View source for Craft Artifice (3.5e 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 10 or 20 on Craft (Artifice) checks.

You can only make magic items that have a number of uses before they run out, as your capability at making magic items isn't good enough with this skill alone to permanently bind magic to matter. Thus only things like wands, potions, scrolls and the like can be made.

Furthermore, unless you actually possess the ability to cast the spell the item's creation requires, your ability to craft the item is hindered. While you can emulate spells using this skill and your magical talent, you can only emulate spells of a level equal to 1/6 your ranks in this skill. Thus you're stuck with 1st-level spells until rank 6, 2nd-level spells until rank 12, 3rd-level spells until rank 18, and 4th-level spells until rank 24, etc. If you can't emulate or cast the spell, you can't make the item.

To determine how much time and money it takes to make an item, follow these steps.

#Find the item's Craft [[SRD:DC|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-half 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 [[SRD:DC|DC]]. If the result × the [[SRD:DC|DC]] equals the price of the item in gp, then you have completed the item. (If the result × the [[SRD:DC|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 [[SRD:DC|DC]] reduce the time in the same manner.) If the result × the [[SRD:DC|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 25gp 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 13gp 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 × [[SRD:DC|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 Wand of Magic Missile at CL 8 using his Craft Wand feat. Normally, the item would cost 2,625 gold, 210 XP and take 5 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 28 (7 x 4). Second, for simplicity, he must find the item's price in sp (Which is 52,500sp; 5,250 x10). Third, he must find the item's normal progress per day, which is 1050gp (8,000 divided by 5), which is 10,500sp. 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 28, and adds that number to his 10,500sp progress for the day. When his total reaches 52,500sp, he has completed the wand, and in all likelihood, this will occur before 5 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, unless you can emulate the spell (See above). 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 [[SRD:DC|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.
Article Balance	Very High +
Author	Zhenra-Khal +
Identifier	3.5e Skill +
Rated By	Ghostwheel +
Rating	Rating Pending +
Summary	A Craft skill for crafting minor magic items without needing to spend a half-dozen feats. +
Title	Craft Artifice +