I've just hammered out a simple modification that encourages more crafting among players. It's not something I would suggest to use all the time, but rather for a campaign in which the players have to do all/most of their own crafting, and you don't want all of the crafting burden on one player, to eat up all their feats.
Interested in thoughts on it OR, if there are other homebrew things that accomplish the same thing, let me know!
* Any character can brew a potion as long as they have the spell, the appropriate equipment and make a Craft (Alchemy) check equal to 15 + 2x Spell level. The Brew Potion feat gives you a +5 to this check, and the ability to brew twice as fast (to give something to those classes that get the feat for free).
* Same deal with Scribe Scroll and Craft (Calligraphy).
* If you have both the Craft Rod & Craft Wand feats, you gain the Craft Staff feat for free (upon attaining the required caster level).
* If you have the Craft Wondrous Item feat, you may craft Magic Arms & Armor, and Forge Rings, by making appropriate Craft checks. You may not do so before you have achieved the caster level that would be required for the feat. The craft check is made in ADDITION to the Spellcraft check, and the crafter must succeed on both in order to progress on the item. The creator is allowed to take 10 on the craft check.
Melee: Craft (Weapons)
Bows & Arrows: Craft (Bows)
Armor & Shields: Craft (Armor)
Rings: Craft (Jewelry)
Alternately, the crafter may work with another player (or NPC) with the appropriate craft skill, who makes the craft checks themselves.
In either case, craft checks only need to be made for the first half of the creation process (The assisting player, if any, is no longer needed after this).
Players may still take the Craft Magic Arms & Armor, and Forge Ring, in order to be able to craft these items in the “normal” way.
I made my own house rules to similar effect. Maybe it might be up your alley?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Zp5sjCd1VdtRWs9J3Q2UlgygyTMXmnG4xaelui 1O5U/edit
Dave: You need to remove the space from the URL, if you just copy-pasted it. It's something the forum software does here.
Cyrad: I like it, but I don't like completely removing the need for feats; I'd like the players to have to invest somewhat in feats, just not to a crazy degree.
@dave.gillam Try this link.
Dave: You need to remove the space from the URL, if you just copy-pasted it. It's something the forum software does here.
Cyrad: I like it, but I don't like completely removing the need for feats; I'd like the players to have to invest somewhat in feats, just not to a crazy degree.
They'll probably have to, anyway. Crafting really falls apart at higher levels since the price of items increases quadratically while the time to craft items is linear. It sounds like you want to introduce feats that reduce the time.
D'oh, forgot an important thing: I've always house-ruled that instead of doing a flat 1,000gp of progress per day, crafting magic items does 250 gp per caster level of the crafter per day, and done away with the 8hour minimum thing for many potions and scrolls.