Let’s Make a Crafting System
Last time we talked about magic items, we talked about the mechanical problems we face, as well as how crafting worked in previous editions. A year ago, I released my spreadsheet on pricing magic items. Today, we are going to be combining those topics into making a suitable crafting system… or at least getting the groundwork going on it. Let’s not waste any time, we have a lot of ground to cover.
Crafting Magic Items
We want to craft magic items, and here are the problems I’m thinking of going into this.
We need some sort of gate to keep just anyone from crafting anything they want. If we want magic items to feel ‘special’ or ‘rare’, this gate might be even more restrictive (you’ll see) and I think the solution for this one is making a feat that you have to take in order to craft items (unless you have proficiency in a specific tool, like scrollscriber’s supplies, alchemist’s supplies, or something else in which case, you can only craft those specific things that are associated with your tool - since, you know, specific beats general)
Need a limit on what items you can craft, so while you might be a 1st-level adventurer, you could have a million gold pieces. This shouldn’t mean you can just make whatever you want as your power is still quite minute. I think this can also let us incorporate Proficiency Bonus into this system.
Crafting requires a cost, this could be a gold cost or maybe you find a specific item you need. I think what we could do (to try and appease everyone which will all but guarantee everyone hates it) is that we provide both things, a cost that a player can just pay if they don’t want to think about it and ingredients so maybe they can quest for specific ingredients, get ingredients as rewards for questing, and allow the GM to ignore gold costs if they so wish. In addition, for the gold cost, it’ll be based on what I’ve made in the Pricing Magic Items series so you’ll have to adjust gold costs if you don’t like my numbers.
DC to make our checks against. Crafting has its ups-and-downs, and I think it’s nice to force players to roll those shiny dice they spent way too much money on.
A time commitment, so that you can’t just keep churning magic items out just because your dice you bought only have 20s on their sides.
In order for the crafter to actually know how to craft an item, they need to know how it is designed and how to build it themselves. This means they need a recipe or formulae to follow to build the item. They can either take one item, break it down (thus destroying it) in order to learn its construction (this would be mostly handy for consumables, less so flame tongues since your barbarian might still be using it), or finding its recipe out in the wild, either in the hands of a crafter, as treasure, or a wizard in a lonely tower who is quite tired of having visitors.
We need another, small, gate to keep out any riff-raff from simply picking up this feat and doing whatever they want, like crafting holy avengers or belts of giant strength just because they can. Many items will require you to have access to certain levels of spells, be a cleric, etc to craft them. These will be prerequisites and are passive guards at the gates to crafting.
Lastly, we need something for the players to interact with. This will be specific requirements, in excess of the ingredients, that the players will have to provide. These simply can’t be bypassed by going on an adventure, but are something so specific to the magic item you will need to get this item. Not every magic item is going to need a specific item, but it might require spell slots, or something else active. This will be a requirement and requires the player to actively interact with it instead of just rolling the crafting check and ticking away gold pieces.
Building out the System
So we have addressed our problems, now let’s actually start getting into the rules.
Crafting Magic Items
If you wish to craft magic items, you must first become trained in the craft. You must select the Craft Magic Item feat. Upon gaining the feat, you automatically learn the recipes for three common magic items. If you wish to learn more, you will either have to deconstruct a magic item, see the Deconstruct Magic Items section, or find its recipe in the world. Some crafters, enchanters, arcane masters, and more may have a copy of the recipe they are willing to trade, sell, or barter for your adventuring services. Most sellers will sell a copy of the recipe for 10% of the magic item’s value, but may require you take on a quest or provide compensation in a different way.
Once you have the recipe for the magic item you wish to construct, you must either spend the gold in a city to gather the required ingredients, or find the listed ingredients on your adventures. If you find the listed ingredients, you do not have to pay the gold cost. If you find only a few of the listed ingredients, the GM determines how much of the gold cost you must pay, typically at a pro-rated amount. Ordinarily, only cities or large towns will have all the required ingredients you need, up to the GM’s discretion.
Once you have the required materials, you must meet any prerequisites the item has and fulfill any requirements. If an item lists a requirement or prerequisite, this must be fulfilled every day you are working on the magic item. If your item requires you expending a 3rd-level slot, you must expend that spell slot every day that you are working on the item (or have someone who can expend that spell slot). Typically, if you are using another creature to fulfill requirements or prerequisites on creating a magic item, they must spend 1d4 hours for every requirement they are assisting with every day (maximum of 8 hours a day), or they must be there all day if they are fulfilling a prerequisite.
