Magic Item Creation

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Basics of Magic Item Creation

To create magic items, spellcasters use special feats which allow them to invest time and money in an item’s creation. This functions exactly as making a a mundane item with the Profession skill, but with a few additional requirements.

Crafting Prerequisites

All magic items have prerequisites in their descriptions which must be met for the magic item to be created. Most of the time, these take the form of spells that must be known by the item’s creator (although assistance is allowed, see Cooperative Crafting below).

Crafting DC

The DC to create a magic item is 5 + the caster level for the new item. A creator can create an item at a lower caster level than her own, but never lower than the minimum level needed to cast the needed spells.

The DC increases by 5 for each prerequisite the caster does not meet. The requisite item creation feat is mandatory. You cannot create potions, spell-trigger, or spell-completion magic items without meeting the prerequisites.

The skill used to craft a magic item depends on the spells or other esoteric abilities being used. Arcane Lore is used for arcane spells, Theology or Natural Lore for divine spells, and so forth. When enchanting a mundane item, such as weapons or armor, the appropriate Profession skill is needed to craft the base item before it can be made magical.

Determine the Costs

As with mundane items, you must pay half of the base price of the item for raw materials. For many items, the market price equals the base price. Armor, shields, weapons, and items with value independent of their magically enhanced properties add their item cost to the market price. The item cost does not influence the base price (which determines the cost of magic supplies), but it does increase the final market price. See Magic Item Gold Piece Values below for more details on determining the exact costs.

Just as with mundane items, each item requires a number of craft points to complete the item. Each magic item requires 1 craft point for every 100 gp in its base price. In general, you can gain 1 craft point per hour of work (but see the Profession skill).

In addition, some items cast or replicate spells with costly material components. For these items, the market price equals the base price plus an extra price for the spell component costs. The cost to create these items is the magic supplies cost plus the costs for the components. Descriptions of these items include an entry that gives the total cost of creating the item. Costly material components also increase the number of craft points needed to complete the item.

You must spend the gold at the beginning of the construction process.

Any spell used in the crafting of the item must be expended as part of the process. When expended, a successful skill check is necessary to bind the magic to the item. If the check fails, then the spell is lost to no effect, and another casting of that spell must be expended before the item can be finished.

Example Crafting

Jules is a wizard who wishes to craft an enchanted short sword for the party’s rogue. He decides to make the sword himself. A masterwork short sword has a base price of 310 gp and a craft DC of 20 (15 + 5 for being masterwork). It will require 4 craft points to complete. Because of his high Profession skill, Jules is easily able to forge the masterwork short sword.

Now, Jules must enchant it. To enchant the sword, he needs the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat. He decides to create a +1 Keen short sword. This has a total Weapon Bonus of +2, making the final base price for the enchantment 8,000 gp. This has a caster level requirement of 3 for the +1 enhancement bonus and 5 for the keen edge spell, which is a 3rd-level spell. The final DC to craft the item is 10, and it will require 80 craft points to complete.

Jules spends the 4,000 gp for raw materials and begins crafting. Rather than make checks by the hour, he decides to dedicate an entire day to crafting. At the end of the day, he makes an Arcane Lore check, with a result of 19. The craft DC is 10, so he earns 1 craft point for a successful check plus one bonus point for exceeding the DC by a multiple of 5. These 2 points are then multiplied by 8 for the full day’s work. He has earned 16 craft points towards the completion of the sword. If he maintains this rate, he’ll finish with just four more days of work.

Cooperative Crafting

If a character needs another character to supply one of an item’s requirements (such as a wizard creating an item with a divine spell), the supporting character may make the skill check to bind the spell. The cleric providing the divine spell to the wizard mentioned above may choose to make the Theology skill check instead of the wizard.

Only the primary crafter needs to make the other skill checks to craft the item.

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

Magic Item Gold Piece Values

Many factors must be considered when determining the price of new magic items. The easiest way to come up with a price is to compare the new item to an item that is already priced, using that price as a guide. Otherwise, use the guidelines summarized on Table: Estimating Magic Item Gold Piece Values.

Finding the Correct Value

The correct way to price an item is by comparing its abilities to similar items, and only if there are no similar items should you use the pricing formulas to determine an approximate price for the item. If you discover a loophole that allows an item to have an ability for a much lower price than is given for a comparable item, the GM should require using the price of the item, as 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 the “command word” or “use-activated or continuous” lines of the table.

Examples

Rob’s cleric wants to create a heavy mace with a continuous true strike ability, granting its wielder a +20 insight bonus on attack rolls. The formula for a continuous spell effect is spell level × caster level × 2,000 gp, for a total of 2,000 gp (spell level 1, caster level 1). Jessica, the GM, points out that a +5 enhancement bonus on a weapon costs 50,000 gp, and the +20 bonus from true strike is much better than the +5 bonus from a standard weapon enhancement, and suggests a price of 200,000 gp for the mace. Rob agrees that using the formulas in this way is unreasonable but points out that true strike doesn’t add to damage the way an enhancement bonus does and suggests that pricing is too high. Jessica agrees but believes that a +20 to all attack rolls to still too strong and settles on a cost of 150,000 gp. Rob eventually decides to craft a +1 heavy mace using the standard weapon pricing rules instead, since he can’t afford that high of a price.

