How does one craft weapons and armor in D&D? Assume I have a high enough crafting skill to create the item: how do I know what materials I need? What is required to make say, standard scalemail armor?
[RPG] How to craft weapons and armor
armorcraftingdnd-3.5eweapons
Related Solutions
Unless Warcraft changed something, mundane crafting does not cost XP
Mundane crafting requires Craft skill checks, but no Item Creation feats, and the costs are only time and money, not XP. Specifically, they cost a mere ⅓ of the base price of the item, but crafting takes a number of weeks equal to
(P×10)/(DC×check)
where P is the item's usual price in gold pieces, DC is the Craft DC, and check is the crafter's Craft check result. This formula results in phenomenally long times, but at ⅓ the cost there is a lot of savings.
Magic items require XP, but that is easily replaced
In many places, XP costs are replaced with gp costs or vice versa at a 1:5 ratio. Since magic items cost 50% the base cost in raw materials and 4% the base cost in XP, you can apply the same conversion: five times the 4% is 20%, which can be added on to the existing raw material cost to get 70%.
Thus if magic items simply cost 70% of the base price to craft, instead of 50%, but don't require XP, this is consistent with the original system. Taking an Item Creation feat only enables a 30% discount but doesn't leave you behind.
I have played in quite a few games that make this change; it didn't dramatically improve the popularity of Item Creation feats for players, but it does make them much less of a headache for the DM.
If playing with Eberron Campaign Setting (the book, regardless of whether you play in Eberron) in play, the artificer and Artisan feats do require a little more tracking: it is important to remember that 50% of the base price is the original raw material gp cost, while 20% is the "XP" cost. The artificer's Craft Reserve and Retain Essence class features, as well as the Artisan feats, should be applied before adding these together as the 70%. The Craft Reserve should also be multiplied by 5 gp/XP for consistency.
If either is too expensive, these items were not intended for characters of their level
These processes both result in significant discounts. The value of items is used to control the power of items that players have at a particular level, which is part of the system used to try to ensure that enemies the same level as the players are challenging without being impossible. Making items cheaper or giving players more gold may allow them to steamroll opponents; making items more expensive or giving players less gold, or giving them gold but no place to spend it, may leave players without the tools they need to contribute.
In my experience, there are many classes that just barely find the default wealth rules sufficient for their needs – if they spend carefully. Other, more powerful classes are not nearly so needy, and could do with less. As a result, reducing wealth is something I strongly recommend against – it disproportionately hurts the classes that were already weakest.
On the other hand, I tend to find the system has a fair amount of room for extra wealth before players really start to steamroll. Thus, your choice to make it easier to get items is a move in the better direction.
But do be careful; wealth expectations are a rather fundamental design assumption of the game. Great care should be taken when modifying it. I tend to recommend that new DMs stock fairly close to the guidelines. It takes experienced DMsa lot of care to get modifications to wealth to work the way they want.
Creators usually don't roll to create magic items at all
Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 creatures usually don't need to make rolls to create magic items. A creature takes an item creation feat, picks an appropriate magic item to create, buys the raw material (usually costing half the price of the magic item), and, if the creature meets the prerequisites, spends the appropriate amount time, raw materials, and XP. When all that's done, the creature's created the magic item, and usually no rolls have been made. (There's more to this than that, of course, but these are the rules at their most basic.)
As an aside, when the magic item's creator purchases the raw materials for creating a magic item, the creator's usually purchasing everything (except the workspace) needed to create that magic item (except in specific cases). For example, a creator needn't itself use the skill Craft (leatherworking) to create by hand the actual masterwork leather haversack that's going to become a Heward's handy haversack. That masterwork leather haversack's cost is subsumed in the raw materials' cost. A DM may give a discount on the cost of raw materials needed to create a magic item if the creator makes or already possesses some of the raw materials, but that's usually a savings so small it's a debate not worth time at the table.
An artificer can ignore some of a magic item's creation prerequisites by making successful Use Magic Device skill checks
The typical artificer only needs to make Use Magic Device skill checks to ignore one or more of a magic item's prerequisite (DC 20 + the item's caster level). During the time the artificer takes to create the magic item, the artificer must succeed on a Use Magic Device check only once per prerequisite that the artificer doesn't meet.
Examples
- A typical artificer with the feat Scribe Scroll but without access to the spell cure light wounds must succeed on one Use Magic Device skill check (DC 21) to create a scroll of cure light wounds (1st-level spell at caster level 1) (25 gp; 0 lbs.). Such a scroll takes 1 day to create, expends raw materials valued at 12 gp 5 sp, and causes the artificer to expend 1 XP.