If a creature assists you, known as an assistant, you treat their skills, spells, and abilities as if they were your own. You can not use their proficiency in the Arcana skill at the end of crafting the magic item to attempt the check, but must make the check yourself. If you must hire an assistant, they typically charge 2 gp per day for being proficient in a specific skill. If you need an assistant with access to spellcasting, their services cost more per the GM’s discretion. Typically, per day, it is 50 gp per level of spell, at 4th-level spells or higher, it becomes 100 gp per level, and at 7th-level spells or higher, it becomes 500 gp per level of spell.
For example, if you are crafting an item that requires an 8th-level spell to be cast on it, it will cost you 4,000 gp per day to have their assistance.Once you are ready to craft your item, you can begin work and it takes 8 hours a day for a number of days based on the rarity of the magic item. Once you have finished the required time, you must make an Intelligence (Arcana) check against the DC of the magic item. On a success, you build the item. On a failure, you fail to build the item and you lose a quarter of the ingredients to build the item and must find more. If you roll 5 or more below the DC, you instead lose half of the ingredients. You then must spend one more day of work and re-attempt the check.
So we have our basic rules laid out. You need a Craft Magic Item feat, you need the recipe to craft the magic item, you need either the gold or the ingredients to make the item (with limits on where you can do your shopping to give more levers for the GM to play with), we go over prereqs, how long it takes, requirements, and the basic crafting of the item. Which is great and all, but this is only part of the system. We need to talk about gaining recipes, deconstructing a magic item, edge-cases to help out GMs, base DCs for magic items, restrictions based on your Proficiency Bonus, and a few other things.
Restrictions on Magic Item Creation
When building a magic item, there are a few restrictions that limit which items you can create. The rarity of an item determines what Proficiency Bonus you need to craft the item, it’s DC, and how long it takes to craft the item. See the table below.
Restrictions & DC by Rarity
Rarity | Proficiency Bonus | DC | Time to Craft
Common | +2 | 10 | 2d4 Days
Uncommon | +3 | 15 | 3d4 Days
Rare | +4 | 20 | 4d4 Days
Very Rare | +5 | 25 | 5d4 Days
Legendary | +6 | 30 | 6d4 DaysCrafting Consumables
If you wish to craft a consumable, like a potion of healing, it takes the minimum amount of time. A potion of healing is a common item and would ordinarily requires 2d4 days to craft, but because it is a consumable, it takes the minimum amount of time to craft – 2 days to craft. A potion of superior healing is a rare item and so would ordinarily require 4d4 days, but due to being a consumable, it only takes 4 days to craft.
There are certain consumable items, like spell scrolls, that have a different time requirement, which will be listed in their crafting statistics.
We now have another big section done for crafting. We have our handy table (Squarespace, let me make real tables on your platform!) which utilizes Proficiency Bonus to some effect, and magic item rarity to some effect. I’m not a huge fan of tying things to Proficiency Bonus — cause what happens when a level 20 adventurer gains the crafting feat and now all of a sudden they can craft legendary items without ever having crafted a potion of healing? But this also happens in spellcasting and class abilities so whatever—I’m in the minority, I get it. Proficiency Bonus is just too binary for me in 5e, I prefer Pathfinder 2e’s scaling proficiency system.
So we have our base rules for the crafting system. We now need to create the Magic Item Feat, how to Deconstruct magic items, and magic item statistics for crafting. If you are confused right now by the system, I think once you see the magic item ‘recipe cards’ – a lot of things will make more sense.
Feat: Craft Magic Item
Prerequisites: The ability to cast one spell and proficiency in the Arcana skill
You have learned to imbue items with magic, allowing you to craft magic items. Your Proficiency Bonus determines what rarity of magic items you can craft, see the chart above. The chart also details how long it takes and the DC to craft an item of that rarity. In addition, you have gained access to the Deconstruct Magic Items feature below.
Variant: Per the GM’s discretion, when you select this feat you only gain the ability to craft a specific category of magic items from the following list: Armor and Weapons, Potion, Ring, Rod, Scroll, Staff, Wand, or Wondrous Items. You can select this feat multiple times, picking a different category each time you select this feat.
