Crafting is an optional skill that many players choose to take so they can customize their own items or save money.
To craft an item, the player must have the appropriate Craft skill. These are learned like any knowledge skill, though Craft skills come in many sub-varieties (Alchemy, Armor, Baskets, Books, Bows, Calligraphy, Carpentry, Clothing, Dragoncrafting, Glass, Gunsmithing, Jewelry, Leather, Shoes, Weapons, etc.). Players can learn as many craft skills as they want as long as they have skill points to use for them. Note: when crafting traps, poisons, locks, herbs, and magical items you use separate skills, not Craft.
You also need the proper tools to complete the job. The type of tools required depends on the craft. To use Craft (Leather) you probably need leatherworking tools; to use Craft (Armor) or Craft (Weapons) you will need access to a workshop with smithing tools, a forge, and heat-treating oven. Talk with your GM to determine which tools are appropriate for the kind of crafting you want to do.
The crafting process is as follows.
At any point, even from the beginning, you can simply pay the item's entire market price to acquire the item without requiring any more skill checks. However, if 20 + your craft score is not enough to hit the DC of the item you want to craft, then the item is simply beyond your skill, and you cannot craft it at all.
If you are creating a non-masterwork item and you beat the DC by 5 points on your first craft roll, the item is high quality, and its market price is twice normal if you choose to sell it. Alternately, you make the item into a masterwork item, paying all the usual costs for it (see below).
All items are categorized on a scale of how difficult they are to craft, from simple items up to epic ones. The simpler the difficulty, the lower the DC. The standard DCs and construction time for each level are as follows.
| Difficulty | DC | Estimated Crafting Time |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | 15 | 4 hours |
| Average | 20 | 16 hours |
| Difficult | 25 | 32 hours |
| Very Difficult | 30 | 48 hours |
| Masterful | 35 | 64 hours |
| Epic | 40+ | Per GM |
Some crafting jobs require repetitive manual labor that could be performed by unskilled or semi-skilled helpers. At the GMs discretion, you may recruit unskilled help when it comes to certain crafting tasks. The GM will determine the maximum number of assistants you can have given the nature of the job and the tools available. Unskilled assistance only affects the crafting time of a job, though you would have to pay hired labor for their time. An extra assistant doesn't necessarily halve the crafting time, since supervision, training, and correction of labor takes a good deal of time itself. The GM should adjust this time as appropriate. Assistants don't need to make ability checks of their own, since the entire success of the craft, supervised help included, will fall under your skill check.
During downtime you can use your craft skill to earn a decent wage. Make a Craft check and. The result of your roll equals the number of gold pieces that you earn for a week's worth of work.
You can repair an item with the same Craft skill and DC that you need to create it. Repairing costs 1/10 the item's price per integrity point restored.
Crafting masterwork items (different from those of masterful difficulty) generally requires more time and money. When attempting to craft a masterwork item, the following guidelines apply.
The amount of roleplay you use when crafting is up to you and your GM. You may play with no roleplay at all, simply assuming all the materials are nearby and making the skill check over downtime. Alternately, your GM may want to you roleplay the gathering of materials and the construction of an item, especially if it is the first time creating the item or if the item itself is fairly unique. This might just require establishing how you're doing your crafting before hand-waving the process. For example, when first settling in a town, if you have Craft (Armor) skill, may need to first acquire tools and a shop to work in. After that, you'll need to find a good source of metal and leather, and perhaps someone who can supply you with rare materials needed in the construction of a unique set of armor. After the first time sourcing materials, it's likely you'll only need to reference your existing contacts before beginning another project. After this initial set-up, you may not need to be involved in the logistics of crafting anymore, simply making craft checks when time allows.
Some items have special considerations or custom creation rules, as follows.
Alchemical items allow players a cheaper, mundane method of replicating some low-level magical effects. When determining the difficulty level of an alchemical item, find the closest spell that has approximately the same effect. Use that spell's level to determine the difficulty of the alchemical item.
| Comparable Spell Level | Crafting Level | Crafting DC | Crafting Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 0 | Simple | 15 | 2 gp. |
| Level 1 | Average | 20 | 6 gp. |
| Level 2 | Difficult | 25 | 25 gp. |
| Level 3 | Very Difficult | 30 | 56 gp. |
| Level 4 | Masterful | 35 | 100 gp. |
Crafting armor requires access to a workshop with the proper tools and equipment, including a forge. Most armor can be constructed at an average difficulty level (DC 20), though heavy armor is usually difficult.
