With base price being defined as how much the item is priced in the store, and not the discounted cost for crafting the item.
Correct.
Items you can buy from the store usually have a CL listed.
For example, the Ring of Invisibility has a CL 3rd, so a player would need to take a DC 8 spellcaster check to successfully craft the item.
No, oddly enough. The crafter of the item sets its caster level, from a minimum of whatever it takes to cast the requisite spells (or other requirement listed for the item), to a maximum of the crafter’s own caster level. Since caster level typically costs money, increases DCs, and so on, most crafters use the lowest caster level possible for the item.
The caster level listed with items is the “typical” caster level for that item, where “typical” is more-or-less just something the authors made up. For most items, it is the minimum (e.g. that ring of invisibility, requiring as it does the 2nd-level invisibility spell, which has a minimum caster level of 3rd), but there are exceptions (e.g. sovereign glue, which has an absurd listed CL of 20th, despite only really requiring 3rd for make whole).
From what I can gather, the cost to craft a magical item with multiple abilities costs the full price for the most expensive bonus, then 1.5 times the price of each additional bonus.
Correct.
It is worth noting that D&D 3.5, upon which Pathfinder is based, added a rule in Magic Item Compendium that certain, basic sorts of bonuses do not incur this premium. For instance, making your ring of invisibility also include a deflection bonus to AC (à la ring of protection) would not cost extra (just the cost of ring of invisibility plus the cost of ring of protection), because deflection bonuses to AC were one of the “generic” bonuses you could have on rings. Other examples included enhancement bonuses to ability scores, resistance bonuses to saving throws, etc.
This change allowed for characters to get their critical math fixes, while still allowing them to get “fun” and interesting items. It led to a much smoother game that penalized characters less for being responsible and buying the critical, but boring, +number items.
I will admit that Paizo not only has not ported this rule, but adamantly opposes it with its recommendations. Paizo considers it important that characters pay extra for combining such items. I will state flat-out that they are quite simply wrong. This attitude massively, and unnecessarily, shafts the classes that were already weakest. I cannot more strongly recommend that you ignore them on this issue.
Lets say I want to craft a Ring of Invisibility and also enchant it with Magic Aura so that it registers as a non-magical ring.
Your example is done correctly.
- Does adding the Magic Aura effect to the Ring of Invisibility increase the final Caster Level of the ring, and thus the DC spellcaster check? If so, by how much? Just 1 since I used Caster Level 1 to add the effect, making the ring a CL 4th with a DC 9 spellcaster check?
Caster level requirements are minimums, so use the highest minimum as the overall minimum of the item. In this case, magic aura requires CL 1st and invisibility requires CL 3rd, so the ring requires CL 3rd. You could craft with a higher CL (requiring a higher DC), which would make the ring more resistant to dispel magic et al.
When you upgrade a magical item or add additional abilities to an existing magical item, do you take a DC spellcaster check at the end of the crafting time? The rules do not state this outright and I've not been able to find an answer.
- If you do, do you use the CL of the new ability for the check? With the example for adding Invisibility to a ring of protection, would the DC of the spellcaster check be that of the CL of the ring of Invisibility (3rd), or something else?
The DC would be based on the item’s CL, whatever it is. At a minimum for this ring, 3rd.
Does the CL of the item increase when upgrading an item? Bracers of Armor has a CL 7th regardless of the strength of the enchantment bonus. Would upgrading the bonus from +1 to +3, or +1 to +5, still use a DC 12 spellcaster check?
If you were correct about bracers of armor requiring CL 7th regardless of enhancement bonus, you would be correct. I believe there may be some examples where this would be the case.
However, the bracers of armor do not require CL 7th. Rather, they require that
creator’s caster level must be at least two times that of the bonus placed in the bracers, plus any requirements of the armor special abilities
Greater Restoration can un-curse a creature, but has no specific effect on undead.
Part of the greater restoration spell text says the following:
You imbue a creature you touch with positive energy to undo a debilitating effect. You can reduce the target's exhaustion level by one, or end one of the following effects on the target:
One curse, including the target's attunement to a cursed magic item
The spell does not mention anything about souls or undead creatures.
You mentioned that the jar's magic has "corrupted and twisted" the townsfolk into undead creatures. You are the author of this homebrew item, therefore you will need to decide whether that counts as a "curse" for the purposes of greater restoration. Otherwise, the system does not provide a precedent.
If it is, then greater restoration could plausibly have some effect here, by removing the curse from the targeted creature. But then you need to decide what happens to one of these creatures if the curse is removed. Would they revert to their humanoid form? Would they still be dead, or do they return to life? Would they be conscious? Would they be soulless (whatever that means)? You will need to decide these details.
If the corruption is not a curse, then nothing happens.
Best Answer
If you absolutely must have these creatures in combat and only in combat, then your only option is to turn them into figurines of wondrous power like the Bronze Griffin (level 19) and the bloodstone spider (level 11) Note well, your blade spider has errata applied to it, so it may not be as useful as you think it is. They exist at every level (therefore, have them priced at the level of the creatures) with the text:
Just note that their hitpoints should be significantly lower than a "real" creature's, to reflect their eternal nature.
The reduce beast ritual (level 7, Dragon 405) is almost what you're looking for, but as the beast takes a few turns to grow, it's not appropriate for in-combat use. It is reasonable to house rule a paragon tier version of it that works with literal pokeballs. Note that most rituals are designed to not be combat appropriate, so make sure there's a significant cost involved with this.
Beyond that, I'd recommend rituals for swapping things out before you go into a dungeon.
There are many options that exist for Arcane familiars, like the Safe Retreat (level 15), unfortunately, they don't work particularly well for more... "real" things.
I would use the Primal Grove, not least because it's one of my favourite rituals for moving armies around.
The primal grove ritual (Level 19, primal power) creates a persistent extradimensional space:
So it's a great place to keep people. With 10 minutes (or fewer if you specialise) and 4k (which at the levels you're talking about is literally pocket change). The 10 minute casting time is handy because you can't pull it out during battle, which means it doesn't need to be balanced for battle.
Alternatively, if you read the hireling rules liberally, it seems to be viable to have a level-appropriate hireling (cost * 3 equivalent to sage) be able to cast specific rituals.
What you'll need, therefore, are 3 pairs of sending stones (level 11) and 2 ritualist casters. The follow the voice ritual (level 16) allows the caster to teleport to the location of the last activated stone:
The real trick is that there's a 24 hour use limit on pairs of stones and casters.
Therefore, there are two operations that you'll be performing: "sending" and "receiving" The sending operation has one pair speak to you through one of your personal stones, the first one casts follow the voice, teleports himself, his buddy, and your ally to you. They drop off the ally, collect whomever needs collecting, and the casting buddy returns.
The third pair of stones is for your fellow PCs. Sometimes, you'll want to teleport an injured companion back, and you'll need to home in on a PC's stone instead.