I know that the cost of enchanting 50 pieces of ammunition is the same as enchanting one weapon. So I assume that you can create them in batches of 50 with no problem. My question is: is it possible to craft smaller amounts of ammunitiion for proportionaly lower cost?
Most GMs I've met don't have a problem with making or buying ammunition in smaller quantities. It's not rare to see a Ranger walking with one
+1 cold iron demon bane arrow.
Up to the GM. It'd be weird if there weren't odd amounts of ammunition for sale simply because characters tend to die partway through a stack and later adventurers find and sell what's left with no problem. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll find a merchant selling a particular kind of magic arrow in less than full stacks, nor that the GM will allow crafting fewer than 50 at a time.
For what it's worth, there's pretty much zero reason not to allow such crafting.
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For crafting, I can see reasons to say that the enchanting cost don't change regardless of the number of armor made. Depending on what is the origin of the cost, it is possible that some item used in the enchanting process can't be divided in smaller pieces.
As an example, if making a dragon bane weapon require "the whole heart of a dragon", it would require that even if the crafter make a single arrow.
It depend on the GM as the game fluff and rules say nothing.
For sure the cost of costly components used by the spellcasting part don't change.
For the sales, seeing the cost of a bundle of 50 arrows, I think that most merchants will be willing to sell them in smaller numbers. That way they will get a larger market.
I have no problem with selling small amounts of ammunition, my only question is about crafting.
The details of the situation I'm in:
I'm GMing ROTRL, and one of the players wanted to retire a charcter and play a gunslinger from Alkenstar instead. I thought about the setting and said: "OK, but so far to the north there aren't going to be any gunsmiths, you'll need to craft your own bullets". He was okay with that, and actualy exploited the rarity of guns as several enemies were already surprised by his unknown weapon. As agreed upon, he's making his own bullets.
But then he wants them enchanted. I believe that if a wizard other type of ammo, he'd be also able to enchant gun bullets (there's no requirement of weapon proficiency in the process of creating magic weapons). But if he wants to enchant only 5 bullets, should I allow it?
I have no problem with selling small amounts of ammunition, my only question is about crafting.
The details of the situation I'm in:
I'm GMing ROTRL, and one of the players wanted to retire a charcter and play a gunslinger from Alkenstar instead. I thought about the setting and said: "OK, but so far to the north there aren't going to be any gunsmiths, you'll need to craft your own bullets". He was okay with that, and actualy exploited the rarity of guns as several enemies were already surprised by his unknown weapon. As agreed upon, he's making his own bullets.
But then he wants them enchanted. I believe that if a wizard other type of ammo, he'd be also able to enchant gun bullets (there's no requirement of weapon proficiency in the process of creating magic weapons). But if he wants to enchant only 5 bullets, should I allow it?
As has been said, that ball is entirely in your court. It's a GM call, and no one can take that off your shoulders.
I say go ahead and do it. It's his money. Let him spend it however's reasonable. This is reasonable.
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Strictly RAW, there isn't any point in the rules about enchanting weapons that say that you enchant projectiles in bunches of 50. There is only a point where it say that the price is for 50 of them.
But that generate the opposite problem. If there is no indication that they are enchanted X at a time we must fall back to the basic rules, and the basic rules say that you can enchant only an item in a day, i.e. you can make only a single magical bullet in a day.
That is worse than the initial situation.
But that generate the opposite problem. If there is no indication that they are enchanted X at a time we must fall back to the basic rules, and the basic rules say that you can enchant only an item in a day, i.e. you can make only a single magical bullet in a day.
That is worse than the initial situation.
Certainly, someone can't create more than one type of bullet in a day, but I would allow them to create in a single day bullets which are >1 and <50 (otherwise, you'd have to rule that it would take 50 days to create 50 bullets, and while "50 days, 50 bullets" sounds like a great bounty hunting campaign name, it would be a ridiculous crafting restriction.)
GM has final say, as others have said. I would allow creation of less than batches of 50, but if the item is significantly powerful like the aforementioned bane arrows, you're going to need whole components to create it which means a rare materials cost equivalent to making at least 5-10 such items.
The obvious answer is for everyone to make full stacks of whatever exotic and bizarre ammunition they want and then have a swap meet. Everyone walks away with a bane arrow for every occasion!
Rules are not physics. They don't cover everything, and you can do things that are not delineated in the rules without violating the rules.
Nothing says that you can or cannot make smaller stacks, but being able to make smaller stacks is a perfectly sensible thing and does not obligate you to go one arrow a day; you can exercise discretion.
Up to the GM. It'd be weird if there weren't odd amounts of ammunition for sale simply because characters tend to die partway through a stack and later adventurers find and sell what's left with no problem. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll find a merchant selling a particular kind of magic arrow in less than full stacks, nor that the GM will allow crafting fewer than 50 at a time.
For what it's worth, there's pretty much zero reason not to allow such crafting.
Well, there is a reason, and it's exactly the reason someone would want to do it. Having 50 bane x arrows is far less useful than having 10 bane arrows of 5 different types, despite having the same cost.
More useful:Less expensive. Thus, allowing them to be crafted in smaller amounts is more powerful than not. One option being more powerful than another is a reason to not allow a thing.
The only difference between crafting five arrows and crafting fifty follwed by selling forty-five is time spent. I see no reason to compound the infamous crafting time problem by enforcing such a thing, especially if the rules don't state that 50 is required.
Fr the sales, seeing the cost of a bundle of 50 arrows, I think that most merchants will be willing to sell them in smaller numbers. That way they will get a larger market.Like selling individual smokes and single beers at a convenience store. It means your purchaser is poor and desperate, so you can charge them more than they would have to pay if they could afford a full pack/case.
Or it means your purchaser found 27 +1 elf bane sling bullets on a dead bugbear and wants to sell them, a not-uncommon occurrence for adventurers. : /