Deconstructing Magic Items
To learn how to create a magic item, you must have its recipe or magical formulae. If you are unable to find the set of instructions, you can deconstruct a magic item, destroying it in the process, but learning the secrets to crafting the item. To deconstruct the item, you must spend 8 hours, or 4 hours if it is a consumable, and then attempt an Intelligence (Arcana) check against the DC of the magic item, per its rarity. On a success, you have learned how to craft the magic item and can add its recipe to the list of magic items you know how to create. On a failed check, you are unable to learn its secrets, but have advantage on future checks made to deconstruct that magic item if you attempt it again. Regardless of the check, the magic item is destroyed, the magic is lost, and the item becomes a mundane item. If precious gems, metals, or similar materials were used to craft the item, you retain those materials, but they are damaged during this process and only retain half of its original value.
For example, if a magic item required a 100 gp diamond, after you deconstruct it, that diamond is only worth 50 gp.
So we have our basic rules out of the way, it’s now time to move on to magic stat blocks. I am only going to create a few, with a promise to do (maybe) all of them in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and other sourcebooks so long as I don’t decide to make changes to the crafting system and rework it.
Alchemy Jug
Wondrous Item, Uncommon
Cost 2,475 gp; or Ingredients purified mayonnaise made from roc eggs, salt water from the Plane of Water, and elven wine from the vineyards on Avondar
Prerequisites have Cook’s Utensils on hand and you (or an assistant) is proficient in its use
Requirements cast the purify food and drink spell
Proficiency Bonus Required +3; DC 15; Time to Craft 3d4 Days
Boots of Elvenkind
Wondrous Item, Uncommon
Cost 1,485 gp; or Ingredients fifteen leaves successfully plucked no more than a day ago from a treant that was unaware of your presence
Prerequisites have Cobbler’s Tools on hand and you (or an assistant) is proficient in its use
Requirements none
Proficiency Bonus Required +3; DC 15; Time to Craft 3d4 Days
Bracers of Defense
Wondrous Item, Rare
Cost 2,700 gp; or Ingredients thick hide from a creature with Natural Armor and a CR equal to 9 or higher, and expertly tanned by a Leatherworker
Prerequisites have Leatherworker’s Tools on hand and you (or an assistant) is proficient in its use
Requirements cast the mage armor spell
Proficiency Bonus Required +4; DC 20; Time to Craft 4d4 Days
Holy Avenger
Weapon (Any Sword), Legendary
Cost 19,732 gp; or Ingredients a holy sword wielded by a planar and willing bestowed upon a champion of the faith
Prerequisites a cleric or paladin devoted to a divine deity
Requirements expend a 4th-level spell slot, x5 vials of holy water to anoint the weapon daily, a holy symbol to the cleric or paladin’s deity worked into the guard of the weapon (only one required)
Proficiency Bonus Required +6; DC 30; Time to Craft 6d4 Days
Potion of Flying
Potion, Very Rare
Cost 742 gp; or Ingredients five feathers of a pegasus in perfect condition, or the planar essence of an air elemental bottled in a vial of pure air
Prerequisites none
Requirements cast the fly spell
Proficiency Bonus Required +5; DC 25; Time to Craft 5 Days
Ring of Protection
Wondrous Item, Rare
Cost 1,800 gp; or Ingredients a pure gold ring, thirty-one tiny gems of brilliant quality worth at least 40 gp each, a shield made of steel
Prerequisites proficiency in shields, have Jeweler’s Tools on hand and you (or an assistant) is proficient in its use
Requirements cast the reduce spell on the shield
Proficiency Bonus Required +4; DC 20; Time to Craft 4d4 Days
And that is where I am going to end it this week. I’d love to know your thoughts on crafting, what you think needs adjustments, how it works at your table, and more! While I want to go through and stat out every item in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (shudder), that is going to require a lot of time and a lot of creativity (maybe I’ll add it as an extra tab on the Pricing Magic Items spreadsheet!?!)... so it’ll be a month at least before we see that. Especially since next week all my posts will be spooky-themed to honor the best month in the calendar… Halloween! ….er… I mean, October…
Like what we are doing here?
Support us on Patreon!
You’ll get early access to deep dives, the Homebrew Hoard featuring 500+ monsters, Monster Thursdays, ad-free articles, and more!
Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date on everything we talk about!
