I'm trying to craft Bracers of Armor +8. Only 3 in my party have the craft wondrous items feat - my PC Cleric 17/Warpriest 1, Elanee and Sand. I have all the ingredients but unfortunately Sand the transmutation wizard can't cast the required spell mage armor :rolleyes: . I thought I had found a workaround by getting Sand to cast the spell from the Staff of Defence (usable only by wizards and sorcerers). But it didn't work - the message that was displayed was "Your caster level is not high enough to craft this item."

The recipe says caster level 16 only is required and Sand is level 18. Is this a bug? :confused: Why wouldn't the game recognize that the right spell is cast by a character with the right feat surpassing the required level?

I tried getting Sand to cast mage armor on himself using the staff and it worked.

I'd guess because the spell level for wands, staves etc. is some set number and for the Staff of Defense it happens to be lower than 18.

IIRC though, the crafting requirements indicate that the spell must be cast by the crafter, not by using a wand or something else, so maybe that's all it is.

If you haven't used Zhjaeve a lot, you could give her the Craft Wondrous Items feat, since she have the Mage Armor spell.

Or let her scribe it on a scroll for Sand to use. But you are perhaps to far for that?

I don't think you can craft items without being able to cast the spell yourself (meaning the crafter can memorize the appropriate spell). I seem to recall that being part of the rules of crafting.

Anyone know for sure?

Actually it is all about Caster Level. If you use a wand or another item, your effective Caster Level is fixed to 10 which is to low for higher level items.

As noted Bracers of Armor +8 requires Caster Level 16.

Scrolls should be fixed to Caster Level 10 also, but I have heard it appears to be bugged, and people have reported that they have used scrolls successfully in making higher level items.

But Mage Armor can be scripted as a scroll and Sand should be able to memorize it.

Or Zhjaeve, as I said before, can be given the Craft Woundrous Item Feat.

[ January 19, 2007, 00:54: Message edited by: Ironhawk Skylord ]

Ironhawk is right. I did further testing and Sand can successfully craft Bracers +1, +4 and +5 (and presumably +2 and +3 too), but the same message about level not being high enough appeared when I used him to try to craft Bracers +6 and +7. Since Bracers +5 requires caster level 10 and Bracers +6 requires caster level 12, the effective caster level must be 10 as Ironhawk pointed out if non-memorized spells (scrolls, wands and item properties) were used.

If there is a bug that allows crafting with scrolls at higher levels I am not able to test in this case. You see, Sand won't be able to memorize or even use, a scroll of mage armor because he is a specialist wizard in transmutation and conjuration spells are off limits to him :( . That was the crux of my problem.

And it's too late to give Zhjaeve the craft wondrous items feat. I got her late and if I remember correctly, I spent her last feat at level 18 on Toughness :p . No more feats until level 21 for her and that is not going to happen.

Anyway, thanks, guys. At least now I know why.

Maybe I should've played a wizard instead. :rolleyes:

Ah that's right.

Sand's banned school is conjuration. And too bad with Zhjaeve.

Guess my advice wasn't worth much then. :(