You have extraordinary, professional cooking skills. In addition to the work you might find around town, you may also use your culinary proficiency to aid your party when on campaign. You must have the necessary cooking equipment (a well-made travel cooking set) as well as fresh ingredients to get any added benefit. High-quality ingredients can add a bonus to your Craft (cooking) check (+1 for uncommon quality to +3 for rare ingredients). With your cooking skill, you can attempt one of the following each day:
Unlike other items, crafting a poison is never completely a pass-fail endeavor. After expending the crafting material for the required crafting time, make a Poisons check. This check sets the DC of the poison. Poison DCs can never be higher than their Max DC though.
Sometimes this DC will be lower than desired. If so, you can still use this weaker version of the poison, or you can try again to boost the poison's potency. To do this, expend half of the cost and crafting time and make another Poison check. If you beat your old DC, you set the DC to the result of your new roll. You may repeat this as many times as you like, paying the cost and time again to re-roll.
Minor poisons can be created in 4 hours. All others require 8.
With the Craft (Weapon) skill you are able to craft most all basic thrown and melee weapons. Crafting bows, crossbows, or their ammunition requires the craft (bows) skill instead. At the GM's discretion, some other crafting skills may be able to make certain categories of weapons. For instance, Craft (smithing) would be able to make basic peasant weapons with blades like sickles or scythes. Likewise, Craft (leather) would likely be able to create a whip. Some wooden weapons (like a quarterstaff) could be made with Craft (carpentry).
Most weapons are crafted at an average difficulty (DC 20), though peasant weapons, polearms, and some bashing weapons (per the GMs discretion) may be simple difficulty instead.
Exotic weapons are more difficult to create if you don't have experience creating them. Some exotic weapons may require research, schematics, or special training (per the GM). Others may simply require a good description of the weapon. Regardless, when creating any unfamiliar weapon, your craft checks will be made at disadvantage, at least until you have some experience in their creation.
You can learn almost any other kind of craft imaginable that fits the campaign and your character's backstory. Some common craft skills include: Baskets, Books, Calligraphy, Carpentry, Clothing, Glass, Jewelry, Leather, Painting, Shoes, Tattoos. For these, your GM will determine the difficulty level of your craft attempt, along with the cost and crafting time, applying the standard rules listed above.
Creating magic items is similar to creating mundane items, though the process uses exotic materials, magic enhancement, and a knowledge of Magic Items. Magic items require material costs, crafting time, and skill checks, just like mundane items, though to enchant an item, you also need to be able to cast the requisite spell to imbue it with magic. The required spells are listed under the magic item's description. If you cannot cast the spell yourself, you may get someone else to do so for you.
The highest spell level used to create a magic item determines the DC used to resist the item's effects. This DC is equal to twice the highest spell level (scrolls and staves use the caster's DC)
How hard an item is to craft also depends on its spell level. The DC for crafting (not using) the item is as follows.
| Difficulty | Spell Level | DC |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | 1-2 | 15 |
| Average | 3-4 | 20 |
| Difficult | 5-6 | 25 |
| Very Difficult | 7-8 | 30 |
| Masterful | 9 | 35 |
| Epic | Artifacts | 40+ |
(Optional) Curses, Flaws, and Catastrophes: Magic items are dangerous things and should be respected. At times the creation can backfire, even if an item is apparently created. If item creation barely passes (within 5 points of the DC), the GM may consider giving the item hidden quirk. To players the item appears to function normally, but on very rare occasions it exhibits unpredictable behavior. For instance, a Screaming Bolt +1 on 1-2% of stealth checks may accidentally let out a loud noise. Or a Belt of Stability may actually cause fatigue 5% of the time when slept in overnight. Or a regular Longsword +1 may occasionally flicker with light once and a while, or refuse to come out of the scabbard one in every 50 times its drawn. These quirks should be interesting, annoying, or funny, not critical or life threatening. Nor should they be a common occurrence, maybe only manifesting on very rare occasions.
Sometimes, though, item creation goes catastrophically wrong. Items that fail by 10 or more points might become cursed. Cursed items may not function, though the wielder believes they do, or they may have the opposite effect or be unreliable. They may also compel their wielders to exhibit involuntary behavior (compulsive cleaning of the item, eating more than normal, waste of money of material on certain behavior, loss of abilities or level drain, compulsion of an alignment shift, penalties to skill checks, easily distracted behavior, or other penalties).
Generally, armor will have less than the standard AC (Cursed Breastplate -1) and weapons will do less damage and be harder to use (Longsword -2). The wielder may not be aware of this behavior at first. In addition, if the curse is readily apparent and the item is worn, it may not be easily removable, requiring a Remove Curse spell to be cast before this is possible.
On a catastrophic failure (as determined by the GM), the item creation process may not only fail, but immediately produce unexpected behavior. Perhaps Wand of Summon Monster immediately summons monsters who attack, potions blow up in a massive fireball, an extradimensional object opens a portal to another plane and a demonic entity steps out. In such cases, the material used in creating the item is completely destroyed and the process would have to be started anew.