How would you craft and use a magic item able to cast Fabricate?
This question is mostly about material components' cost.
Spell level: 5 (can't be stored in a wand, so I'm thinking about a wondrous item or a rod)
Caster level: 9
Rules for crafting magic item imply that an item able to cast this spell once per day costs 16200 gp: market/base price = spell level x caster level x 1800 / (5/charges per day).
The spell having material components, we check under magic item creation rules and see "If it has some daily limit, determine [additional cost] as if it had 50 charges."
However, the so-called material component is "the original material, which costs the same amount as the raw materials required to craft the item to be created", and the [transfiguration] spell mentions "You convert material of one sort into a product that is of the same material."
Which of the following lines of thought is correct ?
1) Craft the item for 16200 gp + 50 x a given amount. When used, create items whose maximum value is based on the given amount (typically three times that amount). I think this is closer to RAW, but then the user can craft these items for free...
2) Craft the item for 16200 gp. When used, transfigure a given material into a finished product. This considers the mention "material component" of this particular spell as meaning "the original material is consumed by the casting" and not "the material component fuels the spell" like bat guano would.
How would you craft and use a magic item able to cast Fabricate?
This question is mostly about material components' cost.Spell level: 5 (can't be stored in a wand, so I'm thinking about a wondrous item or a rod)
Caster level: 9
Rules for crafting magic item imply that an item able to cast this spell once per day costs 16200 gp: market/base price = spell level x caster level x 1800 / (5/charges per day).The spell having material components, we check under magic item creation rules and see "If it has some daily limit, determine [additional cost] as if it had 50 charges."
However, the so-called material component is "the original material, which costs the same amount as the raw materials required to craft the item to be created", and the [transfiguration] spell mentions "You convert material of one sort into a product that is of the same material."
Which of the following lines of thought is correct ?
1) Craft the item for 16200 gp + 50 x a given amount. When used, create items whose maximum value is based on the given amount (typically three times that amount). I think this is closer to RAW, but then the user can craft these items for free...
2) Craft the item for 16200 gp. When used, transfigure a given material into a finished product. This considers the mention "material component" of this particular spell as meaning "the original material is consumed by the casting" and not "the material component fuels the spell" like bat guano would.
The item you create should probably have a clause that the material component must be presented at the time of using the item, since the material component is effectively in-flux. Otherwise you would basically end up with a magic item that creates stuff out of thin air instead of shaping it (fabricate consumes an item and then produces something made of said item, if you provided all the material components into a magic item ahead of time, then it would just pop out items on demand).
A similar trick is fabricate + eschew materials. Eschew materials can allow you to create 99 pieces of firewood worth of materials or 99 pieces worth of copper worth of materials or about 9.9 pounds of iron worth of stuff from nothing.
The item you create should probably have a clause that the material component must be presented at the time of using the item, since the material component is effectively in-flux. Otherwise you would basically end up with a magic item that creates stuff out of thin air instead of shaping it (fabricate consumes an item and then produces something made of said item, if you provided all the material components into a magic item ahead of time, then it would just pop out items on demand).
A similar trick is fabricate + eschew materials. Eschew materials can allow you to create 99 pieces of firewood worth of materials or 99 pieces worth of copper worth of materials or about 9.9 pounds of iron worth of stuff from nothing.
This is probably the best way. Some spells don't transfer into magic items perfectly without some wonkiness, Fabricate just happens to be one of those spells.
Treat it like a polymorph effect, where the original material is the target, not the material component.
Peet
Isn't the base material the target of the spell, as well as its material component? If so, any item that mimics the spell still has to have the raw goods present.
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A similar trick is fabricate + eschew materials. Eschew materials can allow you to create 99 pieces of firewood worth of materials or 99 pieces worth of copper worth of materials or about 9.9 pounds of iron worth of stuff from nothing.Except that no that does not work. The total cost of the material component has to be considered, not individual prices of pieces. Fabricate is also a spell of exceptions because the material component is also the target of the spell. You want to build a boat with fabricate, you need the total amount of wood that would go into it.
Yes. The total cost of 100 days of firewood is...
1 gold piece worth of material components. Components which are consumed and then producing an equivalent amount of matter in a new form. With eschew materials you are creating matter equivalent to 1 gp worth of whatever the material component would have been. As long as it is not more than 1 gold piece.
So you could make something out of a few pounds of iron, two pounds of copper, one fifth a pound of silver, one fiftieth a pound of gold, or one five hundredth a pound of platinum, or about 2,000 pounds of wood.
Sorcerers are cool. :3
A sorcerer with Fabricate as a known spell...
The party comes to a gap in the cliff.
Sorcerer: "I fabricate a bridge!"
And on the other side of that gap is a river.
Sorcerer: "And fabricate the bridge into a boat!"
Then the party comes to a wide-open trail.
Sorcerer: "And fabricate the boat into a wagon!"
Then later the party is ambushed by enemy archers.
Sorcerer: "I fabricate a wall onto our cart!"
The later the sorcerer wants to get married.
Sorcerer: "I fabricate a gold ring and tiny platinum studs."
Fabricate and Eschew Materials means you can Fabricate 1 gp for free. Eventually, all those 1 gp will add up.
Once they add up, you use the gold pieces to buy material for armor (1/3 the cost). Then you use Fabricate to make the armor.
Then you sell the armor and use the money from the sale to make something you really wanted in the first place.
The False Focus feat allows things to go crazy even faster.
Thanks for your answers.
The party comes to a gap in the cliff.
Sorcerer: "I fabricate a bridge!"
And on the other side of that gap is a river.
Sorcerer: "And fabricate the bridge into a boat!"
Then the party comes to a wide-open trail.
Sorcerer: "And fabricate the boat into a wagon!"
Then later the party is ambushed by enemy archers.
Sorcerer: "I fabricate a wall onto our cart!"
I have been searching for a couple days with no answer on this question:
When using a finished product as material component for Fabricate, what value does it have?Example: I buy mithral and make a chain shirt with it.
Later, I want to construct a mithral breastplate, so I need 1400 gp worth of material.
How much of this can be contributed by using the chain shirt? What do you think is closer to RAW?
a) Full value? (market price)
b) Selling value? (half market price)
c) Construction value? (what it would cost in material components to craft the chain shirt: 1/3 the market price)
d) "Real" construction value? (what it did cost in material components to make the actual chain shirt - generally 1/3 the market price but not always)
e) Some other value? (its price as trade goods, for instance)
f) Nothing?
Options (c) and (d) are separate because of things like the Frugal Crafting feat, allowing people to craft at less than 1/3 of the cost.
Balance-wise, I'm leaning towards option (d). If the item used was bought and not crafted by the PCs, I'll consider it made at the normal price ratio (1/3).
If players want to gain more when using items they have crafted themselves, they can try to sell the chain shirt (at half price, and they have to find a buyer) and buy more raw material (and they have to find a seller). This needs them to be in a civilized environment. Option (d) can be used anywhere.