If a character begins crafting a suit of prismatic plate mail armor at 5th level and finishes the crafting process at level 15, what craft skill bonus do they use, their total bonus from 5th level or their total bonus from 15th level (assuming they added skill ranks at one per level over time)?
Would +5 need to be added to the final crafting DC for not meeting the minimum caster level requirement throughout the entire process, or does it just not matter?
Also, what is the minimum caster level requirement for prismatic plate mail armor; 9th, 15th or 13th (3 times the the armor bonus, the highest caster level spell required for its' construction, or the caster level of the armor)?
I am rather new to crafting, but as you need to make crafting rolls every week, you will make DC checks based on your current level. Undoubtedly, at lower levels, you may fail a lot, attempting to craft such a high level item, incurring more of a cost. And it would be up to your DM, but you would either have to pay all the material costs up front at 5th level, or he/she may be kind enough to let you pay in installments, as you pay for the item piecemeal, as you construct it.
Edit: To answer your final question, I would think that you could probably craft the mundane part of the item first, and add the enchantment once you gain the feats.
The minimum caster level for an item is whatever is necessary to meet all of the prerequisites.
Prismatic Plate is +3 armor, so that would require a caster level of 9th.
The Mind Blank requirement is an 8th level spell, which requires a caster level of 15th.
All other prerequisites can be met with a caster level below 15th.
The caster level of Prismatic Plate must be at least 15th level then, in order to meet all of the prerequisites. (The listed caster level of 13th is wrong.)
(Note that if you use Prismatic Sphere instead of Prismatic Spray or Prismatic Wall, the minimum caster level of the suit would be 18th, the minimum to meet the Prismatic Sphere prerequisite.)
I would say once you "eventually" meet the minimum caster level the +5 DC stops occuring on your craft check.
In answer to your larger question, if it takes you 10 ten levels in character to craft anything your next item should be a ring of GM slapping.
In answer to your larger question, if it takes you 10 ten levels in character to craft anything your next item should be a ring of GM slapping.
Perhaps the GM needs a slapping, but not for making the character take 10 levels to craft something. It would be for allowing a 5th level character to start crafting something that is far beyond the scope of his knowledge in the first place. BUT, if the character did somehow gain knowledge of such a high level item at low level, and decided to make it his/her life's work, I see no problem spreading it out through the character's career.
It seems there is a lot of confusion about crafting magic items, which is not a surprise because it's so darn complicated.
From my understanding you construct the item to be enchanted first, then construct the masterwork component of the item to be enchanted, then you enchant the item. To construct the item and its’ masterwork component you use the Craft skill rules found on page 91 of the Core Rulebook, then to create an enchanted item from the resulting masterwork item you use the magic Item Creation rules found on page 548.
The Craft skill rules require a Craft check every week (or every day), and failure means you either do not make any progress or you ruin half the materials. In contrast, the magic Item Creation rules require a single Spellcraft or Craft check made at the end of the process, and failure means you either ruin all of the materials or inadvertently create a cursed item.
You can do it at 9th level provided you
1) Have a source for the spells or are willing to take a +5 penalty for missing requirements.
2) Have more GPs than you probably should, as you need to pay up front.
3) It is the ONLY thing you craft between 5th and x level where you finish it. Otherwise your attempt is automatically ruined.
ultimate Campaign (coming soon) should have more in-depth explanations.
Thank you Darkwarriorkarg,
I tend to agree with your answer; the caster level requirement would be 9th and that is a bit shocking.
However, as far as I can tell there is nothing in the rules (barring the up-front cost) holding you back from beginning work on a magic item long before you attain the requisite level and working on it till you do, at which point you make the Spellcraft or Craft check and avoid the +5 to the DC to create the item. I find this a bit cheesy, but with such an expensive item as prismatic plate, which will take almost a full year or more to create, I would expect a character’s level to change quite a bit while creating it.
In the end I am asking this question because the story of a character who spends all of his time and money creating an item that will eventually help him defeat his final adversary is a very compelling one. However, I think there is a case to made for applying the +5 for not meeting the caster level requirement throughout the creation process.