Hi guys,
I wanted to share with you something that I put down reading a lot of stuff about the most discussed skill in Pathfinder: Craft.
My references are:
CR
Ultimate campaign
PF Unchained
Making craft work
Real crafting on planet Earth, according to medieval manuscripts, documents, this post, etcetera.
Here are some of the principles of my thoughts:
- While the price of a weapon can be seen as connected to the manpower required in a crafting, the weapon complexity should matter.
- Masterwork and uncommon materials must add time to the crafting as a percentage, not a fixed value
- Different tools and help from others are an important part of the crafting (UC + PFU)
- In a totally medieval scenario, craft is NOT broken.
- Pathfinder is mainly played in fantasy scenarios.
- Rule 0 is the most important rule in the world.
So, let's begin!
CRAFTING WITH COMMON TOOLS
With the proper tools all artisans can attempt a craft check; it's a matter of patience, technique and time. To craft an item with common artisan tools:
- Check the price of the item you want to create. Check the complexity of the item. Apply rule 0 whenever necessary. Pay 1/4 of the price.
- Attempt a craft check. The DC is 5 for extremely simple items, 10 for simple items and so on, accordingly to the item complexity table
- If you succeeded, use column "progress per day" to determine your progress: if you succeeded with a check between 5 and 9 your progress is 5 special, between 10 and 14 the progress is 1 gp, and so on. When your progress reach the object price, the object is crafted.
- For a masterwork object pay in advance the price of the mwk component; double the progress required for crafting the item, no matter which was the original price of the object. The complexity is increased by one step. For example, a mwk dagger costs 2 gp + 300 gp, and is a normal item, not a simple one: for crafting it you need to pay totally 302/4 gold pieces, but you have to reach a total progress of 4 gp to create it. Also, a check between 10 and 14 will not achieve any progress, whereas it did for a simple dagger.
- Working with uncommon items increases the cost accordingly to normal rules, but the required progress is doubled. The complexity is increased by one step (If you want different materials to have a different Impact on the DC, follow the MCW table. Rule 0 here). Both time and DC stacks with the masterwork increase.
- If you fail the check, no progress is made. If you fail the check by 5 or more, you waste an amount or raw materials equals to the minimum progress per day of the item, up to a maximum of the of the initial cost of the raw materials.
Note: what we have here is almost the unchained version of craft: the only difference is that we do not double or triple our progress if we succeed of 5 or more, but we simply look at the table. Safe and sound.
Crafting a simple full plate with common tools can require a year, accordingly to what happened in the medieval age; for a masterwork one the maximum time required is always one year, but task is more difficult and, unless we are really good at crafting armor, it will probably take us more time and money to complete our work: we still have realistic values.
CRAFTING WITH MAGIC TOOLS
In a huge amount of situations a person living in Golarion (or FR setting or anything else that applies) encounters something magical in his life: from an alchemical fire thrown by a goblin rider to the cure received inside a temple, magic in its different aspects surround them all. A blacksmith, jeweller or LEATHERGUY makes no difference, especially if he's working in a big city.
Provided he is not working in a city which both arcane and divine spellcasting are despised, a crafter is assumed to be working with tools that had some magical help in their creation: a fire spell could be implemented in the forge to help the heat treating process; a magic hand or telekinesis spell could have been used to help create an incredibly faster loom; a shipyard could be enchanted in many ways to speed up the process, maybe simply by allowing a crafter to work on two different points of the ship simultaneously. The magic tools are NOT magic devices: they are mundane devices originally created with the help of a caster to create them in such a way they are much better than what we (humans on planet earth) have. A caster or use magic device is NOT required to use these tools.
Working with magic tools changes the crafting in the following way:
- The base progress per day changes from 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 to 1, 4, 16, 64, 256, 1024, 4096.
- You have to pay a third of the original cost, not a quarter.
- If you fail, no progress is made and you have to pay for 1/12 of the minimum progress per day. This price is the maintenance of the magic tools (1/4 + 1/12 = 1/3). If you fail by 5 or more, you waste the item minimum progress per day. If you fail by 10 or more, you waste the minimum progress*5; you cannot waste this way more gold than the original payed amount. If you fail by 15 or more, you also partly damaged your equipment; it must be repaired using the same craft skill, with a overall cost of 1/12 of the original item.
So, as you see can see I followed a simple mental path while joining the rules together: unchained makes sense but it still requires an absurdly long time, MCW is enjoyable but has no sense on planet Earth.
Good part of this rules: every PFU and UC rule should still work. Masterwork tools exist, and they give the common +2 bonus. Aid another can provide another +2.
Q: According to your rules, a masterwork Full Plate (cost 1800/3 = 600 gp, progress required 3000 gp) could require only one day if a 35 craft is achieved!
A: Exactly. And I’m going to show you why. Let’s assume:
- Masterwork tools +2
- Two assistants, the most I will give for a Full Plate, both succeding +4
- Focus skill (+3/+6)
- Class skill +3
- Craft is increased at every level up
Right now out PC has a +10/+13 bonus, which means that he has to be level 12 and achieve a 20 to do so. If he achieves a value from 10 to 19, he increases meaningfully the time required for the craft. if he does 9 or less, he wastes a day and 22 or 86 gp (masterwork complex item -> CD 25 -> 252 progress per day -> 252/12 and 252/3)
A fighter at level 12 using two Aid Another, a masterwork weapon, a feat (Weapon Focus) and achieving a 19 with his dice (I’m excluding the 20, which automatically succeeds) hits AC (+12/+7/+2) +4+1+1+19 = 37/32/27. He hits almost every CR 12 monster three times, and he does so while running in his heavy armor. In a single round. 6 seconds of his lifetime.
A mage at level 12 can cast Chain Lightning and deal 12d6 to 24 creatures. And he can do this again in the next round. 12 seconds to deal 12d6 to 48 creatures.
I could go on for every class, but the point is: the fantasy world is not our world.
If at level 12 you have built yourself a smithy, you have paid two assistant and you take a risk you should be able to achieve something great in 8 hours of work, just as you can achieve something great in 6 seconds of combat.
I’m not a native English speaker, so please point any mistake I made. Also, share your doubts with me and tell me what you think does work really well and what doesn’t. Thanks :)