I see many folks are unhappy with craft as it stands in the game. Our gaming group had also looked at the Crafting skill and realized it needed help (our wizard is a merchant in Korvosa first, working in the family alchemy shoppe). When we realized it was taking less time to make magical potions than it was to make basic gear acid, we decided to take another try at the skill, and make it something that would actually allow a crafter-merchant to have stock on his shelves. Here is what we came up with (much of this is direct from the PFRPG):
Craft Skill
You are skilled in the creation of a specific group of items, such as armor or weapons, alchemical items or mechanical traps. Like Knowledge, Perform, and Profession, Craft is actually a number of separate skills. You could have several Craft skills, each with its own ranks, each purchased as a separate skill.
A Craft skill is specifically focused on creating something. If nothing is created by the endeavor, it probably falls under the heading of a Profession skill.
Check: You can practice your trade and make a decent living, earning about half your check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work. You know how to use the tools of your trade, how to perform the craft’s daily tasks, how to supervise untrained helpers, and how to handle common problems. (Untrained laborers and assistants earn an average of 1 silver piece per day.)
The basic function of the Craft skill, however, is to allow you to make an item of the appropriate type. The DC depends on the complexity of the item to be created. The DC and your check result determine how long it takes to make a particular item. The item’s finished price also determines the cost of raw materials.
In some cases, the fabricate spell can be used to achieve the results of a Craft check with no actual check involved. You must make an appropriate Craft check, however, when using the spell to make articles requiring a high degree of craftsmanship.
A successful Craft check related to woodworking in conjunction with the casting of the ironwood spell enables you to make wooden items that have the strength of steel.
When casting the spell minor creation, you must succeed on an appropriate Craft check to make a complex item.
All crafts require artisan’s tools to give the best chance of success. If improvised tools are used, the check is made with a –2 penalty. On the other hand, masterwork artisan’s tools provide a +2 circumstance bonus on the check.
To determine how much time and money it takes to make an item, follow these steps.
1. Pay one-third of the item’s market price for the cost of raw materials.
2. Find the DC from the table on chart 5-5 Craft Skills.
3. Divide the target DC by 5, and multiply the result by 2 to determine the base time for creation. (i.e., DC 10 / 5 = 2; 2 x 2 = 4, base time equals 4 hours.)
4. Take the base time, and multiply it as follows for crafting type to determine actual time for creation.
Alchemy - Use base time.
Armorsmithing - Multiply the base time by the AC bonus.
Bowmaking - Multiply the base time as follows: Bows x2; Composite Bows x4; Composite Bows with a strength bonus, multiply base composite bow by the strength bonus +1 (i.e., a Strength +1 Composite Shortbow would take ((Base Time x 4)x2) for actual time, or 48 hours); Ammunition, use base time for bows (i.e., 4 hours) per 5 arrows.
Weaponsmithing - Multiply the base time by weapon type as follows: Light Melee x2, One-handed Melee x4, Two-Handed Melee x6, Crossbows x6, All Other Ranged x1, Arrowheads and Bolts x1 per five.
Trapmaking - Base time for mechanical traps, whether room/hall sized, or chest/box sized is one week. (For chest/box sized traps, figure as normal from the Trap Rules, but divide the cost by 10 for market value and raw materials used, not counting poisons needed or magical spells - those costs are as written. All other rules for Traps are as written.)
Very Simple, Typical, High-Quality, and Complex or Superior Items - Use base time.
4. Make an appropriate Craft check representing one week’s worth of work. If the check succeeds, then you have completed the item in the time determined. (If the check exceeds the target DC, then reduce the time required for that item by 12 minutes per point over the DC.)
If you fail a check by 4 or less, you make no progress this week.
If you fail by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again to continue working on the item, or lose all the outlay.
All of the numbers above presume the craftsman has at least one apprentice and a shop with the appropriate gear to aid in the creation of the basic parts that go into making the end product. If the craftsman does not have such aid, double the required time for creation to account for having to make all the subcomponents of the end piece. The GM would have to consider if additional costs for renting a forge or similar crafting station are applicable for the part-time craftsman.
Progress by the Day: You can figure out how many items you make per day in a given week by taking your successes and deducting them from a typical medieval craftsman’s week, approximately 60 hours, less time for meals (two hours per day) and running the actual business (roughly four hours per day).
