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I was looking through the magic items to determine if the feat craft wondrous items is worth it and I ran into an interesting thing. When comparing items using class related skills to the components it seems that the costs are drastically different. For example, the Sash of the War Champion. Using the book Ultimate Equipment directly I can reference that the sash would cost 4000 gp or 2000 gp if I constructed it. However, using the crafting rules found in the core rule book I found that becuase of the high CL (9th in this case) and the two spells (a lvl 1 and a lvl 2) the cost of the item to be around 37800 gp or 18900 gp if I crafted it. Now I am not complaining but can anyone explain this discrepancy please?
The item creation rules are just guidelines and all crafting costs should be reviewed and approved by your DM.
You will find that a lot of the book items are much more or much less than what you might calculate using the crafting guidelines. Some even get adjusted in price or ability later on through FAQ or errata.
One of the main principles of item crafting is to search for an item that is already in existence that is comparable to the item you wish to craft. That will give you a better feel for the cost.
For me, Craft Wondrous Item is always a great feat for a caster to take.
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There is 2 things that I see primary:
1. When determining a magic item price using the item creation rules, you take the effect of the item into consideration, not the prerequisite spell. Yes, the item has cat's grace and remove fear as prerequisite, but it does not duplicate these effect on the wearer, it simply use them for fluff reason, because they are thing that approaches the most the intended effect. Like Vorpal would probably have decapitate as a prereq instead of keen edge if decapitate was a spell in the Core Rulebook
2. There are exception to the guideline in the table.
Note that in any ways, things that enhance class features are not on the table, so it would need a DM (or designer) decision anyways.
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@ Lady-J
Not really, it has a Caster Level 3rd prerequisite. So at minimum, you would have to dip 3 level to take it and even then, you would still be a caster. Not really a good option.
Master Crafsman kinda workaround that, but only for a subset of items tied under a specific craft skill and I would only use it for mega fluff characters (not that I never play fluffy character, I'm playing a Phantom Thief in a game right now haha)
I was looking through the magic items to determine if the feat craft wondrous items is worth it and I ran into an interesting thing. When comparing items using class related skills to the components it seems that the costs are drastically different. For example, the Sash of the War Champion. Using the book Ultimate Equipment directly I can reference that the sash would cost 4000 gp or 2000 gp if I constructed it. However, using the crafting rules found in the core rule book I found that becuase of the high CL (9th in this case) and the two spells (a lvl 1 and a lvl 2) the cost of the item to be around 37800 gp or 18900 gp if I crafted it. Now I am not complaining but can anyone explain this discrepancy please?
Something people are missing in this thread is the caster level bit.
Items are constructed using minimum caster level to cast the required spells. So they're not accounting for you higher caster level. And it's worth noting that when you cast and you can cast at a lower effective caster level, down to the minimum to cast spells of that level.
A level 2 spell on a wizard for instance has a minimum caster level of 3.
The revered the ruling on SLAs, they now only qualify you for things if the require that specific SLA.
For example, if you had dimension door (or abundant step) SLA then it would qualify you for the Dimensional Agility line of feats. It doesn't however count as being able to cast 4th level spells or give you a caster level for any purpose outside of using that SLA (as far as I can tell).
So I don't believe you can use SLAs to qualify for crafting feats anymore.
There is an FAQ that nixes SLA effective caster level counting as general caster level for pqs. Many builds died the day it was written.
Making magic items often let you bypass requirements for a mere +5 DC. Even if you cannot bypass a requirement, you don't have to be the one supplying it. You can hire someone else to provide it. Also, the CL of the item is not in the requirement line, and thus it is not a requirement.
As others have indicated, price is based on effect, not on component spells. Compare the effect with other items, and where they are similar in gaming power, they will be similar in price.
Another thing about prices. If the price is too low, everyone gets it. If too high, no one. If between, then people must decide if the item fits their idea of a character. This last is the appropriate price, and has already happened to a lot of items from 1st edition on.
/cevah