Craft Artifice (3.5e Skill)
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Contents
Craft (Artifice) (Int)
A Craft skill for crafting minor magic items without needing to spend a half-dozen feats. Much like any other Craft skill, this allows you to make items. However, the items this skill allows you to make are magical in nature. The skill can also be used to speed up the normal magic item creation process - After all, it makes sense that a skilled craftsman, in any field, would be able to make things faster than one who'd spent less time practicing that skill.
Check
Craft (Artifice) allows you to create minor magic items, though with risk of failure. Unlike normal magic item crafting, this skill doesn't require you to possess the appropriate item creation feat, but it does allow room for error that normal magic item creation doesn't. You must still possess at least some form of magical talent, such as spells, invocations, infusions, mysteries, soulmelds, etc. in order to attempt to create magic items via this skill.
You can craft magic items whose caster level is no greater than your ranks in this skill -3. You can't take 20 on Craft (Artifice) checks.
To determine how much time and money it takes to make an item, follow these steps.
- Find the item's Craft DC. Normally the DC is equal to the the item's caster level x4, or 10 + the item's caster level (Whichever is higher), but some items have specific DCs.
- Pay one-third of the item’s price for the cost of raw materials, and XP equal to 1/25th the item's price.
- Make an appropriate Craft check representing one week’s work. If the check succeeds, multiply your check result by the DC. If the result × the DC equals the price of the item in gp, then you have completed the item. (If the result × the DC equals double or triple the price of the item in gold pieces, then you’ve completed the task in one-half or one-third of the time. Other multiples of the DC reduce the time in the same manner.) If the result × the DC doesn’t equal the price, then it represents the progress you’ve made this week. Record the result and make a new Craft check for the next week. Each week, you make more progress until your total reaches the price of the item in gold pieces.
- If you fail a check by 4 or less, you make no progress this week.
- If you fail by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again.
As an example, a 1st-level Sorcerer with 4 ranks in Craft (Artifice) could make a potion of Cure Light Wounds. The potion normally costs 50gp, and has a caster level of 1, so the potion should be fairly easy to make. The sorcerer must spend 17gp and 2 XP for raw materials. The potion generally doesn't take that long to make, so he makes a DC 11 Craft (Artifice) check. If he succeeds the check, he multiplies the result of his check by 11.
Now, in this case, even if his result was 11, he would have already completed the potion this week, since 11 x 11 is 121. However, if he fails the check by 4 or less, he makes no progress and must wait a week before trying again. If he fails the check by 5 or more, not only does he make no progress, but he must spend 8gp and 1 XP due to ruined materials.
Progress by the Day
You can make checks by the day instead of by the week. In this case your progress (check result × DC) is in silver pieces instead of gold pieces.
Thus in the example of the above Sorcerer, he could measure the price in SP instead of GP, meaning his target price is 500sp rather than 50gp. In some cases, progress is more efficient this way - Allowing the sorcerer to complete the potion in a day or two instead of taking an entire week. But, making checks more often likewise means you may fail more often.
High DCs
Magic items are much more difficult to craft than normal items, and generally have a higher market price. This is why checks made by the week are in gold rather than silver, and checks by the day are by silver rather than copper. However, since the DCs for making magic items are equally high, you have the option of cutting the DC in half. In doing so, you reduce your weekly work to silver pieces and your daily work to copper pieces. This simulates taking your time to make sure you do things correctly. High-level characters with more ranks in Craft (Artifice) will be able to very quickly make less-powerful magic items with little trouble.
Aiding Magical Crafting
If you already possess an Item Creation feat, you can use the Craft (Artifice) skill to speed up the crafting by making skill checks. Determine the "progress" of the normal crafting process for the magic item by dividing the item's base materials cost (Which is half the item's market price) by the number of days required to make the magic item, and round the result up. The result will be how much progress is normally accomplished per day. You can then make a Craft (Artifice) check each day (Using silver pieces). If successful, you add your check's result to the amount of progress made that day, determining progress relative to completion as normal for Craft skills. If you fail, regardless of how badly, you don't waste materials, unlike when crafting magic items without the appropriate feat.
Let's say, for example, that Jareth, an 8th-level Wizard, wants to make a +4 Headband of Intellect using his Craft Wondrous Item feat. Normally, the item would cost 8,000 gold, 640 XP and take 16 days. However, Jareth possesses 11 ranks in Craft (Artifice), so he decides to speed up the process of the item's creation. First he must find the DC, which is 32 (8 x 4). Second, for simplicity, he must find the item's price in sp (Which is 80,000sp; 8,000 x10). Third, he must find the item's normal progress per day, which is 500gp (8,000 divided by 16), which is 5,000sp. So, each day, he makes a DC 32 Craft (Artifice) check. If he succeeds the check each day, he multiplies the result of the check by 32, and adds that number to his 5,000sp progress for the day. When his total reaches 80,000sp, he has completed the headband, and in all likelihood, this will occur before 16 days have passed.
Even with the correct feat, you cannot use the feat the create a magic item whose spell, skill, feat or other special requirements you cannot meet. For example, a Sorcerer can't use Craft (Artifice) to aid in his crafting of a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds because he can't normally create that item anyway, because Cure Moderate Wounds isn't on his class spell list. However, that Sorcerer can still attempt to create the wand using Craft (Artifice) alone, but in doing so, he risks failure and those wasted resources.
Repairing Items
Generally, you can repair an item by making checks against the same DC that it took to make the item in the first place. The cost of repairing an item is one-fifth of the item’s price.
Action
Not Applicable; Checks are made by the week or by the day.
Try Again
Yes, but each time you miss by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again, as with other Craft skills.
Synergy
For every 5 ranks you have in Craft (Artifice), you gain a +1 bonus on Use Magic Device checks made to activate items whose Caster Level is equal to or less than your character level.
Special
Normally, Craft (Artifice) can't be used by those without some magical ability (Meaning spellcasters, invokers, meldshapers, and so forth). However, those with ranks in both Craft (Artifice) and Use Magic Device can use the skill as if they were spellcasters, so long as they succeed a Use Magic Device check each week (Or day). The DC for this special check is equal to 10 + the caster level of the item you're trying to make, or DC 20 if the item doesn't have a specified caster level.
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