Rising with the sun, and going to bed with it, allowing time for meals and the actual running of the craftsman’s business (dealing with customers and the more “mundane” transactions of repair work and less adventure oriented gear that the shop deals in) leaves roughly four hours on any given day of the six day week to be working on specific adventuring gear. The GM may allow the craftsman to spend more of the day dedicated toward a particular job, but if more than six hours per day (average) are devoted to a single task(s), then the shop and craftsman will not receive the check for income per week that was detailed above.
(I.e., Blacksmith Owen receives a commission to make a suit of full plate mail for his lord’s son. The job will take Owen 64 hours (DC 18 = 8 hours, Full Plate is a +8 AC, 8 x 8 = 64). Owen, a highly skilled (level 6) and intelligent (Int 12) smith, has a skill roll of +10. The player rolls an 18 on the d20, for a check result of 28. That will reduce the time factor by 2 full hours (12 minutes x 10 = 120 minutes). With 62 hours of work ahead, and wanting to please his lord with a speedy completion of his commission, Owen could choose to spend his entire week, even skimping on his meal times with the GM’s permission, to complete the suit in one week. But he will not be able to do any other work that week, and would not receive his standard check for income for that week. If, however, he wants to keep his business open for other work that week, and the following one, it would take him at least eleven days at six hours per day to complete the suit, or sixteen days at four hours per day. And don’t forget to multiply all by five if the lord wanted that suit to be masterwork!)
Create Masterwork Items: You can make a masterwork item: a weapon, suit of armor, shield, or tool that conveys a bonus on its use through its exceptional craftsmanship, not through being magical. To create a masterwork item, compute the normal item’s time as detailed above, and then multiply that total by 5. The masterwork component has its own price (300 gp for a weapon or 150 gp for a suit of armor or a shield) and a Craft DC of 20. Make your check rolls as before, deducting time for points above the target DC. Once the time is over, the masterwork item is finished. Note: The cost you pay for the masterwork component is one-third of the given amount, just as it is for the cost in raw materials.
Repair Items: Generally, you can repair an item by making checks against the same DC that it took to make the item in the first place. The cost of repairing an item is one-fifth of the item’s price. The time to do repairs would be one to two hours, depending on the degree of damage incurred (GM judgement).
When you use the Craft skill to make a particular sort of item, the DC for checks involving the creation of that item are typically as given on the table below.
Action: Does not apply. Craft checks are made by the day or week (see above).
Try Again: Yes, but each time you miss by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again.
To make an item using Craft (alchemy), you must have alchemical equipment. If you are working in a city, you can buy what you need as part of the raw materials cost to make the item, but alchemical equipment is difficult or impossible to come by in some places. Purchasing and maintaining an alchemist’s lab grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks because you have the perfect tools for the job, but it does not affect the cost of any items made using the skill.
Table 5–5: craft skills
Item Craft Skill Craft DC
Acid Alchemy 15
Alchemist’s fire, smokestick, or tindertwig Alchemy 20
Antitoxin, sunrod, tanglefoot bag, or thunderstone Alchemy 25
Armor or shield Armorsmithing 10 + AC bonus
Longbow or shortbow Bowmaking 12
Composite longbow or shortbow Bowmaking 15
Composite longbow or shortbow with high strength rating Bowmaking 15 + (2 x rating)
Crossbow Weaponsmithing 15
Simple melee or thrown weapon Weaponsmithing 12
Martial melee or thrown weapon Weaponsmithing 15
Exotic melee or thrown weapon Weaponsmithing 18
Mechanical trap Trapmaking Varies1
Very simple item (wooden spoon) Varies 5
Typical item (iron pot) Varies 10
High-quality item (bell) Varies 15
Complex or superior item (lock) Varies 20
1Traps have their own rules for construction.
(My apologies for the table ... it doesn't paste well)
I'd posted a writeup on Craft's current complexity and time-eating just here. It definitely needs some help.
Would keeping the "cost to beat" price in gold help, do you think? I...honestly, the skill is complex enough as it is. I don't mind complexity, per se, but:
1. It makes my eyes swim just looking at it.
2. It takes time out of play just to compute the numbers--I'd rather be roleplaying.
3. It's intimidating to new players.