This was explicitly permitted in 1st edition, but is it still allowed in 2nd edition?
If my character pays for the formulas, has the appropriate skills and feats, and can essentially auto succeed on the checks, can I craft much of my starting gear for half price?
Why or why not?
Taking 10 is gone from what I understand. Instead it was replaced with a feat, which is more like "taking 5" with a single skill.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I doubt it since items you craft aren't just half cost, since you spend extra days to reduce the price, you're effectively "earning an income" at a similar rate to the other skills and I don't see players being able to do that at CC.
I feel like item crafting was a "as allowed by DM" issue.
I for one never allowed for characters to start with magical gear crafted.
I expect the issue to remain at this level of contention.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This was explicitly permitted in 1st edition, but is it still allowed in 2nd edition?
If my character pays for the formulas, has the appropriate skills and feats, and can essentially auto succeed on the checks, can I craft much of my starting gear for half price?
Why or why not?
No. Crafting doesn't automatically make items at half cost anymore. It allows you to spend extra time to reduce the cost, but this extra time comes at the same rate as other "Earn Income" skill checks, as referenced by kitmehsu. That means any time spent crafting and any extra monetary edge your wizard gained could have been time and money my bard earned staging a performance, or mitmehsu's ranger could earn with Legal Lore. Given every PC winds up with at least a Lore they can use to Earn Income, it doesn't make sense to give anymore than the WBL table dictates when building high level characters.
The big advantage I've noticed Crafting has over the other Earn Income options is it is far less constrained by settlement size. You really just need to be able to buy the raw materials, at least to save money on your own gear rather than making goods for the market. But that advantage can be offset by saying my bard is from Absalom or whatever, which makes it a really bad advantage to give during character creation.
On the other hand, your crafter will be able to reap those benefits any time we get downtime in the actual campaign. He can also make items that aren't normally available for purchase in the local markets, assuming it is easier to obtain formulas. (And I would think it will be.) Also, the Craft skill has a lot more adventuring relevance now that other skills have been rolled into it, including Appraise, Knowledge Engineering, repairing items, and identifying constructs. So your crafter will have plenty of chances for crafting to shine, but character creation won't be one of them.
Thanks! I didn't know about the crafting saving rates being the same as the earned income rates. That does strongly hint at the developers' intent on the matter.
Until I hear otherwise, I'll assume that you can't do this.