Cost of Hiring Crafters

[magispitt]

So I'm GM'ing a game where a player wants to setup an autonomous crafting ring while he's gone. It uses some house rules but basically he's looking to hire a crafter capable of rocking at least a +11 craft check before aid another is involved. RAW, how would he do this?

*Edit: I'm GM'ing Kingmaker if this helps

[Harleequin]

Sounds like a cunning plan!!

[Orfamay Quest]

I don't think there's any official RAW about hiring high-level NPCs on a long-term basis, but this doesn't sound particularly challenging.

Doing some math, a professional crafter would probably have at least a 16 Int (+3 modifier), one level in craft (thingy) (+1 modifier), and it would be a class skill (+3 bonus). Add in skill focus (another +3) and buy her some masterwork tools (+2 bonus) and she's looking at +12 before the roll. [If she's a dwarf, this might give her another +2 as well.] So this is the sort of thing that we could expect a good first level expert to do.

I'd say that simply asking around would accomplish it. Use Diplomacy to find out who the really skilled craftspeople are and then try to hire them.

[Wolfsnap]

Craftsmen count as Trained Hirelings, which cost 3sp/day. If they work 6 days in 7, that's 2gp/week per crafter. It doesn't specify type or level, though.

In my own campaign, I would say that these guys are level 1 experts, and if you want higher level crafters, you multiply the rate by the level of the crafter. I would also top out a dedicated crafter at level 4 or 5 maximum, but that's just the kind of campaign I run.

[Orfamay Quest]

Wolfsnap wrote:

Craftsmen count as Trained Hirelings, which cost 3sp/day. If they work 6 days in 7, that's 2gp/week per crafter. It doesn't specify type or level, though.

In my own campaign, I would say that these guys are level 1 experts, and if you want higher level crafters, you multiply the rate by the level of the crafter. I would also top out a dedicated crafter at level 4 or 5 maximum, but that's just the kind of campaign I run.

I'd actually multiply by the square of the craftsman's level, so a second level craftsman costs 4x and a fifth level costs 25x. Everything else in Pathfinder seems to run on this kind of quadratic scale (e.g., look at the cost of a cloak of protection), so it seems to fit.

[LordQwert]

Orfamay Quest wrote:

I'd actually multiply by the square of the craftsman's level, so a second level craftsman costs 4x and a fifth level costs 25x. Everything else in Pathfinder seems to run on this kind of quadratic scale (e.g., look at the cost of a cloak of protection), so it seems to fit.

Crafting in Pathfinder isn't really subject to the quadratic effect. Four level 1 crafters will get way more work done than a single level 2 crafter, or even a single level 4 crafter. While higher-level crafters do work faster, and this increase is *technically* quadratic, it's got such a large base and such a slow increase that it's effectively sublinear until you get into "you shouldn't be a hireling" levels.

As stated before, a trained level 1 crafter would have about a +10 to their check. 1 rank + 3 class + 1 Int bonus + 3 skill focus + 2 tools = +10. (16 Intelligence is unrealistic. 12 is fine.) Until level 10, this bonus only increases by +1 per level, perhaps +2 or +3 in a level due to attribute increase or skill feat, but generally +1.

Now the crafting rate is (craft roll) x (craft DC) in silver pieces per week. Taking 10 for our level 1 crafter lets us craft DC 20 items at a rate of 40gp per week and a base material cost of 13.33gp. 26.66gp profit. (Why is this guy hiring out at only 2gp a week?)

Let's give our level 5 guy a +15 and bump the DC up by 5 to increase crafting speed. He's putting out 62.5gp per week at a cost in base material of 20.83gp. 41.66gp profit. (He's running a right good scam if he's getting 50gp per week for this!)

The major difference between these two blokes is that the level 5 chap can consistently turn out items that have a base DC 25 to craft. However, by RAW, you're better off just buying them directly unless he's working for 40gp a week or less. Probably much less.

[ryric]

My first reaction to this is that there's already a system for hiring an NPC crafter to make things for you - it's called "paying full price for items."

[KujakuDM]

Yeah, commissioning an item essentially means paying full price for it. If the PC wants more or a hand in the crafting the resource downtime system would probably be a good jumping off point.