Patrick’s wizard wants to create bracers with a continuous mage armor ability, granting the wearer a +4 armor bonus to AC. The formula indicates this would cost 2,000 gp (spell level 1, caster level 1). Jessica reminds him that bracers of armor +4 are priced at 16,000 gp and Patrick’s bracers should have that price as well. Patrick agrees, and because he only has 2,000 gp to spend, he decides to spend 1,000 gp of that to craft bracers of armor +1 using the standard bracer prices.

Some new items are really existing magic items with a different weapon or armor type, such as a dagger of venom that is a rapier instead of a dagger or a lion’s shield that’s a wooden shield instead of a metal shield. For these items, just replace the price of the non-magical masterwork item with the cost of the new type of item. For example, a rapier of venom has a price of 8,320 gp instead of the dagger of venom’s price of 8,302 gp.

Table: Estimating Magic Item Gold Piece Values
Effect	Base Price	Example
Ability bonus (enhancement)	Bonus squared x 1,000 gp	Belt of incredible dexterity +2
Armor bonus (enhancement)	Bonus squared x 1,000 gp	+1 chainmail
Bonus spell	Spell level squared x 1,000 gp	Pearl of power
AC bonus (deflection)	Bonus squared x 2,000 gp	Ring of protection +3
AC bonus (other)1	Bonus squared x 2,500 gp	Ioun stone (dusty rose prism)
Natural armor bonus (enhancement)	Bonus squared x 2,000 gp	Amulet of natural armor +1
Save bonus (resistance)	Bonus squared x 1,000 gp	Cloak of resistance +5
Save bonus (other)1	Bonus squared x 2,000 gp	Stone of good luck
Skill bonus (competence)	Bonus squared x 100 gp	Cloak of elvenkind
Spell resistance	10,000 gp per point over SR 12; SR 13 minimum	Mantle of spell resistance
Weapon bonus (enhancement)	Bonus squared x 2,000 gp	+1 longsword
Spell Effect	Base Price	Example
Single use, spell completion	Spell level x caster level x 25 gp	Scroll of haste
Single use, use-activated	Spell level x caster level x 50 gp	Potion of cure light wounds
50 charges, spell trigger	Spell level x caster level x 750 gp	Wand of fireball
Command word	Spell level x caster level x 1,800 gp	Cape of the mountebank
Use-activated or continuous	Spell level x caster level x 2,000 gp2	Lantern of revealing
Special	Base Price	Adjustment Example
Charges per day	Divide by (5 divided by charges per day)	Boots of teleportation
No space limitation3	Multiply entire cost by 2	Ioun stone
Multiple different abilities	Multiply lower item cost by 1.5	Helm of brilliance
Charged (50 charges)	1/2 unlimited use base price	Ring of the ram
Component	Extra Cost	Example
Armor, shield, or weapon	Add cost of masterwork item	+1 composite longbow
Spell has material component cost	Add directly into price of item per charge 4	Wand of stoneskin

Multiple Similar Abilities

For items with multiple similar abilities that don’t take up space on a character’s body, use the following formula: Calculate the price of the single most costly ability, then add 75% of the value of the next most costly ability, plus 1/2 the value of any other abilities.

Multiple Different Abilities

Abilities such as an attack roll bonus or saving throw bonus and a spell-like function are not similar, and their values are simply added together to determine the cost. For items that take up a space on a character’s body, each additional power not only has no discount but instead has a 50% increase in price.

0-Level Spells

When multiplying spell levels to determine value, 0-level spells should be treated as 1/2 level.

Other Considerations

Once you have a cost figure, reduce that number if either of the following conditions applies:

Item Requires Skill to Use

Some items require a specific skill to get them to function. This factor should reduce the cost about 10%.

Item Requires Specific Class or Alignment to Use

Even more restrictive than requiring a skill, this limitation cuts the price by 30%.

Prices presented in the magic item descriptions (the gold piece value following the item’s slot) are the market value, which is generally twice what it costs the creator to make the item.

Since different classes get access to certain spells at different levels, the prices for two characters to make the same item might actually be different. An item is only worth two times what the caster of the lowest possible level can make it for. Calculate the market price based on the lowest possible level caster, no matter who makes the item.

Not all items adhere to these formulas. First and foremost, these few formulas aren’t enough to truly gauge the exact differences between items. The price of a magic item may be modified based on its actual worth. The formulas only provide a starting point. The pricing of scrolls assumes that, whenever possible, a wizard or cleric created it. Potions and wands follow the formulas exactly. Staves follow the formulas closely, and other items require at least some judgment calls.