Archero's page

Kyr,

You are correct. After the players have started I charge 2/3 price if they make it. But for starting equipment I allow 1/3 cost. Simply put, its items they made during their inital training to get the ranks. (I only allow this if they have 4 ranks in the skill.)
It all boils down to DM call. I think its worth giving the players a little extra to start with. Until I made that rule no one wanted to get crafting skills. Now its more of a fun side item in the game.

Cort

That doesn't really make sense. You don't have a forge, because you have the smith skill, any more than you have a ship because you have ranks in profession sailor.

The cost for materials in crafting weapons is pretty well laid out in the PHB - but as a reference if you wanted to make it easy and say 1/3 the item cost for materials 1/3 for renting the forge, resulting in a savings of 1/3.

If the character wants to know why, opportunity cost for the smith he is renting from not be able to work on his own stuff, cost of fuel for the forge, staff to bring fuel, water, pump belows etc. Rent of the actually space the smith himself has to pay for that period.

My stand on this option is:

Players have the skill. This means that they have had access to needed tools. The fact that they have ranks means they have worked at this. I would not think it abnormal for them to keep items they would need from the those they have made to get the current skill level. I allow my characters any weapon/armor they can make for 1/3 the price. This represents the cost of the material they used.

Cort

A couple of my players are want to make some of their starting weapons, as opposed to just buying them straight out.

Now, I think that this shouldn't be considered to have already happened, that he should make the Craft checks at the table. Also, I figure the character would have to rent a forge from a smithy, and since the smithy would be missing out on some work, he would charge the PC for the time spent at the forge.

The only thing I am having trouble with is the Price of renting the forge per day or week. What would be considered a fair price for renting out a forge?