Dragonchess Player |
The Master Craftsman feat in the Core Rulebook.
Don't forget the Skill Focus feat, as well.
VRMH |
You can of course boost the actual skill, and then add to the crafting DC in order to produce faster. It's not as simple as taking a single feat, but it'll work.
As your goal is to create a crafting NPC, I'd suggest looking for once-a-day boosts to a skill check - that's all (s)he'll need. A helpful Halfling will add +4. An Altar of Irori +3. A Luck-bestowing Human +8. Masterwork tools, a cracked Ioun... it can add up rapidly and wouldn't be much of a burden for an NPC.
CoI |
Between his various tools and assistants it's not difficult to bump up his roll to 80+ by taking 10, but it's still going to take the better part of a year on a DC 28 (or 38 because he's rushing) check to do any mods to the ship without something like the master alchemist feat is my biggest problem. With a master alchemist equivalent it'll bring it down to about a month. The party will back at even that much time. I like keeping away from too much custom feats, especially for npcs but I don't think it'll be too broken to allow master alchemist as master shipwright instead. I was just hoping there was something similar so I wouldn't have to.
Buri Reborn |
Also, how many ship builders would be reasonable to have working on a ship at a time? Anyone know?
I would guesstimate anywhere from dozens for a smallish sized ship like a caravel to hundreds for something large like a galleon. This is everyone from chopping down trees, processing planks/masts/etc, producing cloth for the sails, crafters and metalurgists for cannons/nails/fittings/etc., and so on.