Crafting arms, armor & wondrous items

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Been playing this game for a few days straight (and not getting very much work done because of it) and I'm wondering when crafting an item or a masterwork arms/armor can I go straight to a +3 item or do i have to do it in stages?

And also are all the properties (for lack of a better word) you can craft on to an item/weapon/armor stackable/cumulative(sp?)?

Thanks in advance.

 

You can enchant your weapons in stages, or all at once. You can enchant a weapon to +1, quest a li'l longer, then return home with more XP to burn and push it up to +2 or +3. But, only three bonuses are allowed. So if you push your weapon up to +3, you won't be able to add any of the other nice effects. If you want fire, you'll have to be satisfied with a +2 Fire weapon. Which is tough, because you don't get the ability to enchant the really nice abilities 'til the higher levels, but you can enchant a weapon up to +3 right from L5.

As for items, they're one-shot deals. If you make a +2 Amulet of Endurance, you can't upgrade it to a +4 or +6. You just have to start over.

As for armor, I don't if they fixed it in the newest patch, but the Spell Resistance feature was bugged - it would give you a Spell Resistance of 0. None too impressive. But it may have been fixed in the newest patch. Easiest way to tell - save your game, enchant it, and then check if it worked.

So my recommendation is to upgrade your weapons and armor inch by inch, whenever you have the spare XP and cash. And don't hold out for the elemental abilities - just push your weapons and armor to +3 as soon as you can. But wait to craft items until you can afford the top-of-the-line models.

 

Crafting won't be useful till late in the game. First, it needs XP to go beyond +1. Still better than shops, worse than treasure. Next, it costs gold. Half the worth of it, but still.

All in all, you can live without it.

Ah, and I suppose it's better to have wizards have it than sorcerers (less feats to burn) or clerics (they can't make DEX or INT items as they lack the spells).

 

Live without crafting?!? Heresy!

Crafting is useful as soon as you get it - L3 for items, L6 for weapons. Don't hesitate to burn your XP to get top-of-the-line gear.

Druids make the best item-crafters because they get all the stat-boosting spells, though some items like bracers and ioun stones require arcane casters. Clerics of Law, Chaos, Good, or Evil can enchant weapons with the Axiomatic, Anarchic, Holy, or Unholy properties (respectively).

There are only a few items that are better than craftables. There's an icy greatsword and a fiery longsword deep in the Temple, and the elven armors are nice for your high-DEX characters. But if you want something magical beyond the ordinary swords and daggers, you'll need to craft it.

Best idea: Install the Circle of Eight patch so that all masterwork weapons and armors are available from the Hommlet blacksmith. Then pick a sacrificial NPC or two to suck dry of XP. Your party will be the better for it.

 

What Grey said. Seriously Chev, play the game through twice. Do it first without crafting any items at all. And second time don't dodge away from the fights (so you'll miss out on experience) and make one character fully oriented to crafting.

I've played several games now with a mage doing crafting for the party. The only problem ever was money which wasn't needed for anything else anyway. And the mage never dropped more than about 1 level behind others, which isn't at all bad. And he still reached maximum level before the elemental nodes.

Even if you designed your party to fit all the best ready-made weapons and armor in the game, it still wouldn't be nearly as strong as a party with crafted items.

The only bad things in it are the following:

-You must exploit the crafting system so you make only one bonus at a time, in order to conserve experience and cash. While this was no problem to me, I can understand if someone out of principle would refuse to do this.

-To make best of weapons, you must also exploit the bug where you can instill multiple effects on one item. Let's just say 2 rapiers of +3 with frost burst, shock burst and fire effects on them doing a combined damage of around 20-40, per weapon, per strike, can be quite insane in battle. I used them with my ranger.

-As said above, you can make such weapons that combined with extreme skill and extreme items (gloves of whatever +6, resistances +3, etc) there is really no challenge left in the game. There is nothing in the game that could defy such a party. Save the bugs in combat of course (only reason I don't go hardcore).

 

Awww... my cleric has Craft Wondrous Item and my wizard has Craft Magical Weapons and Armour. Damn, it seems it should be the other way round My cleric is an LG or NG (I don't remember) cleric of Pelor, so no Law domain. Next, he doesn't have the Good domain chosen. No holy swords for my paladin, I bet, even if I make the cleric take the feat and double the wizard on that.

 

No shame in restarting! I've restarted countless times to shuffle parties and experiment with weird combinations. My four rogues/one cleric and four wizards/one druid were great. All crafted to the max!

 

Nah, I even chose diviner for my wizard's specialty. It makes me spend half my slots on crappy divination spells no matter the level. Means I'd be able to cast 4 fireballs were she an evoker, but instead I have to cast 2 fireballs and 2 clairvoyance spells. Not like it's altogether bad: I'll simply have to learn to make the best use of divination spells, which will ultimately improve my skill. At any rate, my dear mage even without spells has a better Attack Bonus than the dwarven tank and about the best AC in the party, so she owns anyway

 

I've taken masterwork items, and slapped +3/flaming-shocking-icy-burst/holy/keen onto sword and maces. Done the same thing with bows and crossbows (omfg having all that on a projectile weapon is awesome). All at one time, and in stages. Your mage and cleric should have craft weapons. Holy is fairly useful at the beginning of the game, up until you reach the second level of the temple. Keen is plain awesome, since your front fighters will usually be surrounded. Your druid (or cleric) should have craft items, STRICTLY for the Circle of Intelligence +6. That thing makes the game so much more enjoyable. Back in the days of 2nd edition rules, everyone always had the lore rating. So your bard could identify things, left and right. But identifying things in TToEE is a nightmarish chore; alleviated with the CoI6.

Even if you don't craft a single weapon, put the item craft on your druid and get that CoI6 as soon as possible.

Having your projectile people (usually my thief and wizard) using all the "bursts" on their weapons can really conserve your spells. The backline spellcasters are always a problem, and they don't stand up to the burst projectiles long enough to cast spells. Taking spellcasters off-line really start to become the primary task when you're down in the last few levels of the Temple. Mostly it (burst projectiles) will let you do more, per Temple run, than you would otherwise. I wouldn't say it transforms an otherwise un-winnable battle. It just makes the game more enjoyable.


Bottom Line:

CoI6, at whatever cost. Burst projectile weapons, if you use them. Keen melee weapons if you get the chance.