Building Inventor - Advice Needed for Best Feats / Items / etc to raise Crafting

[Krell44]

Hoping to build an Inventor who can take advantage of crafting to the best of his ability. What are best options to raise to Expert/Master/Legendary the quickest, as well as gain bonuses to overall crafting skill.

Thanks in advance!

[HammerJack]

Well, Pathfinder Agent Dedication could make your Crafting Expert at 2 instead of 3, I suppose. Other than that, inventors already automatically raise their Crafting proficiency at the earliest possible level, anyway. You don't need to look for ways to raise it.

Feats aren't going to give you a bonus to the skills modifier that isn't limited to specific uses of the skill.

A Crafter's Eyepiece would be the first thing that comes to mind to look at for a constant, all purpose Item Bonus. Cognitive Mutagens are the biggest cmCrafting bonus, but their drawback makes them ill-suited to combat use.

[Dragonchess Player]

You may also want to look at an archetype (either a multiclassed or one of the other ones) that grants spellcasting. Many of the items that can be created by Magical Crafting require spells as part of the process (and some items, such as spellhearts, require the user to have casting as a class/archetype ability).

One other possibility to explore is investing in Survival to at least Master proficiency for the Monster Crafting feat (to use monster parts when crafting items).

[Squark]

As Hammerjack said, the inventor's crafting skill progresses about as fast as possible. I wouldn't waste a class feat on getting to expert one level early.

As far as looking to optimize crafting...

-Specialty Crafting feat gives you a +1/+2 circumstance bonus to craft a specific kind of item. You can get two specialties with the Anvil Dwarf feat if you're also getting specialty crafting from somewhere else at level 1. The Seasoned feat does the same thing, but for elixirs, potions, and food. You probably don't need both, though.

-Magical Crafting and Alchemical Crafting unlock a lot of options. Magical crafting might be a better fit for an Inventor.

-Impeccable crafting makes you much better at crafting your specialty items, which could save a fair amount of gold if you have a lot of downtime.

[Zoken44]

So, as far as class feats go, Tamper will let you use your Crafting skill in combat. And investing into the Overdrive feats like Overdrive ally, also helpful Tinkering.