Magic Item Crafting

Step One: Note the item's Caster Level

Scrolls, potions, or wands: the crafter must meet the minimum CL to cast the spell stored in the scroll, potion, or wand.

Arms or armor: the caster may only enchant up to a +1 effect on the arm or armor per three caster levels. Remember that an arm or armor must be at least +1 before any additional "effects" are added. Effects include special abilities such as ghost touch.

When determining the CL of arms or armor, its CL is its Enhancement Bonus x 3. For arms and armor with a special effect, the CL is given in the description of the special effect. In the case of arms or armor with both an enhancement and an effect (which is required), use only the higher of the two CLs (either enhancement or effect).

Cloaks of resistance: the caster may only enchant up to +1 per three caster levels. So to make a cloak of resistance +3, the caster level must be 9.

All other items: the CL is part of the difficulty of creating the item, explained below.

Step Two: Be sure you have the right feats and spells

A caster may bypass:

• a spell requirement by raising the crafting DC by 5 per spell
• a class requirement by raising the crafting DC by 5 per spell
• an alignment requirement by raising the crafting DC by 5

...and so on.

A caster may not bypass:

• the feat requirement of the item to be crafted
• the material cost

Note that supernatural or spell-like abilities do not count as spells for the purposes of crafting or meeting CL pre-requisites.

Step Three: Roll the appropriate skill versus the item's magical crafting DC

Determine the check DC: the DC is 5 + CL of the item + 5 per pre-requisite that the crafter does not meet.

Roll the dice: The character may elect to roll the dice, or to "take 10." For the check, the character may roll any one of the following:

• Spellcraft, OR
• Craft/x, where x is a category that applies to the item being produced. Weaponsmithing, for example, would work for a sword, but not armor.

Failing the roll results in some consequences. From the PRD: Failing this check means that the item does not function and the materials and time are wasted. Failing this check by 5 or more results in a cursed item (see Cursed Items for more information).

Restrictions and Benefits

Crafting an item requires 8 hours of uninterrupted time, and a dedicated place to work. Due to Dramatic Time, characters may continue to 'work' even though they participate in scenes. They are also, unless the situation happens to be unusual, considered to have access to most materials so long as they can afford them. Because of this continual, and flexible, work environment, Tenebrae does not support the rules for speeding up crafting time.

It takes one day per 1000 gold in the base price in the item to craft. Exceptions are scrolls and potions, which may take 2 hours if their base price is 250 gold or less. If their base cost is more than 250, they take 8 hours, just like any other item.

Finally, casters must be able to personally cast the spells for the item they are making. If they're unable to cast, they raise the DC by 5 for every spell they're missing.