High-grade items?

Hi all,

I am obviously missing it, but I cannot find anywhere any rules for high-grade items (or low grade for that matter). I know they exist, because there are prices (and hardness/HP/BT) for them in the materials section.

So, do they actually do anything (other than change the afformentioned hadness/HP/BT), and if so where do I find out what?

Also, can you have high/low grade items that are not of special materials, and if so where are the rules for that?

_
glass.

It's kinda spread out but in the CRB it's located...

Generally - pg 577-579
Armor - pg 555
Weapons - pg 599
Shields - pg 586-587

The various materials DO have varying effects but MOSTLY the differing grades mostly relate to what Runes can be applied to the item or what the max level of a given Magic Item you make with the material.

There are no rules for low/high-grade items made of non-special materials such as steel, wood, bone, leather etc. Generally speaking, the reason for this is that the material is so inexpensive that there is no point whatsoever in using "low quality" versions of that material since it's so abundant that any such inferior materials would end us being discarded in my mind.

Yes they exist, but only for Precious Materials. Grades for Standard Materials are hand waived by the book.

Crafting with Precious Materials

Only an expert crafter can create a low-grade item, only
a master can create a standard-grade item, and only a
legendary crafter can create a high-grade item. In addition,
to Craft with a precious material, your character level
must be equal to or greater than that of the material.
Low-grade items can be used in the creation of magic
items of up to 8th level, and they can hold runes of up
to 8th level. Standard-grade items can be used to create
magic items of up to 15th level and can hold runes of
up to 15th level. High-grade items use the purest form
of the precious material, and can be used to Craft magic
items of any level holding any runes. Using purer forms
of common materials is so relatively inexpensive that the
Price is included in any magic item.
When you Craft an item that incorporates a precious
material, your initial raw materials for the item must
include that material; at least 10% of the investment
must be of the material for low-grade, at least 25% for
standard-grade, and all of it for high-grade. For instance,
a low-grade silver object of 1 Bulk costs 20 gp. Of the 10
gp of raw materials you provide when you start to Craft
the item, at least 1 gp must be silver. The raw materials
you spend to complete the item don’t have to consist of the
precious material, though the GM might rule otherwise in
certain cases.
After creating an item with a precious material, you can
use Craft to improve its grade, paying the Price difference
and providing a sufficient amount of the precious material.

OK, thanks guys. I was wondering if higher grades might increase Dex Cap or reduce ACP on armour, but I guess not (although most people ignore the latter anyway, ISTM).

_
glass.

No, raising dex cap really is not a thing (except for the armored skirt, which reduces armor bonus at the same time).

No, raising dex cap really is not a thing (except for the armored skirt, which reduces armor bonus at the same time).

Yeah, I was coming to that conclusion. I am both surprised and not surprised. One the one hand, the Dex Caps on medium and heavy armours are very low, but OTOH, with every point being precious in PF2 higher Dex caps could easily become a a tax.

_
glass.

HammerJack wrote:

No, raising dex cap really is not a thing (except for the armored skirt, which reduces armor bonus at the same time).

Yeah, I was coming to that conclusion. I am both surprised and not surprised. One the one hand, the Dex Caps on medium and heavy armours are very low, but OTOH, with every point being precious in PF2 higher Dex caps could easily become a a tax.

_
glass.

Every point being precious?

We have 4 increment of stats out of 6 every 5 level. Unless you want to min max there is really nothing mandatory.

( even increasing your main stat would mean a +1 difference, and only from lvl 10 to lvl 19 ).

The armor system is pretty nice imo.

glass wrote:

HammerJack wrote:

No, raising dex cap really is not a thing (except for the armored skirt, which reduces armor bonus at the same time).

Yeah, I was coming to that conclusion. I am both surprised and not surprised. One the one hand, the Dex Caps on medium and heavy armours are very low, but OTOH, with every point being precious in PF2 higher Dex caps could easily become a a tax.

Every point being precious?

We have 4 increment of stats out of 6 every 5 level. Unless you want to min max there is really nothing mandatory.

Exactly, bumping Dex is not a major cost, and every point of AC is precious, so if it was too easy to up the Dex caps on heavy armour that would become a tax whatever enabled that would become a tax.

_
glass.