Magic Item Creation with Crafting

[Zero_Magi]

So , i read the ''creating magic items section'' and i do have some questions. The DC to craft a magical item is 5 + item caster level. So i went to see the items' caster level , and it lacks logic a lot if i understood everything very well.

Rod of Intesify : 3000 gp , CL 17 so DC = 22
Belt of Dexterity (or another stat) +6 : 36000 gp , CL 8 so DC = 13

IT MAKES NO SENSE to be able to craft the second item with almost half DC when it costs 12 times the first item's prize.

Please do explain if i am making a mistake or something. Thanks in advance

[DM_Blake]

Yep, you have it right. It's not intended to be logical. Presumably, some thought went into setting the CL for different items based on things like how powerful or rare the item would be, not necessarily how much it would cost, but I'm not sure I agree that it's any more internally consistent from that perspective.

In many cases, the CL can be surprisingly high because the spell used is a high level spell or surprisingly low because the spell used is a low level spell.

[JTibbs]

Complexity and skill level of crafting, not amount of work...

Something can be simple work, but take forever to do it all.

Clearing an overgrown area can take all day to do in labor, or even several days. Artfully pruning a fancy garden of the same area takes a LOT more skill, but can be done in an hour.

[MagiMaster]

Many items have had the same CL for several versions of the game, even from back when there were no real item crafting rules (AFAIK). The CL of those items are fairly arbitrary.

Many newer items have CLs based on the spells used in their construction or some other formula, but even then the writers often took shortcuts such as listing all items of a particular type at the CL of the highest item (such as pearls of power).

So you can apply some logic while crafting your own items, but you can't really count on existing items always making a whole lot of sense.