Shs:artificing
Introduction
Artificing is the art of creating magic items. The system is based on the 3rd edition PnP system, with a few twists. First, no metamagic feats are required to make magic items - however, there are other requirements to be met. To be an artificer, a character must have at least 7 caster levels - more for some classes. To create a particular item, and artificer must make an artificing check, which is very similar to a skill check. Every time an artificer succeeds at making an item, they gain a percentage of the character experience invested as the item as artificing experience. As an artificer gains artificing experience, they grow in artificing level and are able to make more complicated items.
Artificing was renamed from the "Enchantment system" to avoid confusion with the Enchantment school of spells. Artificing is transmutation magic, but can be done by any spell caster of sufficient level - regardless of their ability to cast transmutation spells.
Minimum Caster Levels
To use the Artificing System, you must have a certain number of levels in a spellcasting class. Palemaster effective caster levels (+1 for every odd palemaster level) are counted as levels of bard, sorcerer or wizard for this calculation. The requirements by class are as follows:
Cleric 7
Druid 7
Sorcerer 7
Wizard 7
Bard 13
Paladin 17
Ranger 17
Levels from multiple spellcasting classes do not stack. So a level 10 druid/3 ranger will be able to scribe druid scrolls, but not ranger scrolls.
Artificing: Scribe Scroll
The first type of artificing implemented is scribe scroll.
Materials
To scribe a scroll you need special paper. Not just any paper will do. The better the paper you use, the better the spell you can put on the paper. All spells are scribed at the minimum level required to cast them - not your caster level. For example, a fireball scroll will be scribed with a caster level of 5. However, it is possible to scribe a scroll with a higher caster level. You will need to special inks to do this. You can reserve multiple ink bottles for use with a single scroll. Further information on paper and ink must be gained ICly. Information about paper, inks, their in-game locations and how to use them in scribing scrolls should be treated the same way as crafting recipes. This information can only be shared ICly.
Using Metamagic Feats
When scribing scrolls, you can enhance the spells stored with metamagic feats. You may use any combination of spells memorized using feats you know and metamagic feats stored in rods. However, the paper used must be able to hold the full power of the modified spell.
XP Cost
Scribing a scroll is the act of placing a small amount of your power into the scroll as a receptacle. Thus every scroll carries with it an XP cost.
NOTE: As of 1.6.0.3, additional XP is spent based on caster level per PnP rules. The formula is:
- (Spell level) x (Caster level) x 0.75.
The minimum XP cost for scribing a scroll are as follows:
- 0th - 1 x 1 x 0.75 = 1 XP
- 1st - 1 x 1 x 0.75 = 1 XP
- 2nd - 2 x 3 x 0.75 = 5 XP
- 3rd - 3 x 5 x 0.75 = 12 XP
- 4th - 4 x 7 x 0.75 = 27 XP
- 5th - 5 x 9 x 0.75 = 34 XP
- 6th - 6 x 11 x 0.75 = 50 XP
- 7th - 7 x 13 x 0.75 = 69 XP
- 8th - 8 x 15 x 0.75 = 90 XP
- 9th - 9 x 17 x 0.75 = 115 XP
- Note: Sorcerers and other casters that have different spell progression tables than wizards will find these minimums slightly higher, due to the higher minimum caster level for those classes.
Determining Success
Just as with the crafting system, the artificing system uses xp and levels. When scribing scrolls, an artificer must have experience with lower-level scrolls before attempting higher-level scrolls. When attempting to scribe a scroll, an artificer makes an artificing check with a DC based on the difficulty of the scroll being scribed. Modifiers to this roll are gained based on the caster's primary spell casting ability bonus, and various skills and pertinent feats that the caster has.
Scribe Scroll Difficulty Categories and DCs
The base DC for scribing a spell is listed below. This DC is increased by 1 for every 4 caster levels invested in the scroll. So a fireball scroll (minimum caster level of 5) scribed by a level 1 artificer, will have a DC of 31. If scribed by a level 2 artificer with a caster level of 10, the DC would be 22.
- Trivial (Base DC 10) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is lower than your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls fails only about 1% of the time, but grant you no artificer experience upon completion.
