Kaorti Resin Parsing

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

this process costs the kaorti experience points equal to 50% of the market price for a masterwork item of the appropriate type. After that, a kaorti can reduce the cost to make a magic item by 5 gp for every XP spent, to a minimum of 35% of the normal cost (and it must spend at least 1/5th the base item's cost in XP)

Let's go slowly. 50% of the market price for a masterwork item of the appropriate type is -- for items that aren't weapons, armor, shield, staves or non-weapon rods. So that makes the xp cost for that first sentence zero for such items.

With the exception that the base items consist of resin, all other material aspects of the item's creation are exactly as described in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Spell components, chemicals, and other materials are still required. Magic weapons, armor, rings, staff, rods, and all other magic items can be crafted from kaorti resin. And in normal crafting how much XP is expended to get that juicy 50% off? 1/25th of the market price (DMG). So a Kaorti will spend 4% of the market price in xp just from normal crafting.

For every XP spent ... a kaorti can reduce the cost to make a magic item by 5 gp. Since 4% of the market price is already spent marking an item, this means a kaorti can look forward to a 4%*5=20% reduction on one of the above types of items. This means an automatic reduction down to 80% just from normal crafting. The 35% cap is very low. But how to get there...

The parenthetical is an example and it must spend at least 1/5th the base item's cost in XP) and like many examples has an error. Specifically its missing a two. If this weren't an error then it just became five times more costly in xp to craft an item! This would mean every kaorti resin item would hit the 35% cap because otherwise it would be free! Here's the real rule: Magic supplies for items are always half of the base price in gp and 1/25 of the base price in XP.

Let's assume the items crafted don't have costly spell components: For many items, the market price equals the base price. ... some items cast or replicate spells with costly material components or with XP components. For these items, the market price equals the base price plus an extra price for the spell component costs. Getting an item down to 80% before other modifiers is nice, but how do we hit that 35% cap? Masterwork items are not that expensive. It must be in the costly spells, right? Are there any worth-while items for the extra 45%?

Example +5 tome with a market price of 137,500 gp and a base crafting cost of 6,250 gp + 25,500 XP:
The XP alone is worth 127,500 gp. The raw gp cost should be 50% of what is built into the market price so 6,250*2 = 12,500 after markup. It seems the tomes are all 'off' by 100xp * the amount of stats it gives. So 100xp too much for the +1, 200xp for the +2, etc.
Anyways a kaorti's 25,500 XP would reduce the price by 127,500 gp down to 8%. Now we've hit the 35% cap! So it only costs 6,250 *.35 = 2187.5gp (+ 25,500 XP).

Somehow, this isn't the powerhouse I expected.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

hmm ... so instead of being totally borkt (boo !!)
it's just a super-Craft-omatic feat ... kill joy ... 
with a more complicated / expensive cost structure.

Pssst -- hey Kaorti guy, I gots a discount crafting guide I wants to give you.