Treating class level as caster level for feats

[TheIronGolem]

Here's an ability I'm working to implement:

Treat your class level as your caster level when meeting the prerequisites of, and crafting items with, any Item Creation feat as well as when using and researching rituals. This stacks normally with caster levels gained from other sources.

I've thought of a few approaches, but all of them seem deficient in some way:

1. Add class level to the tMaxCaster field - Would cause the hero to qualify for all sorts of things it shouldn't.
2. Add class level to the tMastCraft field - Would work great for Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Magic Arms and Armor...and nothing else.
3. Replace the existing crafting feats - No way; this is for a 3PP and I can't mess with other people's content.
4. Add the "thing.skipprereq" tag to any item creation feats the hero takes - Would prevent validation errors after the feat is taken, but it won't have any effect before that, and it will suppress legitimate errors if the hero doesn't really qualify. Still, this looks like my most likely path if I can't find a better solution.

Has anyone else ever done something like this?

[Aaron]

I think your assessment is accurate. Without access to the core files, number 4 is probably the best of several bad options. This seems to be a trend in pathfinder recently, meet the pre-requisite X of subset A of feats/abilities but not others. It's a tough nut to crack.

[TheIronGolem]

Thanks, Aaron. I did think of a less-terrible Option #5 which I'm going with: Add a note to the ability description advising the user to mark any item creation feats as bonus feats using the "Feat, Bonus" adjustment.

[Aaron]

Fair enough.