Creating a magic weapon has a special prerequisite: The creator's caster level must be at least three times the enhancement bonus of the weapon. If an item has both an enhancement bonus and a special ability, the higher of the two caster level requirements must be met. A magic weapon must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus to have any melee or ranged special weapon abilities.
With that being stated above, why does the Keen enchantment for weapons have a CL of 10 but the Speed enchantment is CL 7? all the spell requirements are 3rd lvl so why the CL difference?
The primary reason is that it's a legacy holdover from 3.5, where caster level actually mattered in crafting an item: setting keen at 10th level prevented every 6th level fighter having a keen weapon because his friend the 5th level wizard added it. In short, you were more likely to find a keen weapon than have it added. The balance between wealth by level, XP, and item cost all acted as limiting factors on what level a character could realistically guarantee access to a weapon special property.
Other reasons include:
To make it harder to dispel.
To make it harder to craft.
Please note that the caster level requirement can be bypassed by a lower level crafter with +5 DC on the spellcraft check to make the item.
A more general question: can ANY requirement be bypassed by increasing the DC by RAW? In my game I have a wizard PC. He just picked up Craft Wondrous Item. Despite being 5th level, can he now crank out Bags of Holding w/out the spell Secret Chest by adding 5 to the craft DC?
Yes.
The only requirement that can't be bypassed for non- spell activation or spell completion items (and, I think, potions) is the feat.
Wow. Didn't realize that. Lots of cash + feat = any magic item desired since he's completely maxed out any and all spellcraft bonuses. I need to watch the cash levels then...
