The Eldritch Craftsman
It’s a new year, and we have a new schedule here at Necromancers of the Northwest. To celebrate the triumphant return of Magic Market, our one-stop-shop for new and exciting magic items, we’ve set aside an entire week to the theme of magic items, and so it should be no surprise that today’s archetype is all about magic items, both creating them, and using them to accomplish things that most spellcasters can only dream of. Among other things, accessing spells from every spell list!
New Arcanist Archetype
Eldritch Craftsman
The ways of magic are mysterious and complex, and the mechanics of binding magic to physical items is even more difficult to comprehend, for most. But to some, when magic is laid out on a scroll, bound in a wand, or otherwise attached to the physical world, its secrets reveal themselves more easily. Eldritch craftsmen are devoted students of the arcane who do their best magical work with magical items.
Eldritch Craft (Su):When crafting a magic item, an eldritch craftsman can expend points from her arcane reservoir in order to ignore spell requirements of crafting that item, without increasing the DC to craft the item. She must spend 1 point for each spell requirement that she ignores.
Additionally, whenever an eldritch craftsman drinks a potion that she created, casts a spell from a scroll, staff, or wand that she created, or uses a spell-like ability from an item that she created that replicates a spell exactly, she may expend 2 points from her arcane reservoir. If she does, the spell’s caster level and saving throw DC are not reduced to the minimum, and use her actual caster level and primary ability score information. This has no effect on items that the eldritch craftsman did not create herself, or on spell-like abilities which function similarly to existing spells, but with slight differences.
This ability replaces the arcanist exploit gained at 1st level.
Empower Magic Items (Su):Beginning at 3rd level, the eldritch craftsman can draw upon her arcane reservoir in order to provide power to a potion, scroll, staff, or wand. Whenever she uses a potion or scroll, she may expend a number of points from her arcane reservoir equal to the level of the spell contained in the item. If she does, then the potion or scroll is not expended, and can be used again. Similarly, whenever she uses a wand or staff, she may expend a number of uses from her arcane reservoir equal to 1/2 the level of the spell contained in the item (rounded down, minimum 1 point). If she does, that use of the wand or staff expends one less charge than it otherwise would (to a minimum of 0 charges). This item in question must still have at least one charge (in the case of staves and wands), and must not have been otherwise expended or destroyed. This ability has no effect on other items that use charges.
The eldritch craftsman cannot use this ability when using a potion, scroll, staff, or wand to replicate or cast a spell that has costly material components. If she fails to use the item (such as because she fails a caster level check to use it), she still loses the points spent on this ability.
This ability replaces the arcanist exploit gained at 3rd level.
Arcane Dabbler (Su):Beginning at 7th level, an eldritch craftsman can use scrolls, staves, and wands which contain spells that are not on her spell list. In the case of scrolls, the eldritch craftsman can choose to ignore the requirements that the spell be of the correct type (arcane or divine), and the requirement that she have the spell on her class’s spell list. However, if she chooses to do so, she treats her caster level as 4 lower for the purposes of determining if her caster level is high enough to automatically activate the spell without a check. If this causes her to have to make a caster level check to cast the spell, the -4 penalty applies on that check, as well.
In the case of staves and wands, the eldritch craftsman can attempt to activate a staff or wand even if the spell contained in the staff or wand is not on her spell list. In order to do so, she must succeed on a caster level check (DC 10 + twice the spell level). If she succeeds on this check, she is able to cast the spell from the staff or wand as though it were on her spell list. If she fails, the charge from the staff or wand is still expended, but there is no effect.
This ability replaces the arcanist exploit gained at 7th level.