I have been playing RPGs for a very long time. Mostly D&D and now pathfinder. I have found that crafting/enchanting items are much more difficult when adventuring than when you have a community of resources available. Add on to this the reluctance of DM's to accept alternatives in the crafting/enchanting rules. In pathfinder there are general rulings to craft/enchant items while adventuring. But, it doesn't make sense to me that the gold requirement is the be all end all of the crafting/enchanting process. As stated in the crafting/enchanting rules, the gold requirement goes for materials necessary in the crafting/enchanting process. I would like to submit an option to allow for a more (dare I say) realistic crafting/enchanting process than gold requirements being end all be all.
Here goes.
Enchanting Alternatives
When enchanting an item, present rules dictate a specific gold piece cost associated with the enchantment. I propose a more dynamic system to allow for situations outside of normal crafting/enchanting rulings.
Present rulings
Typically, the enchanter will be in a community with some access to markets for various supplies in exchange of gold.
If not in a community, then the options for crafting/enchanting goes to practically nil due to access to resources such as raw materials.. i.e. wood, metal, gems, gold....etc, and finished products . i.e... weapons, armor, inks, ...etc.
This alternative is for those instances where an crafter/enchanter does not have access to ready materials. Here's how it works.
crafter/enchanter has an item they want to craft/enchant. They need to know what materials would be required to craft/enchant item.
Roll percentile dice and write down the result. Roll again and add to the first roll, if this comes to 100% your done.
The first roll is for percentage of gold required for the crafting/enchanting process. It is possible to roll 100 and so, the gold would be all that's required.
Any subsequent rolls are for other materials needed for the process. The GM is final arbiter of materials needed.
example:
Janden is wanting to enchant his boots for Boots of the Cat. He is a sorcerer, he has the Craft Wondrous Items feat, he has the 700 gp needed but he is adventuring so he doens't have the resources of a town to get the materials for the process. So he gets with his GM who rolls percentile die and gets a 56%. This is the gold requirement. 700gp x .56 = 392 gp.
The Gm rolls percentage again and gets 31. He then adds it to the 56 to get 87%. Another material is necessary for the enchanting process. It could be animal, vegetable or mineral depending on GM call. GM rolls percentage again and gets 89 then adds it to 87%. this covers the remaining 13% left so now the player and GM knows it will take 392gp plus 2 other material items determined by GM. For those GM's who do not want to be bogged down with trying to determine an exact material, could just have the player roll a knowledge: arcana to see if they know what's necessary, then an appropriate Knowledge skill to see if its in the area.
Simple yet effective.
Shogahin