- A typical artificer with the feat Craft Wondrous Item but without access to the spell Leomund's secret chest must succeed on one Use Magic Device skill check (DC 29) to create a Heward's handy haversack (2,000 gp; 5 lbs.). Such a haversack takes 2 days to create, expends raw materials valued at 1,000 gp, and causes the artificer to expend 80 XP.
This is explained in greater detail below.
Long Explanation
The artifcer's extraordinary ability item creation says
An artificer can create a magic item even if he does not have access to the spells that are prerequisites for the item. The artificer must make a successful Use Magic Device check (DC 20 + caster level) to emulate each spell normally required to create the item.
Thus, to make a 1st-level wand of magic missile, an artificer would need a Use Magic Device check result of 21 or higher. To create a bottle of air (caster level 7th), he would need a check result of 27 or higher to emulate the water breathing prerequisite. (Eberron Campaign Setting 32)
The game wants you to use either a magic item's listed caster level (for magic armor special abilities, magic weapon special abilities, and wondrous items) or an item's appropriate caster level (for potions, scrolls, staffs, and wands). This is why the example bottle of air—the typical one having a caster level of 7—requires a Use Magic Device skill check (DC 27).
(Note that this is the path of least resistance. Technically, because—like many magic items—the bottle of air's caster level is not a prerequisite for its manufacture and the spell water breathing is a 3rd-level Sor/Wiz spell, an artificer could make a bottle of air with a caster level as low as 5, but the artificer is powerful enough without reducing to their absolute minimums the caster levels of printed items.)
The artificer must make a successful check for each prerequisite for each item he makes. If he fails a check, he can try again each day until the item is complete (see Creating Magic Items, page 282 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide). If he comes to the end of the crafting time and he has still not successfully emulated one of the powers, he can make one final check—his last-ditch effort, even if he has already made a check that day. If that check also fails, then the creation process fails and the time, money, and XP expended to craft the item are lost. (Ibid.)
Each prerequisite the artificer doesn't meet requires the artificer to succeed on a Use Magic Device skill check (DC 20 + the item's caster level) once and only once during the item's creation. If the item takes more than 1 day to create, the artificer can retry a failed check each day of the item's creation. If the artificer's about to complete the magic item and hasn't succeeded on one or more Use Magic Device skill checks to fake a prerequisite, the artificer gets one last chance to make a Use Magic Device skill check for each unmet prerequisite on which he hasn't succeeded. Failure on any of these checks wastes the gp, time, and XP. Success on all of them creates the item.
For purposes of meeting item prerequisites, an artificer’s effective caster level equals his artificer level +2. If the item duplicates a spell effect, however, it uses the artificer’s actual level as its caster level. Costs are always determined using the item’s minimum caster level or the artificer’s actual level (if it is higher). Thus, a 3rd-level artificer can make a scroll of fireball, since the minimum caster level for fireball is 5th. He pays the normal cost for making such a scroll with a caster level of 5th: 5 × 3 × 12.5 = 187 gp and 5 sp, plus 15 XP. But the scroll’s actual caster level is only 3rd, and it produces a weak fireball that deals only 3d6 points of damage. (Ibid.)
(That is, it's a weak fireball unless a level 3 artificer needs to explode the evil baron's squad of 10 War1 guards from 500 ft. away or something.) The artificer, then, is allowed to create items early and is tacitly granted potential access to magic spells (via items that emulate spells) before the party wizard.
An artificer can also make Use Magic Device checks to emulate nonspell requirements, including alignment and race, using the normal DCs for the skill. He cannot emulate skill or feat requirements, however, including item creation feat prerequisites. He must meet the caster level prerequisite, including the minimum level to cast a spell he stores in a potion, wand, or scroll. (Ibid.)
This allows the artificer to make items like a dwarven thrower (with its prerequisite of creator must be a dwarf of at least 10th level) or a weapon with the magic weapon special ability unholy (with its prerequisite of creator must be evil), but an artificer can't employ the extraordinary ability item creation to make, for example, a folding boat (with its prerequisites of 2 ranks in the Craft (shipmaking) skill).
Note: The answer above assumes the DM rules that the artificer's special ability item creation can be used concurrently with standard item creation instead of replacing standard item creation. If the DM rules the artificer's special ability item creation replaces standard item creation, the artificer will need to make successful Use Magic Device skill checks for all of a magic item's prerequisites, even those the artificer already meets. This DM does not endorse such a ruling.
