Magic Item Creation

If you have item creation feats (or access to those feats from cohorts or other NPCs), you might want to use time between adventures to craft magic items, either to create new items from scratch or add abilities to existing items. If the desired item is something out of the Core Rulebook and you have the appropriate feats, the GM's role is mainly to approve or disapprove the creation of the item. If there is a chance for you to accidentally create a cursed item by failing the skill check by 5 or more, the GM should roll the check in secret so you don't know whether or not the item is cursed.

If you want to create an entirely new type of item or add properties to an existing item, the process requires discussion and cooperation between you and the GM. The following sections address common concerns and problems about magic item creation.

Pricing New Items

The correct way to price an item is by comparing its abilities to similar items (see Magic Item Gold Piece Values in the Core Rulebook), and only if there are no similar items should you use the pricing formulas to determine an approximate price. If you discover a loophole that allows an item to have an ability for a much lower price than a comparable Core Rulebook item, the GM should require using the Core Rulebook price — that is the standard cost for such an effect. Most of these loopholes stem from trying to get unlimited uses per day of a spell effect from "command word" or "use-activated or continuous" descriptions.

Cooperative Crafting

If you need another character to supply one of an item's requirements (such as a wizard creating an item with a divine spell), both you and the other character must be present for the entire duration of the crafting process. If the GM is using the downtime system, both characters must use downtime at the same time. Only you make the skill check to complete the item — or, if there is a chance of creating a cursed item, the GM makes the check in secret.

If the second character is providing a spell effect, that character's spell is expended for the day just as if you were using one of your own spells for a requirement. If the second character is a hired NPC, you must pay for the NPC's spellcasting service for each day of the item creation.

Upgrading Items

Adding more magic to an existing item can be quite simple or very math-intensive. If the item's current and proposed abilities follow the normal pricing rules (particularly with weapons, armor, and shields), adding the new abilities is a matter of subtracting the old price from the new price and determining how many days of crafting it takes to make up the difference.

For most other items, GMs should use the multiple different abilities rule: increase the cost of the new ability by 50%, add that to the item's current price to get the new total, then subtract the old price to determine the difference.

For staves and items without a magic item slot, pricing is more complex — the highest-level spell is at 100%, the next-highest at 75%, and all others at 50%. Adding a new spell between the lowest and highest level can alter the cost of other abilities. Because staff pricing is so complex, a GM might want to forbid adding new abilities to staves, or limit new abilities to the lowest-level spell already present.

Note: The multiple similar abilities rule is specifically for items that don't use a magic item slot; it cannot be used for slotted items.

Recharging Charged Items

The Core Rulebook doesn't allow item creation feats to recharge charged items such as wands. Wands are already the most cost-effective form of expendable spellcasting (minimum 15 gp per charge, vs. 25 gp per scroll use or 50 gp per potion use), and allowing recharging would devalue scrolls and potions further. A wand's lower price increment would also make partial recharging trivially easy during short downtime periods.

A GM who wants to allow wand recharging can require a minimum of 25 charges added to offset this advantage — forcing you to spend a larger amount of gold at once rather than topping up a few charges at a time.

Altering Existing Items

The Core Rulebook doesn't allow item creation feats to alter the physical nature of an item, its default size, shape, or magical properties — for example, changing a steel +1 longsword to adamantine, or converting boots of speed into an amulet of speed. Many GMs may decide these transformations are impossible or not cost-efficient. GMs who do allow them should keep the following warnings in mind:

Adjusting Character Wealth by Level

Crafters can build gear at half price, potentially exceeding the Character Wealth by Level guidelines — especially new characters starting above 1st level, or those with Craft Wondrous Item. GMs shouldn't negate this advantage by reducing treasure (that nullifies the feat choice), but also shouldn't let crafters double the expected wealth. As a guideline:

• Allow a crafting PC to exceed WBL by about 25% — fair for one crafting feat.
• Allow up to 50% if the PC has multiple crafting feats.
• If a crafter makes items for party members, count the excess value against the crafter's allotment — not each recipient's.

Creating Items For Profit

The standard campaign expectation is that PCs earn wealth through adventuring, not by running a crafting business. Selling items to an NPC shopkeeper only returns half price, so simply crafting items at half cost and selling them full price is not intended. However, the downtime system lets you build a magic shop and earn income from it. A typical magic shop earns about 3–5 gp per day — not because items sell fast, but because expensive items sell rarely. GMs have two options for resolving this:

Talismanic Components

Fantasy and myth are rife with exotic materials used to create magic items — meteoric iron, unicorn horn, dragon blood, vampire ichor. The Core Rulebook's item creation system is very abstract, treating all crafting supplies as a generic gold cost. Talismanic components add story flavor and local color: a +1 flaming longsword becomes a more interesting artifact if giving a weapon a +1 enhancement requires stardust, and a flaming weapon requires a fragment of a fire elemental's spirit.

Example Components