price, not the price to create (though that's not actually written in the rules).

I think the 24 INT Wizard should be smart enough to be able to make new blueprints, and the Craft feats should let them. I also think that those "guidelines" are usually a pretty good estimate of the value of an item, but watch out for personal range spells. (You may want to disallow those up front to avoid arguments.)

[Saronian]

Utopian wrote:

So I've got rule 0 to fall back on... but if I say yes he can craft custom magic items i'm opening a whole can of worms. How nutty can players with wealth/gear above their level get?

The real question is do you trust the player to create items that aren't going to break the system? If you don't, then tell the player no and then offer to allow the player to trade out the Item Creation Feat for something else.

If you do trust them, then work with them in creating the items. This way if you have problem with the design it can be headed off at the pass. It also prevents a dishonest player from taking advantage of the trust you are giving.

One situation that happened to me and my group was when we took out a large red dragon at Sandpoint. My idea was to use part of the dragon as the masterworked piece for a mithril breastplate, to symbolize that a dragon was slain by the group. It became a long debate that hasn't been finished when I was deployed.

[Mojorat]

The section about the discounts covers them. Basically what it says is that a player that makes a Item that has some sort of 'limitation' Like It only works for left handed wizards with blue eyes (which by the rules youc an make) and coincidentally the Wizard is a left handed wizard with blue eyes he can make the item.

However he gets no Discount for making it because Its not really any sort of limitation. However If he gets hired by a left handed wizard npc with blue eyues to make them a custom Item and the PC doesnt fit this description. Then go ahead and let him make the item.

in simple terms any items Pc's make should be compared to other items that do the same thing and be priced accordingly. The entire magic item section is rough guidelines subject heavily to rule zero.

That said thers nothing wrong with Pc's making their own items or paying for custom items just dont let them get an item otherwise too powerful or too cheap compared to similar items.