Best Answer
Mundane Item Crafting, Step-by-Step
These rules use exclusively the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. I'll gladly upvote answers that take on official sources beyond these.
Let's Craft Scale Mail!
Axebeard MacDwarf is Int 10 with 7 ranks in the Craft (armorsmithing) skill. He has masterwork artisan's tools. He has a +2 racial bonus to Craft skills related to metal, and there's metal in scale mail. His total skill bonus for the Craft (armorsmithing) skill when making scale mail is +11. MacDwarf buys scale mail raw materials, costing an inconvenient sum that the DM permits him to acquire for only 16 gp. The DC for making scale mail is 14. MacDwarf has a week, so he takes it, converting the 50 gp price of scale mail to 500 sp. He takes 10 on the Craft (armorsmithing) skill check for a result of 21. He's made 21 × 14 = 294 sp of progress on his scale mail. Give him another week, and he's done. If he wanted to—or if he was interrupted—, he could track progress by the day, and by taking 10 make 294 cp of progress per day; it will take MacDwarf more than a week if he takes individual days to complete the scale mail at that pace, however.
Let's Craft A Picture of That Lady!
The Crimson Lothario wants to impress a lady. He is Int 18 with 10 ranks in Craft (painting) and has Craft (painting) artisan's tools, for a total bonus of +14. Crim set his own price on the painting of 100 gp, and the DM lets him spend only 33 gp on raw materials. Crim's player asks the DM what the DC for nice painting is. The DM consults the table on PH 71 and picks 15. Because he doesn't have a model to work from, the DM rules Crim can't take 10. Crim wants to work by the day (he's got adventures to go on, after all) so the painting's value in cp is 10,000. The first day he spends painting Crim rolls a 15 for a result of 29, making 15 × 29 = 435 cp of progress on the painting. After he returns from an adventure, he has a week off, so he paints and rolls a 3 for a result of 17, making 15 × 17 = 255 sp progress on the painting. Hey, a few more weeks (like, three) and he'll be done.
"Wait a minute. That means…?!"
If you've gotten this far, you might have noticed some—let's be fair—strangeness in these rules. You've noticed that the higher the Craft DC of the item (i.e. the harder it is to make), the faster it can be made. So setting DCs arbitrarily high isn't always bad thing if by taking 10 the craftsman can still beat the DC. Yes, that means most DMs will rule it's faster for a craftsman to make thieves' tools than it is 10 ft. lengths of chain because most DMs will set the DC for the thieves' tools higher (probably a high quality item) than the DC for the chain (probably a typical item).
That's kind of okay. The number of folks who can consistently make lengths of chain far outnumber the folks who can consistently make thieves' tools, so it's not like there's a thieves' tools glut and chain shortage or anything. But it is still weird.
Welcome to D&D 3.5e economics.
"O, that's too much work!"
You're right. That's why there are shops. But, besides that, you can make it less work. Untrained hirelings cost 1 sp per day, and the Craft skill can be used untrained (PH 64). Your hirelings will need artisan's tools (probably) but using the rules for aid another (PH 65-6) should allow you to simply buy success. The DM may limit the number of assistants you can have (perhaps to just 1 if the DM's stingy about the bonuses from favorable circumstances (PH 64)), but it's an option, especially if you're that close to being able to beat the DC by 10.
The best way to speed this process is via the spells fabricate [trans] (PH 229), minor creation [trans] (PH 253-4), major creation [trans] (PH 252), and true creation [trans] (SpC 224). The DM, however, when using even these spells may still mandate appropriate Craft skill checks for complex items.
"But where does firewood come from?"
You chop wood with an improvised tool and use the Craft (carpentry) skill check untrained. Firewood costs 1 cp; fractions round down; one-third of a cp is 0 cp; raw materials are free. The DM rules that crafting firewood is DC 5. Spend the day karate chopping trees, taking 10 on the Craft (carpentry) skill check for a result of 8 x 5 = 40 cp of progress made per day (essentially, you're making 1 check every 12 min.). Make 40 cp (800 lbs.) of firewood in a day. Sell that firewood for half price (as per D&D Econ 101) and earn 2 sp. Buy a poor meal (1 sp) and 2 mugs of ale (8 cp total) and put the remaining 2 cp away for a rainy day. Congratulations, peasant. You're alive. I hope your family home isn't threatened by an owlbear so you can continue to take 10.