Recently a friend of mine asked about using a Lyre of Building to build a massive house and wanted to know just how long it would take. So that required figuring out a few things, and once it was all set and done we've completed a formula that solved all the issues that was left out in the Lyre's description.
Please note that this what I've determined based on what the books have given us, and I thought I'd share to help other DM/Player's who may have or will run into this issue. Enjoy!
Lyre of Building
The effect produced in 30 minutes of playing is equal to the work of 100 humans laboring for 3 days.
(Assume that it is 100 human labourer's)
Convert cost of project from gold to silver (1gold = 10 silver)
1/3 The Cost goes to Materials, so subtract that from your total.
1 Labourer = 1 silver for 1 day (8 hours)
100 labourer = 300 silvers for 3 days (24 hours)
So for 1 hours work the Lyre will produce 600 silver (6 days) worth of work.
Divide Cost of project by 600 to determine Number of Hours needed to play the Lyre for the project to be completed
|
This also assumes that the three days are 3 work days, not three full days.
Hence, it could be 180g per hour of playing (or 90g for 30 minutes of playing).
So, the two equations are:
hours spent playing = Market Price * 2 / 540, or Market Price * 2 / 180
(divide market price by two-thirds, then divide by 60 or 180)
This also assumes that the three days are 3 work days, not three full days.
Hence, it could be 180g per hour of playing (or 90g for 30 minutes of playing).
So, the two equations are:
hours spent playing = Market Price * 2 / 540, or Market Price * 2 / 180
(divide market price by two-thirds, then divide by 60 or 180)
that was already accounted for, 3 work days is 24 hours worth of work.
The lyre doesn't determine how much work is done based on how much a laborer is paid. It's based on what they can produce. Assuming they are skilled human npc with a basic array, they can take 10 on their weekly craft check and still have enough to make progress on anything a laborer would be expected to work on. Assuming they are using tools of the trade and that they are skill focussed on their trade, that taking 10 would net them a 17 vs the craft DC (which shod be somewhere between a 5 and 15 for house building)
If the DC is 5, the single laborer tripled the DC, and therefore made 5*17*3 = 255 silver worth of work in a week. That is 327 silver worth of work over the course of a straight 72 hours. Multiplied by 100 men, you are looking at 3270 gold worth of construction.
If the DC had been 10, the single laborer met the DC, and therefore made 170 silver worth of work in a week. That is 218 silver worth of work over the course of a straight 72 hours. Multiplied by 100 men, you are looking at 2180 gold worth of construction.
If the DC had been 15, the single laborer met the DC, and therefore made15*17= 255 silver worth of work in a week. That is 327 silver worth of work over the course of a straight 72 hours. Multiplied by 100 men, you are looking at 3270 gold worth of construction.
So for each hour played, the lyre should be able to produce between 4,360 gp and 6,540 gp of construction
It's difficult to imagine the scale of a 100-man building project. I doubt you get anywhere near that many people working on regular construction projects today - maybe on a public building like a school or stadium, or a tower block.
8 hours of playing a Lyre of building gets you equivalent to 100 men labouring for 48 days. If you resize that to a 25-man crew, which seems more realistic for a grand personal building like a big house, you get an effective 6 months of build time per day played. It seems likely that a fairly big house (or a small fort or keep) could be built in 6 months by 25 men, depending on complexity.
I've had a quick research on time to build medieval buildings and Google gives me nothing but "it depends how complex it is". A basic wooden Roman legion fortified camp (Rampart, Wooden Pallisade) could be built a few hours with a fraction of the men in the legion (4000-5000ish). But a huge stone-built, ornate Gothic cathedral could take hundreds of men hundreds of years. York Minster cathedral took a couple of hundred, and the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is about 140 years into construction even now with modern equipment.
|
This is my estimate by GP.
By the numbers:
8hrs of playing (calling this at the max/day a bard could use it non stop)
x 100 men
x 6 days of work/hour
------------------
4800 days of unskilled labor
By rules of unskilled Profession, you earn 1 sp/day, so by playing 8 hrs, you make: 4800 sp --> 480 gp
But the lyre also allows you to make things like buildings and mines (which seem more than unskilled if they don't fall down/collapse). Say you combine the lyre of building with a craft check to represent this skilled work:
4800 days/
6days/work week
---------------
800 work weeks
Skilled professions earn 1/2 Profession check in a week, so the grand total for 8 hours of lyre of building could come to something like:
400gp*(1d20+5 Profession+2wis+2circumstance)
or
~ 4,000 gp for one day's work
@ Oil Ironbar
If the value of a completed piece of construction was equal to the cost of labor alone, than this would be true. But that is not the case. The lyre of building produces a finished product equal to what 100 men can produce in a period equal to (144) x (the length of time the lyre is played). The cost of paying those men, or how much those men could get paid in their profession is irrelevant.
Only the "craft check" can determine the gold piece value of that which can be constructed in a week by a single laborer.
I went through the math on this one above. people have shifted from 1 hour increments to bigger projects - what a bard could produce after 8 hours of playing...
Well that is simple. Based on the complexity of the project, for each day a bard plays the Lyre of Building, you are looking at a final market value of between (8 x 4,360 =) 34,880 gp and (8 x 6,540 =) 52,320 gp
Now lets look at the price of some structures.