Core Rules · Part 1
2. Crafting System
2.1 Basic Crafting
Mundane items can be created at a rate of 10 GP/day with the standard DC. For every 5 that the creation roll exceeds the DC, an additional 5 gp of progress is accomplished.
Example: Jonathan wants to make a Falchion costing 75 gp with a DC of 15. He has 9 ranks in Craft (weaponsmithing), a +3 forge, a +2 Intelligence bonus, and is trained in this skill (+3). Total bonus to check: 17 = 9+3+2+3. He rolls a 15 for a total of 32. This means he accomplished 25 GP of work that day: 10 GP (succeeding the check) + 17 GP (check exceeded by 17, rounded to the nearest 5 = 15 GP bonus... net 25 GP).
2.2 Magical Item Creation
Magical item creation can be accomplished at a rate of 500 gp/day per item creation feat the crafter possesses.
Item Creation Feats (Arcane/Divine)
| Feat Name | Prerequisites | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Brew Fleshcrafting Poison | CL 10, 5+ ranks in Craft (alchemy) | Learn the ancient drow art of creating flesh-crafting poisons. |
| Brew Potion | CL 3 | Create magic potions. |
| Craft Construct | CL 5, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous Item | Create any construct whose prerequisites you meet. |
| Craft Magic Arms and Armor | CL 5 | Create magic armors, shields, and weapons. |
| Craft Ooze | Brew Potion, Craft Wondrous Item, Craft (alchemy) 3 ranks, CL 5 | Create living oozes as though they were magical items. |
| Craft Poppet | CL 1 | Craft poppets and add augmentations to existing poppets you control. |
| Craft Rod | CL 9 | Create magic rods. |
| Craft Shadow Piercing | Craft (jewelry) 5 ranks, CL 5 | Create special wondrous items — typically barbs, hooks, rings, and spikes — that adorn piercings in the wearer's flesh and grant magical abilities. Both you and the recipient must be present for the entire process. |
| Craft Staff | CL 11 | Create magic staves. |
| Craft Wand | CL 5 | Create magic wands. |
| Craft Wondrous Item | CL 3 | Create magic, wondrous items. |
| Cultivate Magic Plants | Brew Potion, Craft Wondrous Item; Knowledge (nature) 1 rank | Grow magical plants. |
| Fleshwarper | Craft (alchemy) 5 ranks, Heal 5 ranks, evil alignment | Create flesh-warped creatures and fleshcraft grafts. A newly created fleshwarped creature has average hit points for its Hit Dice. |
| Forge Ring | CL 7 | Create magic rings. |
| Grisly Ornament | Harvest Parts | Attempt a Craft or Heal check to craft a special trophy called an ornament from part of a creature dead for less than an hour. |
| Grow Plant Creature | Train Plants, Handle Animal 5 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks | Grow plants and perform rituals to invest them with animating spirits, creating assassin vines, treants, or viper vines. |
| Harvest Parts | None | Harvest usable parts from a monster's corpse for use as magical components or crafting materials. |
| Haunt Scavenger | Any item creation feat or Craft (alchemy) 3 ranks | Harvest ectoplasmic remains of haunts, incorporeal undead, or similar entities to craft magic items. |
| Infuse Poison | Brew Potion, Craft (alchemy) 5 ranks, CL 3 | Infuse an ingested poison with any spell of 3rd level or lower you know that targets one or more creatures and has a casting time of less than 1 minute. |
| Inscribe Magical Tattoo | Craft (calligraphy, paintings, or tattoos) 5 ranks, CL 5 | Create magic tattoos. |
| Inscribe Rune | CL 3 | Create magic runes. |
| Monstrous Crafter | Craft Wondrous Item, Grisly Ornament, Harvest Parts | When using the Grisly Ornament feat, permanently integrate one ornament crafted from harvested creature parts into a wondrous item. |
| Scribe Scroll | CL 1 | Create magic scrolls. |
| Bind Elemental (Eb p51) | Craft Wondrous Item, CL 9 | Create items with bound elements, including vehicles such as flying boats. |
| Craft Rune Circle (RoS p137) | CL 5 | Create any rune circle whose prerequisites you meet. |
| Dragoncrafter (Draconomicon pg.116) | Knowledge (arcana) 2 ranks | Create special weapons, armor, and items using dragon parts as materials. Includes Dragonblood Elixir, Dragoncraft Armor or Shield, Dragoncraft Mantle, and Dragonfang Weapons. |
2.3 Fanciful Metamagic Components
The darkness spell has a metamagic component of "coal mined and kept in total darkness." While evocative, such an item is not necessarily hard for PCs to obtain — although there is an inherent disadvantage involved because the component can become "spoiled," a consideration that does not affect the other kinds of metamagic components. For instance, if the coal needed for a darkness spell (or the oil needed for deeper darkness) is ever exposed to light before the spell is cast, it loses its special properties and becomes ordinary.
But legends and folktales are rife with examples of extra power coming from ordinary items handled in a fanciful way. If you use such fanciful metamagic components, which appear on Table: Metamagic Components only rarely, keep a close watch on how they change the economy of the game. If the PCs shy away from adventuring in favor of working as metamagic-component coal miners, the situation is out of hand.
2.4 Monster Parts
A few of the metamagic components listed in Table: Metamagic Components are parts of monsters. Some players want their characters to dissect their slain foes, "harvesting" metamagic components for later use and sale.
There is a fair amount of real-world precedent for the notion that some part of a creature's power remains in its body after it's dead. Dozens of real-world cultures have rituals involving animal parts for this very reason. Fantasy literature has a rich tradition of using strange ingredients such as unicorn horns and dragon scales to accomplish great feats of magic.
But harvesting monster parts is not without its problems. From a game balance standpoint, saying a rakshasa hide is worth 1,250 GP is tantamount to giving every rakshasa in the game world an extra 1,250 GP in treasure — yet it is a treasure that the rakshasa cannot use itself. It is also treasure that the PCs cannot acquire any way other than killing a rakshasa, as opposed to normal treasure, which the PCs could attain by tricking the rakshasa or driving it off.
Requiring the monster parts to be specially prepared ameliorates the problem to a degree — and generally, that is what has been done — because it is assumed that much of the cost lies in the special preparation, not the on-site butchery. If monster part harvesting becomes a frequent exercise in your game, carefully monitor the amount of other treasure you give out.
A second and thornier problem is that many players find harvesting monster parts distasteful, and some players who do not mind the idea might play characters who would be aghast at the very notion of cutting up the dead. Consider carefully the perspectives of your players and their characters.
Harvesting Procedure
If your characters are interested in doing some monster part harvesting themselves, it takes 10 minutes and a DC 15 Profession (taxidermy) check to carefully remove the relevant part, then 1 hour and a DC 20 Profession (taxidermy) check to preserve it so it will not rot or otherwise deteriorate. The embalming materials themselves cost one-tenth of the market price of the finished metamagic component. Unless you use gentle repose, the monster's body deteriorates enough after 15 minutes that you cannot get a metamagic component from it.
With some monsters, it is obvious how many of a particular part they have. As a general rule, one monster provides enough substance for a single casting of the relevant spell. In some cases, the number of parts that can be obtained from one creature is obvious by the nature of the monster (one minotaur can supply enough metamagic components for two castings of maze, and each of a gorgon's four hooves can be used for separate castings of acid fog). If the number of parts obtained is not obvious or does not necessarily follow the general rule, assume that one monster can provide up to 1d4 separate parts suitable for metamagic components.