A group I'm in has a generous DM who basically gave us an equal level NPC psion that will be a craft bot. We just turned 8th level and a couple of us want celestial armor. From what I understand, she can do this even without having the fly spell, or being of good alignment, by raising the spellcraft DC by 5 for each. Add a CL 9 DC for making +3 armor.
So atm the DC is 5 (base) +9 (CL) +10 (Ignoring pre-reqs)?
But she isn't CL 9, obviously. So can she even craft the item, or can she simply add another +5 to the spellcraft DC? Making it a grand total of 29 DC? Or is the CL 9 requirement non-negotiable?
And yes she can make those DCs by taking 10. She has a like +7 Int mod & maxed out ranks.
Bonus question! Can she use a scroll of Fly to ignore one of the item creation requirements, and thus lower the DC by 5?
She's equal level? Level 8? 8 ranks in Spellcraft, then. Class skill, so +3.
10+7+8+3=28. From the information given, she cannot take 10 and craft celestial armor. Of course, as a craftbot, she likely has Skill Focus, bumping it up to 31, so check her feats first.
Yes, CL is optional. You only truly need the crafting feat. If you want to use scrolls despite her probably having a check of 31 or higher, you will indeed need multiple scrolls.
Celestial Armor's CL is 5, so the base DC is 10. The 3 CL per +1 would apply to most armor, but this is a unique item with a unique CL. However, other than a small change to the DC and being slightly easier to surpress, the lower CL doesn't mean much. Unless the item has "caster must be X level" or something along those lines in the requirements section, CL is not actually a requirement. (Of course, many GMs houserule that.)
But besides that, your calculation of the DC is correct. You can skip nearly any prerequisite besides the item creation feat with a +5 DC.
Thanks tons you guys, that cleared up pretty much everything! So it seems my comrades will get the armor then. Sadly my character doesn't wear any. Wonder if we'll have near a month to blow for her crafting things... Anyway thanks again, just wanted to be sure to say it! No need for more replies unless we missed something.