I have opposing views on this idea.
Pro: Craft currently takes so long that it is impractical for PCs. Instead of spending a week crafting a longsword, they could earn a hundred times more cash in half the time by adventuring. I would like to see Craft raised to become a valid skill for PC's.
Con: Realistically, crafting items takes a long time. If crafting takes less time, then crafters can make more money in less time. Alternatively, raising the material cost of crafting and decreasing the crafting time will maintain the same profit level. However, that also means that the town blacksmith must sell 1 longsword every DAY instead of 1 sword every week. Is there enough demand to support that level of supply? This could have some big picture economic implications.
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On a related note, I do have a problem with 3.5's Magic Item Creation times. Creation takes 1 day per 1000 gold of the base price with a minimum of one day. This means that a scroll of M.Missile (CL1, 25gp) takes as long to craft as a scroll of Fireball (CL5, 375gp). Like mundane item creation, this slows PCs down.
I've house-ruled that items with a base price of less than 1000gp take less than 1 day to craft. That way, the wizard can either craft [2 scrolls of Fireball and 10 scrolls of M. Missile] OR [40 scrolls of M. Missile] in one day. In either case, they've spent 500 gp and 40 xp to create a pile of scrolls worth 1000 gp.
It was previously advantageous to craft big-ticket items and buy the little stuff. Under 3.5 rules, a time-conscious character could Craft a single item worth 1000 gp in 1 day and exchange it for all of the little stuff he/she needed. My house-rule merely makes crafting multiple minor magic items a viable option.
