Musings about Magic Item Creation, Creation Time, and Cost

[Kae'Yoss]

While looking up town wealth limits and magic item availability, I came to wonder about magic item creation:

The way it is written now it takes quite some time and costs not only material but also XP.

It struck me as odd how any magic items would be done.

First, there is the time factor. It might be alright for some professional crafter and seller of magical items to take a couple of weeks making that powerful sword, but heroes often don't have the time - villains won't wait for them, at least, it's like this in many campaigns I played and which I ran. Plus, I don't like the idea that you have to have to bewitch that piece of metal week after week to make it become more magiced.

The other thing is the cost. You have to blow some of your experience to make it all work. That might be okay for your hero type who will get it back in a day, but it doesn't work too well for those who want to make magic items full time. Once in a while, he'd have to go out and kick some monsters to get "fuel for his magic forge". And it's not that unlikely that he will earn more coin in those few hours of danger and excitements, looting monsters and dungeons, than in the weeks to come, where he will blow the newly-gained experience on some magical bauble he will sell for twice the money he has put into it.


So I thought of this: let there be two ways of creating magic items: The quick and dirty way, and the slow but steady way.

You can create magic items whose prerequisites you meet. It takes 1 day per 1000 gp, and special magical materials and ingredients equal to half the market price - but no XP. The power comes from the special materials you used, as well as the magic you cast over and over (we could say that the caster has to the spells twice per day, or even that he has to leave all spell slots - except for those you need to create the item - blank, to simulate pouring all your power into the item.)

The other way is to create the magic very quickly. Maybe 10 times as fast as usual (with several cheap ones being created on a single day), or even all in one day. But you won't just have to pay half (or even 3/4) of the market price in special ingredients, but also some amount of your very self (read: XP).
We could say that if you hire someone to create an item with the fast method, you'll have to recompense him for his loss of XP (let's say the usual 5gp per XP spend, on top of the normal market price)

 

[Pyrex]

...That might be okay for your hero type who will get it back in a day, but it doesn't work too well for those who want to make magic items full time. Once in a while, he'd have to go out and kick some monsters to get "fuel for his magic forge"...

Combat isn't necessarily the only source of XP. Other "challenges" can provide XP as well.

Commoners have to level-up eventually somehow.

 

[der_kluge]

You owe it to yourself to pick up the Artificer's Handbook.

One of the rules that you might like is the idea of "instability". Basically, if you hurry the process along, use inferior materials, or do it in a unsuitable environment, the item could become unstable in some small way. The less quality you put into it, and the more power the item has, the more unstable it's likely to become.

This is how cursed items get made, or even artifacts - thing is, it might actually be beneficially unstable, or annoyingly so.

Plus, there's tons of rules on how to do artificing without requiring XP costs - which is a big reason why I wrote the book in the first place.

And no, I don't make any money if you go out and buy the book

(I never made any money on it at all, anyway...)

 

[Prophet2b]

You have to blow some of your experience to make it all work. That might be okay for your hero type who will get it back in a day, but it doesn't work too well for those who want to make magic items full time. Once in a while, he'd have to go out and kick some monsters to get "fuel for his magic forge".

In my campaign, only the PC's actually earn XP. Of course... in the next campaign, there won't even be that (more plot-based leveling). XP, though, is a guide or rule of thumb for when character's may level. We think, too often, of XP in video game terms (points I need to advance). That's not it at all. It's just experience. A commoner who is a farmer can advance by farming - the more he farms, the more experience he has in farming, so the higher level farmer he becomes.

Same for all the other NPC's in the world. So... that "cost factor" I wouldn't apply to NPC's.

Dunno if that actually helps at all, but those are my thoughts, anyway...

Otherwise, the Artificer in Eberron is really cool.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I'll look into that book, Kluger.

 

[Vrecknidj]

I like the idea of different ways to "power" magic items, with spending your own XP being but one of those alternatives. Others could include: using others' xp, using special items, using the magic from other (existing) magic items, ability score damage (and/or drain), tapping energy from nature, tapping energy from planes.

Haven't worked out a system though.

Dave

 

[evilbob]

I have house ruled that all magic items take 1 day per 1000g of the cost (instead of the price) of the magic item, to try to mitigate the time restriction reason you listed above.

This has had no negative or unbalancing impact on the campaign, and has helped move the story along more smoothly. In a wider analysis, "time spent" making a magic item is rarely a large concern, because it is generally something that happens while the other characters are experiencing downtime anyway (who wants to leave the wizard behind?). I highly recommend this house rule, and may explore further reductions in time cost in the future.

 

[Spatzimaus]

IMC, we sped things up a bit. We threw out the whole item creation feat list, and instead made a sequential feat chain (Enchant Trinket, Enchant Minor Item, Enchant Moderate Item, Enchant Major Item, and then the epic ones.)
If you have just Enchant Trinket, it's 1 day per 1000 gp. If you have the second feat, it jumps to 1 day per 2000 gp. If you have the first three, it's 1 day per 3000 gp. And so on.

Also, once you get to Moderate Item status, you can include a "power component", a rare material that offsets up to 10% of the cost (both GP and XP, which means it reduces the time needed as well); the exact amount offset depends on the component. The epic feats let you use 2, 3, or even 4 power components. These components almost always require a small sidequest of their own; you can't just buy Red Dragon Blood at the corner store. But it does mean that the players can accumulate, in the course of their adventures, a bunch of rare materials to be used to make crafting easier.

As of 3.5E, the days spent making the item don't need to be consecutive any more (in 3E, they had to). So, you can start an item, go adventure a bit, then finish it up later; the only real requirement is whatever days you DO spend making the item must be full 8-hour days in a quiet area.

Some people allow other players to provide the XP needed for an item; I'd only allow that if the crafter had an appropriate Feat AND only if you split the cost 50-50.

Plus, IMC there's an Artificer PrC for those people who want to make items. It's a 5-level PrC I've posted on this board before (can't remember where), and it's not really intended for someone to take all 5 levels. Take a couple, get some extra item-making abilities at the expense of some spellcasting, and you'd be fine.

 

[Quartz]

First, there is the time factor. It might be alright for some professional crafter and seller of magical items to take a couple of weeks making that powerful sword, but heroes often don't have the time - villains won't wait for them, at least, it's like this in many campaigns I played and which I ran.

Then surely that's the GM's fault for not allowing the time in the first place? Which is best solved by a conversation between the player and GM. It's like the character who's taken a lot of mounted combat feats only for the mounted combat to be house-ruled even. And if our GM is expecting you to take item creation feats, then they should jolly well plan in time for the use of those feats. Equally, though, there should be the odd adventure when there is no time, but that should be the exception, otherwise you're being unfair to the character.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Then surely that's the GM's fault for not allowing the time in the first place?

I think it's rather the game's fault, because it forces us to play games with bits of action between weeks of inaction.

I don't say that I want all my campaigns to be one adventure after the other, where the villain doesn't wait for the characters to finish their newest toys, but those shouldn't be impossible or make it impossible to make/commision magic items.