# How does the Master Craftsman feat work?

The feat Master Craftsman allows opportunities for non-caster classes to fabricate magic items. If a level 6 fighter has both Master Craftsman and the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feats, how would this work? Since a fighter does not have spells for the requirements, how is this handled?

What would the DC be for a 6th level fighter to craft a +2 longbow using Master Craftsman? Is this even possible without having the spell requirements?

You wish to craft a +2 longbow. First, we must figure out the longbow's Caster Level. We find this under Magic Weapons.

For an item with only an enhancement bonus and no other abilities, the caster level is three times the enhancement bonus.

Which gives us a caster level of 3*2 = 6. You use your number of ranks in the skill you chose to link to your Master Craftsman feat as your caster level for purposes of crafting, so a 6th level Fighter can meet this requirement if he kept his ranks maxed.

Then, we find out the craft DC of the weapon. This we find under Magic Item Creation.

The DC to create a magic item is 5 + the caster level for the item.

Since our character is a Master Craftsman, this skill check is a check of that feat's connected skill. Its DC is 5 + 6 = 11. Since this bow only has an enhancement bonus, our calculations stop, and we have the final DC.

Had this been a more interesting magic item (one that requires specific spells as part of the casting process), this neat clause (again from Magic Item Creation) is likely to be of assistance:

The DC to create a magic item increases by 5 for each prerequisite the caster does not meet. The only exception to this is the requisite item creation feat, which is mandatory.

Alternatively, our Master Craftsman could have enlisted the help of others when crafting magic items with spell requirements, as described under "Requirements" in Magic Item Descriptions.

• +1 Nice blow by blow breakdown; could you add in a note about the feat level pre-requiste (is it relevant any more) and the character level/CL? – Rob Jan 28 '13 at 8:56
• Added a blurb about the craft ranks counting as caster level. Is this what you had in mind? – Ernir Jan 28 '13 at 18:50
• Note that 'creating a magic item' in this sense is actually 'making an existing item magical.' You'd still need to make or buy a masterwork longbow, which costs something in the realm of three hundred gold pieces. – GMJoe Jan 29 '13 at 6:02
• Might be worth pointing out that your character would need to first craft or purchase a masterwork longbow before making the DC11 Craft check to enchant it to +2. The crafting DC for magic items presumes you have a masterwork item to enchant already and does not include the cost/time for the item itself. – Jeff Oct 24 '14 at 13:21
• Remember that your chosen skill has to be Craft (Bows) – ChibiNya May 28 '17 at 18:35

The feat allows you to use your ranks in the appropriate craft skill as your caster level. For all intents and purposes, you could make magic items (specifically armor, weapons, and wondrous items) you could make as a spellcaster of that level.

For a +2 longbow from a sixth level fighter, the DC would be 11. Base DC 5 + 6 from the caster level needed to craft the item.

As for casting the spells that you need to craft certain magic items, you can either use scrolls or have someone cast the spell for you. Further specifics on this are discussed in the magic item creation section of the core rulebook.

Simple enough math for +2 longbow you need the spell number 1 part of magic item creation rules you can achieve this in a couple of ways. You could purchase a scroll or have another party member cast the spell for you as part of the creation if you have neither the DC increases by +5.

You have to be the correct caster level and you aren't you can again increase the DC by +5 I house ruled to control party power that you have to increase the DC by +5 for each caster level that is needed however that is not RAW from base RAW the DC increase is just +5.

So for a level 6 fighter to make a +2 Longbow would be a total craft (bows) DC roll of 16 according to RAW here is the break down (5 which is the base requirement for any magic item crafting + 6 which is the required caster level +5 for not being able to cast the spell = 16)

You can also increase the DC for anything that is missing lets say a character only has a pile of gold equaling 1/2 the value of the item as per the magic item creation rules. You can increase the DC by +5 for not having the needed ingredients that brings it to 21. Say you don't have the needed tools +5 again to the DC bringing it to 26.

Magic item creation according to RAW is broken I have house rule a lot of things in concern to magic item creation for this reason the base system is just terrible if you have the gold and are level 10 with max ranks in a class skill you can basically craft anything you want before even making the rolls.

• Welcome to the site. Take the tour. Just so you know, Magic Item Creation says, "Note that all items have prerequisites in their descriptions. These prerequisites must be met for the item to be created.… The DC to create a magic item increases by 5 for each prerequisite the caster does not meet." This means, for example, proper materials are not a prerequisite that can be skipped by increasing the DC; hammering raw gp into magic items can't be done by skill alone! :-) Thanks for joining and have fun! – Hey I Can Chan Aug 3 '16 at 20:45
• @HeyICanChan: Might want a bit of clarification on which things are and are not "prerequisites" for that purpose. – user17995 Aug 3 '16 at 20:48
• @TuggyNE Fair enough, and, upon further examination, I can see how such a mistake can easily be made. Compare the banded mail of luck on d20PFSRD to the real, official one on the Paizo SRD, and note how the d20PFSRD version changes the separated Construction and Requirements to Construction Requirements. Ye gods, that's subtle and terrible and I never even noticed before. – Hey I Can Chan Aug 3 '16 at 20:57

These answers are both wrong. If I recall correctly, Magic Weapon is a prereq for crafting anything with a +, so actually the dc would be 16 unaided.

• Where did you find that? A citation would seem important to make this claim. – user17995 Mar 1 '16 at 0:56