Talk:Creation Ex Xeno (3.5e Feat)

I usually suck at balancing, so here's a question

Is this overpowered? I know that any given Xeno could use it to make money, but aside from that, is it beyond most feats? I did some math, and my first draft of it was insane(you used GP instead of SP on the craft checks, resulting in being able to make a masterwork item or even powerful weapons in a instant), but I think it's somewhat balanced now. I could be very wrong, though, but then again, with the wish economy, this feels rather minor, since you can't make a magic item. But it can make a catapult and a few shots if you spend enough. That's another thing, does the 5GP per Bio-Energy spent seem balanced? Maybe more per point? And the Bio-Energy Drain multiplier effect, too much, maybe? In any case, I wish for input, since this is a feat I wish to see used by more then just me.--YX33A 19:57, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

So as it is, an ordinary CON 18 character can make 180 GP (160 GP by spending 4 points and draining 3, then 20 GP by spending 1 point and draining 3) of stuff each hour? That's very good for a level 1 character; it probably stops being good at about level 5 or so. A level 12 character with Increased Biocapacity to boost their Bio-Energy pool and 26 Constitution will be able to make 93600 GP (81920 GP by spending 12 points and draining 3, then 10240 GP by spending 9 points and draining 3, then 1280 GP by spending 6 points and draining 3, then 160 GP by spending 3 points and draining 3) of stuff each hour, which is still quite good, but not ridiculously excessive because it's just nonmagical stuff. Unless you meant that the Drain doubling would be on top of the normal doubling, in which case you should multiply the aforementioned numbers by 8, which would make this into quite the impressive tactic.

Of course, because you use SP instead of GP on the craft checks, this isn't going to be much of an ability for getting crafted items when you need them; most of the time, you'll probably try to just mass-produce raw materials to solve problems with. After all, you can make at least 320 pounds of copper as a full-round action at level 1: imagine how much you could create if you went for something cheaper.

Wizard-level feats are supposed to be pretty nuts, and I think this one fits. If you don't want things to get quite this out of hand, though, I'd probably suggest reducing it to 1 GP instead of 5 GP, and make crafting much faster. Also, you might want to consider a weight limit: although it's funny, a level 12 alien that squirts out 93 tons of copper per hour is not something one generally considers to be "believable". --Foxwarrior 03:35, 19 January 2011 (UTC)