- Easy (Base DC 15) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is equal to your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls fails only about 2% of the time and grant you artificer xp equal to 25% of the xp you expend in the scroll's creation.
- Challenging (Base DC 20) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is one greater than your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls will fail about 5% of the time, even if you are well-versed in magic. Scribing a challenging scroll will grant artificer xp equal to 60% of the xp you expend in the scroll's creation.
- Difficult (Base DC 30) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is two greater than your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls will fail 10% of the time even if you are very well-versed in magic. Scribing a difficult scroll will grant artificer xp equal to 100% of the xp you expend in the scroll's creation.
- Improbable (Base DC 40) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is three levels greater than your artificer level. Creation of these scrolls will fail 50% of the time even if you are extermely well-versed in magic. Scribing an improbable scroll will grant artificer xp equal to 120% of the xp you expend in the scroll's creation.
- Impossible (Base DC 100) - The level of the spell you are attempting to scribe is four or more levels greater than your artificer level. Attempted creation of these scrolls will fail 100% of the time.
Scribe Scroll Modifiers
- +1 per your spell casting ability modifier bonus
- +1/5 points (ranks plus bonuses) in Lore
- +1/5 points (ranks plus bonuses) in Spellcraft
- +2 for Spell Focus (Transmutation)
- +2 for Greater Spell Focus (Transmutation)
- +2 for Epic Spell Focus (Transmutation)
- +2 for the Scribe Scroll Feat
Creation Time
It takes time to scribe a scroll, the minimum time is 10 rounds. For every 1,000 gp value (rounded up) of the completed scroll, the scroll takes 1 additional round to scribe. Buying and preparing the blank papers also adds to this time but is separate from this creation time.
The Scribe's Mark and Viewing Scrolls
A new item called a scroll viewer is required to view information about player-created scrolls. When using a scroll viewer, five pieces of information will appear:
- Spell Name
- Caster Level
- Metamagic Feats Stored (if any)
- The scribe's name.
- What world the scroll was created on.
Important OOC Information
Player-created scrolls will not stack with Bioware scrolls. They will only stack with themselves, and only if the caster level and metamagic feats used to create the scroll were the same. If scrolls from two different casters are combined, the entire stack will look as if it was created by one of the two casters.
Player-created scrolls are p-merchant, ep-chest and p-chest safe. Putting player-created scrolls in p-merchants and ep-chests will erase the information about who created the scroll, but not the other information. Also, scrolls will be distinguished by DC, even for spells that have no use for their DC. For p-merchants and ep-chests, there is a special format for the entry that will describe the power of the scroll, it is:
(Caster Level) [Metamagic Feats] DC# (Quantity)
The metamagic feats are abbreviated as:
- X: Extended
- E: Empowered
- M: Maximized
- a: Acid
- c: Cold
- f: Fire
- l: Lightning
- s: Sonic
So an 11th caster level, extended, sonic substituted Flame Weapon scroll would show up as:
- Flame Weapon (11) [Xs] DC21 (1)
Player-created scrolls are not split safe!. If a stack of scribed scrolls is split then the new stack will not have any special properties on the scrolls in the new stack, i.e. meta-magic feats and caster level.
Note that artificing is intended to be a gold sink. You are not meant to make money scribing scrolls and selling them to Bioware vendors for large markups. Don't sell any scroll with a Bioware caster level higher than the caster level you invested in the scroll. So if you use the scroll viewer on the scroll and the level it reports is equal to or greater than the Bioware level on the scroll, you can sell it. Selling scrolls with a higher Bioware caster level than the caster level on the scroll is exploiting the engine and is a bannable offense.
Definitions
DC - Difficulty Class. A number that you must equal or beat after rolling 1d20 and adding appropriate modifiers. Spell Casting Ability - This is the ability score that is tied to a spell caster's ability to cast spells. For assassins and wizards this is Intelligence. For bards and sorcerers it is Charisma. For blackgaurds, clerics, druids, rangers and paladins it is Wisdom. When casting a spell the score that is used is always based on the class used to cast a spell.
